One of the coolest things about the nine years I spent with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey was attending Winter Quarters, where each year’s new show was developed, fine-tuned and rehearsed. The minutiae of the creative process for a project of that scale is endlessly fascinating.

I was fortunate the other day to have a similar experience as I witnessed tech rehearsals for Judy Garland In Concert . It’s not a tribute show, it’s not a lookalike on stage — Running Subway Productions has brought Judy back on three giant screens. She’ll perform a full concert accompanied by none other than The Boston Pops.

With a week to go until the world premiere in Boston, it was fascinating to watch the creative team at work: Producer and Director Chris Giordano tweaking the presentation here and there, Musical Supervisor and Conductor Doug Katsaros making subtle but crucial adjustments to the score, Creative Supervisor John Fricke telling endlessly fascinating stories about Judy and her brobdingnagian talents.

Next week I’ll get to be in Boston for the first two performances of this cutting-edge form of entertainment. Having seen the tech rehearsals, I think this concert will be very much like a movie: When you see a great movie, you get involved and forget you’re in a theater. Similarly, I think the audiences in Symphony Hall will forget they’re seeing Judy on screen and get caught up in the music and the passionate way she delivers some of the most classic of classic standards in the American songbook.

Takeaway for marketers: Sometimes our jobs can be pretty cool. When you notice that’s the case, take a moment to step back and enjoy it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Marketing Stuff, Marketing Takeaways.