CHICAGO TRIBUNE FEATURES INGERSOLL AT PARAMOUNT
Actress and singer Angela Ingersoll started following the yellow brick road when she was a small child and she has never looked back. “I was four years old when I fell in love with Judy Garland via ‘The Wizard of Oz,’” said Ingersoll, who performs the songs of Judy Garland in the show “Judy Garland: Come Rain or Come Shine,” which will be presented at 3 p.m. June 10 at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora.
“In the early 1980s, I was living in Indiana and I had an uncle who had an extensive Judy Garland record collection,” Ingersoll continued. “I sang and danced to the records. I learned to sing by singing along. I also sang along with records from the library, fully immersing myself in the make-believe world of the music. As a little girl, I liked how it made me feel to sing with Judy, and I’ve tried to keep that good feeling going throughout my life.”
Ingersoll won the 2017 Jeff Award for Leading Actress for her portrayal of Judy Garland in Porchlight Music Theatre’s “End of the Rainbow.” In “Judy Garland: Come Rain or Come Shine,” Ingersoll, backed by six-piece band, will perform such Garland classic songs as “Over the Rainbow,” “The Man That Got Away,” “Come Rain or Come Shine” and “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody.”
Ingersoll is a long-time Chicago actress with credits at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Drury Lane Oakbrook and Porchlight Music Theatre, among others. Ingersoll also was nominated for a Jeff Award for her performances in “The Mistress Cycle,” “The Secret Garden” and “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.”
“The June 10th concert at the Paramount is momentous for me as it is my debut Chicago Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) pledge event,” said the 40-year-old entertainer. “My television concert special, ‘Get Happy: Angela Ingersoll Sings Judy Garland,’ premiered on WTTW this March. June 10th at the Paramount is the live event that folks got tickets for when they pledged their support to PBS. To make matters even more sublime, the concert falls on Judy’s birthday. We’ll be celebrating her 96th, so I’m cooking up a special surprise.”
In addition to singing Judy Garland’s songs, Ingersoll relates backstage stories about Garland’s show business journey and stories about her own life. “Storytelling is crucial to my concert,” Ingersoll said, “and I think that is what really sets this show apart from other shows. I speak from my perspective, as Garland’s artistic descendant, with great compassion for Judy as an artist and a woman. But I’m an actress, and her psychology resonates with me, so sometimes I’m sure it’s as if she’s speaking.”
And Ingersoll is quick to point out that she is not doing an impression. “To me, an impersonator is intentionally trying to fool someone,” she said, “and that’s not what I’m about. This is not an impressionist-style tribute act. Judy has influenced me my entire life. The illusion that I embody her in concert is simply me sharing my love of her. I get lost in the music and stop paying attention to where I stop and where she starts. I’m holding her in my mind’s eye and experiencing her music live in the moment, and what comes out often makes people feel like they’ve seen her live in concert.
“This is Angela up there singing Judy’s songs,” Ingersoll said, “and people see all the Judy they want to see.”