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Tag: Judy Garland

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Through The Mill, Southwark Playhouse

    ★★★★★ | Through The Mill, Southwark Playhouse

    CREDIT: Southwark Playhouse

    It’s Judy Garland times three in the new musical Through The Mill now playing at Southwark Playhouse.

    The show gives us Garland in three different stages in her life. There’s the young Judy before her Wizard of Oz role – ages 13 through 16 – brilliantly played by Lucy Penrose. Then we have the Palace Judy – the time in Garland’s life when she was performing on Broadway at the Palace Theatre, age 29 – with Belinda Wollaston in the role. Then finally we are presented with CBS Judy – the 47 year-old star (played by Helen Sheals) who was in the last year of her life during which she had her own television show on America’s CBS network.

    These three eras of Judy’s life are superbly intertwined in a show that’s both fantastic and tragic. We all know that Judy died at the age of 47 in London due to an over-dosage of barbiturates. But she had such a tumultuous life, and it didn’t make matters any better in that she was an extremely insecure, and nervous, woman. Young Judy’s father (played by Joe Shefer) ran a cinema, but he also had a predilection for young boys. Her mother Ethel (Amanda Bailey) was an extremely controlling stage mother. But Palace Judy’s life isn’t much better. By this time she takes various drugs just to help her get through her day (and to get her on stage). Her life seems to be a mess, though she’s got her husband Sid Luft (Harry Anton) with her at all times. By the tim CBS Judy (who actually opens the show with a rounding version of ‘Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries’) sung brilliantly by Sheals, her life seems to be on track, she’s got a hit television show, but the network keeps on demanding more and more from her. It’s too much for a woman as fragile as Judy, and though her death is not played out on stage, we all know what’s going to happen to her.

    Through the Mill is excellent. It’s all due to the three women who play Judy, they are all very good but it’s Penrose who shines a bit more because she plays a version of Judy that is young and innocent, and Penrose conveys that excellently. When Young Judy and Palace Judy duet on ‘Zing, Went the Strings of my Heart’ together in the intimate theatre, it’s an event! And when all three get together to sing the finale – ‘Over the Rainbow’ – there’s not a dry eye in the house.

    Director Ray Rackham, along with the rest of his crew, have staged a musical that’s larger than life in a theatre that’s as intimate as a living room. And the parallel timeframes used in this production is genius. Cleverly, the musicians also act in the show, from Carmella Brown who plays CBS Judy’s assistant, to Don Cotter who is very good as Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM who greenlit Garland for Wizard of Oz.

    Please go see Through the Mill, even if you’re not a Judy Garland fan. It’s a fabulous show.

    Through the Mill is playing at the Southwark Playhouse until July 30th .

  • Theatre Review | End Of The Rainbow – Sheffield Theatres and National Tour

    ★★★★ | End Of The Rainbow

    Set primarily in a hotel room as Judy Garland embarks on a set of comeback shows in a six week residency in London,  End Of The Rainbow examines the on and off stage crumbling of an iconic figure and her ongoing battles with her personal demons

    Photo Credit – Pamela Raith Photography

    As Judy succumbs to a cocktail of drink and drugs. Garland tries to hold things together as she is pushed to the brink by her fiancé, who is torn between his desire for them to share a private life and successfully reviving her career and fighting off her financial difficulties.

    Starring in the role of Judy is Lisa Maxwell (Loose Women), who gives a simply superb performance, capturing not only the mannerisms and melodic intonation of Garland but effectively portraying the contrasts between her brashness and her vulnerabilities and offering genuine raw emotion in numerous scenes showing just how tragic many of the aspects of Garland’s private life was. Alongside her was Gary Wilmot, who offers a gentile and steady portrayal of Anthony Chapman, Garland’s gay pianist and confidant; and Simon Pontin as Micky Deans, her fiancé.

    Peter Quilters play is lovingly written, juxtaposing the wit, bravado and sheer brashness of Garland with her heart-breaking vulnerabilities and desperation. The play shows Garland at her best and worst and provides scenes which really do gut punch you. As a drunken Judy, a quivering mess, lays on the floor begging for pills and to be loved, you can’t help but feel sorry for her. Aspects of Garland’s life are sensitively handled; yet don’t lose any of their power, in particular as she talks about being force-fed pills from a very young age by both the movie studios and her mother.  But it isn’t all downbeat, as Judy’s legendary rapier sharp wit cuts through the drama and the scenes in the hotel are interspersed with a smattering of some of her classic hits, which are belted out with aplomb by a vocally impressive Maxwell, all of which is sufficient to lighten the mood.

    End of the Rainbow avoids being a saccharine coated tribute by a country mile, and instead is a warts and all portrayal of Garland as she descends back into the pill taking and drinking that would soon consume her; and which examines the person she had become as a result of the years of the pressures of fame and the treatment of her by those around her. Yet despite all of that, Garland never really comes across as a victim in all of this, but instead remains an unstoppable, headstrong force of nature whose confidence and bravado no doubt masked a fragile and helpless woman.

    End of the Rainbow is currently at Sheffield Theatres (www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk) until Saturday 15th May 2016, before continuing on its national tour. See the show’s official website at www.endoftherainbowtour.co.uk for details.