Pop artist Rufus Wainwright has sold out Radio City Music Hall, re-created Judy Garland’s glorious 1961 Carnegie Hall concert at the hallowed venue (as well as in Los Angeles, London and Paris) and written an opera originally commissioned by the Met.
So where does the singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist choose to record his live-concert CD/DVD? At the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, of course.
Not because Milwaukee is the birthplace of Pabst Blue Ribbon — but because the stars, including Wainwright, were in alignment. The 36-year-old, who was touring for his 2007 album “Release the Stars” when he recorded the show, had found the right backing band, and his voice was on a “solid plateau.”
“I had done the show so many times, but it wasn’t boring yet,” he tells The Post from his new Hamptons home. Noting that documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles wasn’t getting any younger, Wainwright said the 82-year-old was “ready, willing and available.”
Wainwright met Maysles, whose films include “Grey Gardens” and “Gimme Shelter,” through his friend Sean Lennon. In a kismet kind of way, Wainwright sings his “Grey Gardens,” on the live CD/DVD “Milwaukee at Last!!!”
“Being a homosexualist, I was obsessed by Edie Beale and the whole saga,” says Wainwright, noting that his family is mentioned in the film.
Wainwright is just one of many luminaries performing at Carnegie Hall on Sunday for a (RED) benefit (see story below). He’s looking forward to seeing Courtney Love and performing alongside U2, but he doesn’t know what he’s going to wear. Red, perhaps?
“I’ll have to slice up a vein,” he says.
On the DVD, Wainwright revisits his Garland extravaganza but sings “Get Happy” in full-on Judy drag, donning a tux jacket, diamond earrings, lipstick, fishnets and stilettos.
We didn’t see that at Carnegie Hall.
“Lorna Luft [Garland’s daughter] was in my show. There was talk of doing drag at Carnegie Hall, but she was really upset about it,” he recalls. “She had mascara running down her cheeks from the tears.”
So out of deference to Luft, Wainwright left the fishnets behind until the very last Garland show at the Hollywood Bowl. “She was fine with it by that point,” he says.
Unlike Warren Beatty in the Madonna concert documentary “Truth or Dare,” Wainwright’s boyfriend, Jorn, who appears onstage at the Pabst Theater, is still with the singer.
“I really need a German boyfriend to survive. I’m horribly disorganized and messy and can’t cook and clean,” Wainwright says. “Besides being wonderful, intelligent and handsome, Jorn’s your typical German hausfrau.”