Rufus Wainwright to Perform Judy Garland’s Carnegie Hall Program at Kimmel Center [Updated]


In 2011, the inaugural edition of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) made a big splash in and around the Kimmel Center, with dozens of performances and installations (not to mention a Ferris wheel and trapeze artists on Broad Street). PIFA returns to Philadelphia from March 28th to April 27th, and the full lineup was recently announced. Well, all except one show.

Rufus Wainwright will perform for PIFA at the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall on Sunday, April 21st at 7:30 p.m. The theme for PIFA is time travel, and each event will relate to a particular date in history. For Rufus Wainwright, that date is April 23, 1961, the night that Judy Garland took the stage at Carnegie Hall for a concert that would become legendary, earning Garland five Grammys for the resulting live album, Judy at Carnegie Hall. Wainwright recreated that concert at Carnegie Hall in 2006, later releasing his own album documenting the show, Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall.

Wainwright will perform excerpts from the Garland concert in Act II, while Act I will consist of excerpts from Wainwright’s opera, Prima Donna, which takes place the night before Bastille Day in Paris. Tickets will range from $35 to $100 (with a handful of $20 “rush” tickets). According to the box office, no on-sale date for tickets has been announced.

Updated [10:34 a.m., 2/12/13]: Tickets are now on sale.