Judy Garland Musical "END OF THE RAINBOW" Headed To Broadway March 2012 — Page 5

Judy is dead [in the storyline] at the point Over The rainbow is sung

See? That's what I mean. Each time people actually describe this thing, they make it sound worse,

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She's not a ghost, the radio announcer has just announced Judy's death and then 'plays' a couple of her records.

I'm a bit scared to reply Gaveston, all my posts get slagged off. You'd be better reading the reviews about it, as they tell the gist of the play. It covers her last six months when she came to London, stayed at the Ritz for a while and played at The Talk Of The Town nightclub for five weeks. She arrives penniless [with her fiance Mickey Deans] as her ex had made her sign a contract that all her earnings went to him. He gambled all her money away. She couldn't even afford to pay the hotel bill. But read about it.

@landry...Judy couldn't even sing as well as those clips towards the end. She'd smoked for years and was breathy/husky. Some nights at the Talk of The town she couldn't reach her top notes so talked them, she turned up late and got slow clapped. I am old enough to remember all that.
I remembered that the link with all the press quotes on was used as a TV ad early in the run. I suspect someone has recorded it and put it on youtube. The others,to me, seem definitely to have been put up there by a member of the audience, that had no right to record during a performance.
The play got a standing ovation every night for six months which is extremely rare in the West End [ I heard the US stand up each night] And was it paljoey that said London audiences are necrophiliacs? Well a lot of the audiences are 'swimming' with Americans and other tourists. There were a lot of young people watching when I saw it, and they wouldn't have been 'brought up' with Judy....so won't 'have heard it all before'. They loved it as much as the elderly.

Updated On: 8/29/11 at 05:02 PM

Thanks, juggles. I feel sort of in the middle here. I am one of those people who is pretty much over Judy-Garland-as-train-wreck stories. I liked Gerald Clark's biography that stressed how funny everyone found her, onstage and off.

At the same time, I see no reason to insult those of you who enjoyed END OF THE RAINBOW. There's no way around the fact that the woman was drugged silly as a young girl and struggled with substance abuse ever after. And she died at 47, looking 70.

So a light musical comedy based on her life wouldn't make any sense either.

In any event, I appreciate the advance reports from those who saw the London production and I look forward to reports from those who see the show in New York.

Updated On: 8/29/11 at 07:12 PM

An American's write-up.

http://artsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/02/thats-broadway-somewhere-over.html

Each one of the biographies has its own agenda, but...

Lorna Luft's memoir, which the miniseries was based on, tells Judy's story though an Al-Anon lens, with Lorna ultimately accepting her mother's legacy and "forgiving" her for her addictions.

Gerold Frank's "Judy" was written with Sid Luft's cooperation and kind of glorifies Sid's presence in Judy's life and whitewashes some (not all) of of the bad stuff at the end. But the book has the basic chronology and facts that all the others were based on.

David Shipman's "Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend" and Gerald Clarke's "Get Happy" will both leave you anything but happy. Each goes out of its way to paint pathetic portraits of Judy, digging up scurrilously sourced stories about things like oral sex. (No, I mean REALLY.) They're both very complete, but you'll need a bath after. And some Pepto.

Coyne Steven Sanders's "Rainbow's End" is an excellent portrait of the making and unmaking of her 1963-64 TV series. (He just wrote a "bio" of the Desilu studio, and it's just as good.)

Ronald Haver wrote an amazing account of the making, unmaking and restoration of the "Star Is Born movie called "A Star Is Born: The Making of the 1954 Movie and Its 1983 Restoration"--but it's more about the movie than about Judy. It's one of the great film books of all time.

Mel Torme's icky book is self-serving self-glorification, rushed out after her death. Avoid.

So is "Weep No More My Lady" by Mickey Deans, Judy's fifth and last husband. Also avoid.

Also avoid the ones by crazed obsessed fans like Lorna Smith and two of Judy's old gay "boyfriends" John Meyer and John Carlyle. Yes, they were gay, and, yes, they claim to have had sex with her. TMI! Avoid, avoid!

Not really a biography, Scott Schecter's "Judy Garland: The Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Legend" is scarily just that: a day-to-day chronicle of what she did every day she was alive. No--I mean EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Well worth your money would be any of John Fricke's three illustrated books. Each gives a terrific overview of her achievements with fresh and insightful backstage and behind-the-scenes anecdotes:

"Judy: A Legendary Film Career" is just out this month.

The other two are out of print but available on Amazon: "Judy Garland: World's Greatest Entertainer" (my all-time favorite Judy book) and "Judy Garland: A Portrait in Art & Anecdote."

They don't dish dirt but they make you appreciate her talent, hard work, intelligence and wit even more.

Older bios to avoid: Michael Freedland, Anne Edwards, Brad Steiger and Sheridan Morley.

BUT...if you come across it, Christopher Finch's "Rainbow" was very well done.

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Updated On: 9/1/11 at 12:14 AM

I whole heartedly agree with Pal Joey on his analysis of each book. I particularly love John Fricke's books (again, not so much straight biographies as they are a celebration of her work). Sanders's Rainbow's End is fantastic.

I just wrote a whole paragraph on Heartbreaker asking PJ for his opinion on it, but I see he did touch on it below...opinion being "Avoid" so I won't disagree (although I found it entertaining).

Since I last look on here, 3000 more people have had a look in on this thread!

I have seen Andrew Lloyd Webber interviewed and stating that he saw one of those performances Judy Garland gave at the Talk of the Town; he described the audience as "throwing pennies at her" by which I assume he means she was terrible. However I'm not sure the brains behind Starlight Express is best placed to define what terrible is.

Although I've seen End of the Rainbow, I can't comment on the "arc" as I'm a theatregoer and not a theatre professional. My opinions are based purely on the impression made on me by a performance.

One thing I did think was superb about this play, that is easy to overlook, was Hilton MacRae's nuanced and sensitive performance as the pianist: a disempowered gay man having to put up and shut up with the lot society had dealt him. It made me very glad I was born into a later generation.

@juggles: Scripps2 was just stating in his post that he admired Hilton MacRae's performance. He in no way implied or suggested that he should get the spotlight over the actress who is playing the lead role whose name escapes me at the moment.

@ PalJoey, thanks for the excellent notes on the various Garland biographies out there. I'm going to look into getting Fricke's books, even those which are out of print.

I think I'd rather much rather settle in reading about her immense talent, listening to her various recordings and watching any one of her classic films.

Yes Paljoey, it was called The Last Song Of The Nightingale and one assumed it was about Judy at the time. The playwrite has come up with a much better version..i.e End Of The Rainbow. It is on tour in the UK at present and is still wowing the audiences here. Still getting standing ovations nightly [according to write-ups].....unusual for UK audiences

Updated On: 9/6/11 at 06:29 PM