Judy Garland at Home at the Palace: Opening Night is the sixth live album by Judy Garland, released on August 15, 1967 by ABC Records. The album peaked at number 174 on the Billboard 200.[1]
In the LP liner notes,[2] George Hoefer, who was associate editor of the magazine Jazz & Pop, observed,
Miss Garland calls the Palace 'home'. Her love affair with the 1,700-seated house began back in the fall of 1951 when she went in for a four-week stay and remained 19 weeks. ... This record takes its listeners right into the packed house and captures not only Miss Garland's great performance, but the 'electricity' in the air, and the sounds from the audience as well. Rarely, if ever, has a performer received such a resounding ovation within the confines of a theater – at the closing of the opening night show the standing applause lasted for 25 minutes.
The singer enters the theater from the front or lobby-end of the house. As she skips down the aisle to the accompaniment of an overture made up of some of her best-known songs, her fans begin an applause policy that is reactivated between each of her subsequent songs. ...
She works with a hand microphone, a device that permits her to range the stage from one end to the other. Her performance is interspersed with a wondrous sense of showmanship evidenced by calculated pauses, kiss-throwing, short imitation dance steps, and hand gestures. Between the tunes, she answers all questions and acknowledges the protestations of love from the enthusiastic friends out front. ...
The listener will note that the show is enhanced and given a very human touch when the singer brings out her daughter Lorna and her son Joey to join her in three numbers.
