Just back from END OF THE RAINBOW — Page 5

I have been looking forward to this show since the postcard arrived in the mail months ago.

I cannot recall hating a show so much in the last decade, maybe longer.

The book is an utter mess. The show is a bore. Ms Bennett sounds like a cross between Katharine Hepburn and Tallulah Bankhead, but almost never Judy Garland. Many of her lines are unintelligible.

If you're interested, see it now. Given the large number of walkouts at intermission, I predict it will be gone by Fourth of July, if not Mother's Day.

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I enjoyed the play and think Bennett does become Judy. Adirector posted further up the thread, that one would be better watching films of Judy but in the many films Judy appeared in, she was playing the sweet, all American young lady, a character and not being herself. This play depicts Judy as she was three months before she died. She was bone thin, her voice had deepened and she no longer had the mezzo-soprano voice she had in her younger days. It is not about failure, it is about her successful run at The Talk Of The Town, London.
It maybe for some; better seated; from midway to the back of the theater. I didn't sit at the front so don't know if it makes a difference.
If you watch the clip of Judy, her voice is deep and I think she sounds more English when she speaks, although she could have been trying to emulate the English accent when in England. She certainly doesn't have a full American accent. She also seems to struggle on some notes but detracts by talking to the audience.[the second link] But I do agree she sounds like Katherine Hepburn in the third link. Just my opinion of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoykJi6xxuc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOQjMQx1Q8Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD44UDrdKSM

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/arts/01iht-lon1.html?_r=1&scp=10&sq=end+of+the+rainbow&st=nyt#

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Updated On: 3/28/12 at 05:55 AM

It's sold as a musical at tkts. I guess that means you can't go into the shorter play line for your discount.

I bought my ticket last night (3/26) at TKTS. It's designated as a Play and I was able to use the Play Express line.

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I was there this afternoon. I am someone who really knows Judy from her film roles that having been said the play seemed very sensational to me. If I can draw a parallel to My Weekend with Marilyn, where that movie succeeded in giving a us a well rounded view of the world surrounding the ailing star, this play seems to rely on the fact that you know more about Judy other than just having seen her movies. Maybe this isn't really a problem to the creative team, because they know 95% of their audience is going to be coming in with more knowledge of the subject just simply by living through it. That having been said Ms. Bennett really is force of nature, especially during the concerts.

Updated On: 3/28/12 at 05:26 PM

Pardon?

Haha opps my bad... "My Week With Marilyn."

What an odious article.

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It starts with the writer referring to "men of a certain age" who are "holding their collective breath," which I gather is supposed to imply that old-gay-men-are-loving-this-show-just-like-they-loved-Judy.

Ugh.

Then it goes on to make more generalizations about gays and Judy by saying that the "gay men who revere her as a fellow traveler in oppression"...

Ugh, again--didn't that old canard become a cliche the day after Stonewall?

"...will be taking to blogs and Twitter in the coming weeks to assess every twitch and fidget, every cadence and high note in Ms. Bennett’s performance."

Which I guess refers to we old fellow-travelers-in-oppression who are holding our collective breath and posting in threads like this one.

And then the article ends with Ms. Bennett herself bashing drag queens as "bitter" but saying they are somehow brilliant and better than she is--but brilliant and better only at "impersonating Judy," which is something, the article seems to be saying, that she would not stoop to do.

Y'know, because that would be tacky.

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Updated On: 3/30/12 at 11:39 PM

Huh?

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I've never seen a Judy impersonator
I never hope to see one
But I'll tell Petal Prevaricator
I'd rather see than be one

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NO... i'ts not the drag queens that are bitter. :)

"The NIGHT IS BITTER,
The stars have lost their glitter,
The winds grow colder
And suddenly you're older...

He was so great in All in the Family.

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Did this show make anyone else viscerally angry? From her chewing the scenery and the playwright's clear disdain for Judy, I found it to be tasteless, cruel and disgraceful.

SPOILER: Judy was far from a saint, but to have her crawling around like a dog lifting her legs to pee? Give me a break. She deserves more respect than this.

Maybe if you closed your eyes she maybe sort of sounds like Judy. Maybe. Beyond that, she mugs it for two hours.

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