Judy Garland Musical "END OF THE RAINBOW" Headed To Broadway March 2012- Page 2

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 4:44pm

It's not very encouraging to keep hearing that her performance is "energetic." That energy level on the clips comes across as frenetic mannerisms over-exaggerated to the point of hysteria. Her ending of "Over the Rainbow" is so animalistic sound that she looks rabid ("...blue...birds...flahhhhh...").

The whole endeavor seems even worse when you hear things like the husband is a "cypher played by a cypher of an actor" or that the fictional piano player is a "caricature of sentimentality."

And the clips on YouTube seem to be primarily Ms. Bennett singing Garland songs at slow tempi, holding on-the-rocks glasses and making goo-goo faces that look more like Red Skelton than Judy Garland.

Nowhere do we hear that the show or Ms. Bennett display anything like the depth or complexity that Judy Davis displayed in the Garland miniseries.

It seems like a freak show, basically. With songs.

It sounds more like this is a show for people who like to see celebrities foam at the mouth and pathetically self-destruct.

Ugh.

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 5:00pm

I'm excited to see the show and won't judge it until then.
Updated On: 8/12/11 at 05:00 PM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 5:48pm

I hope it doesn't get stuck in the Lyceum and die a quick death. It looks really thrilling. It looks like the kind of bravura performance Rylance gave all season. Americans need to step it up!

[Tamerlano]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 6:15pm

She is pretty special and a "good northern lass". Well worth catching her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAMBDziy6X0

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 6:21pm

There are a lot of Garland purists and loyalists around here. Be ready for pointed letters to the Times when this crosses the Pond.

On the other hand ... if it's nothing but sensationalism, I'm not interested either. But I won't judge that from these clips alone (which understandably emphasize the drama).

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 6:36pm

Maybe the good northern lass should junk this show and do a tribute to Amy Winehouse instead.

She wouldn't have to change anything--except the dialogue, the music, the lyrics and the costumes.

The rest of her performance could stay exactly the same. It really is a flawless Amy Winehouse impersonation.

[beagle]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 7:17pm

It's not sensationalism, at least from my perspective. I am not a Garland purist or loyalist, but tabloid sensationalism doesn't appeal to me at all, so if the show was about that I wouldn't have enjoyed it. Those clips show a very small percentage of the show. For those of you who haven't seen it, don't judge it by a few clips that want to emphasize the more high-drama moments. Watch the whole show and decide for yourself.

[tommyboy]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 7:20pm

This show has already played in New York -- at least a dozen incarnations in the backroom at Don't Tell Mama. It's fun for an hour or so (and the 2-drink minimum) but that's about it.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 7:57pm

This show reduces Garland to a pathetic caricature. I'll pass.

[Tamerlano]

Posted: 8/12/11 at 9:01pm

The best Amy Winehouse..this should be Broadway bound.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150258340708727

[Scripps2]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 5:31pm

Those clips don't show the half of it.

First thing to say is that I've followed Tracie's career since she played Mary Flynn in the European premiere of Merrily We Roll Along back in the 80s. She is someone who always puts her heart and soul into a performance and fully deserves the two Olivier awards (She Loves Me, Hairspray) on her mantelpiece. And in this she gives a shocking, involving and moving portrayal of someone going over the edge.

Whether that someone is Judy Garland, I don't know: I'm not familiar enough with Ms Garland's body of work or personal life to comment.

What I do know is that this play is nothing if not iconoclastic. I also know how revered Ms Garland is in New York and it crossed my mind when I saw it that it may go down like a tonne of bricks for that very reason.

And I hope Liza didn't see it when she was in London (and she's been over a lot this year) because I would hate to see my own mother portrayed in this way.
Updated On: 8/15/11 at 05:31 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 7:13pm

If Liza refused to go see Hugh Jackson play her husband, you can be sure she didn't go see Tracie Bennett play her mother.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 8/15/11 at 7:30pm

PalJoey, I admire the way you seem to have come to all these conclusions about the show having not yet seen it, I really do!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 1:30am

I liked the woman in the interview because Paul O'Grady always makes me laugh. But I didn't make it a quarter of the way through "Just in Time" because it was so turgid. If that's the kind of work she does in NYC, she will be flayed.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 7:34am

PalJoey, I admire the way you seem to have come to all these conclusions about the show having not yet seen it, I really do!

Gee, thanks! But I really have to give all the credit to the clips they've released from the show itself.

They totally made my mind up for me!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 10:37am

I say leave Judy alone. We've been through her impersonations more than anyone else.

Tammy Blanchard & Judy Davis
Isabel Keating
Adrienne Barbeau
Andrea McArdle
Rufus at Carnegie

[Fosse76]

Posted: 8/16/11 at 10:43am

"I hope it doesn't get stuck in the Lyceum and die a quick death. It looks really thrilling. It looks like the kind of bravura performance Rylance gave all season. Americans need to step it up!"

I wouldn't worry about that. It looks set for the Broadhurst, unless Bonnie and Clyde closes at the Schoenfeld early enough (the producers apparently wanted the Schoenfeld).

[juggles]

Posted: 8/21/11 at 6:41am

You have to see the whole thing Paljoey, not just the songs. the play is very funny, very sad and well worth going to see. Then you will understand. 'Judy' is bursting with energy from the drugs she takes [In the storyline] before going on stage, that's why 'Come Rain Or Come Shine is 'manic'. Other songs 'Judy' forgets her lines and perhaps drunk when singing another song. Americans I met at that theatre were blown away by Bennett's performance and were hoping upon hope that it would transfer to Broadway.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/21/11 at 8:30am

Each description seems to make this wrongheaded show sound more and more repulsive.

Judy did not "burst with energy" because she took drugs. She burst with energy because she was uniquely talented.

"Come Rain or Come Shine" is not "manic" because of amphetamines. It is "manic" because of the arrangement and orchestration and a conscious decision on the part of Judy and a brilliant arranger (Nelson Riddle, actually, on that number) to sing it up tempo with bongos.

In most concerts, "Come Rain or Come Shine" was followed by a ballad, Rodgers and Hart's "You're Nearer," on which Judy was accompanied by piano only, and in which she was quiet and contemplative. I suppose, in this show, there's another pill for that?

And in other songs, you say that she forgets her lines and is drunk and singing another song?

More and more, this doesn't even sound like "just another drunk Judy show." It sounds like the Ultimate Drunk Judy Show.

Gross.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/21/11 at 8:42am

I'd go see it, if they called it The Ultimate Drunk Judy Show.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/21/11 at 9:48am

What Pal Joey said....and Pal Joey knows all.

[juggles]

Posted: 8/21/11 at 11:29am

@Paljoey. You obviously don't know much about Judy in her last six months of her life, when she was in London and performed at the Talk of The Town. She struggled with her lines and was high on retaline or some other pill. some of the time. I don't wish to argue, you have made up your mind not to see the play, that's your loss

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 8/21/11 at 11:33am

juggles, you obviously don't know much about PalJoey.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 8/21/11 at 11:40am

^^^^^

This.

[juggles]

Posted: 8/21/11 at 11:43am

@Reginald Tresilain. That's true, does he/she always slag off productions he/she hasn't seen? LOL
Some of us are old enough to remember Judy at The Talk of The Town. Bennett is Judy on the stage, in this production.