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Regional Reviews: Phoenix End of the Rainbow Also see Gil's reviews of Greater Tuna, The Three Javelinas, Shrek the Musical, The TomKat Project
End of the Rainbow centers on Judy's December 1968 six-week engagement at London's "Talk of the Town" nightclub, about six months before her death. Judy has come to town with her recent and much younger fiancĂ© Mickey Deans and has hired her former piano player and friend Anthony to play and conduct the concerts for her. The play tries to accurately show the irrational behavior of an alcoholic and drug addict after years of abuse and how the two men closest to her have to deal with her and her rollercoaster of emotions. Deans at first tries to be her protector by keeping her away from alcohol and drugs, but you know eventually he will have to give in to Judy. Anthony, who doesn't care for Deans, sees himself as the calming influence in Judy's life, a good friend of hers from the past who has come back to her to help her get through this part of her life. Both men have a need to have Judy in their lives and they both end up using her and being used by her, but in very different ways. While the play isn't perfect, and has a few too many contrived situations that seem to only be present to provide conflict, it is an intriguing expose into what life must have been like for a star of Garland's caliber, who suffered from years of addiction. While not much private footage of Garland from the mid 1960s is available, there are several concert videos and recordings that show Garland's frenetic behavior. As most people know, she was addicted to pills and alcohol, allegedly stemming from her teen years working in Hollywood. The studio management would give her drugs, uppers in the morning and downers in the afternoon, to help her get through the long days of filming and to always be ready for the camera. In End of the Rainbow, Garland is portrayed as more of a happy addict, someone who yearns to live a simple life but also has the burning desire to be the center of the party. Jeannie Shubitz perfectly portrays the idea of Garland being pulled in these two different directions and is spot-on in the several performance moments throughout the show. With a fairly accurate accent, her voice, speech patterns and mannerisms bring Judy to life on stage. She also gets the power, phrasing, and control in Garland's well documented singing voice perfectly right, which makes it eerily reminiscent of Garland's. While Shubitz doesn't quite have the hard-looking face with years of abuse that Judy did at this time in her life, make-up designer Terre Stead does a remarkable job, and it still all comes together in a stellar, virtual tour de force performance. Shubitz shows us both the rawness and beauty behind this well-known and well-loved woman and also expertly shows the frenzied, nervous, frantic, and frightened woman, the demons that haunt her, and the impact of what years of alcohol and pills have done to her. While Shubitz is quite good in the scenes in the hotel suite, effectively demonstrating Garland's constant need for attention and the relentless desire for booze and pills, it is the performance numbers where she uncannily evokes Garland. She perfectly captures the way that Garland owned the stage, the way she would fling the microphone cord around and almost get tripped by it, and how she connected with the audience—an audience who never knew if Judy was going to have an emotional melt down on stage or soar to new heights. Shubitz masterly shows us the trooper who knows the show must go on but also the scared girl who just wants to be left alone. She throws herself into every element of the role with fearless abandonment. I have no idea how she can manage to perform this role several times a week, as she deserves an endurance medal just for getting through a single performance. Jeff Kennedy is fine as Anthony. He does a good job of showing the calming person at the center of the Judy/Mickey world. While he is very personable in how he demonstrates his love for Judy, he is a bit too forceful in his earlier scenes, and his thick Scottish accent seems to almost trip him up at times. However, the scene he has with Judy toward the end of act two is simply beautiful. Caleb Reese is quite good as Mickey. He holds his own with Shubitz's Garland, and you really get the sense from his portrayal that Mickey does love her and is trying to help her succeed with her comeback, and that he isn't just using her for her fame and fortune, what little fortune there was left at that time. Director Karla Koskinen expertly stages the action, making the fireworks pop in the many fiery hotel scenes. While she and Shubitz have done an amazing job in bringing Garland's large personality realistically to life, it is the quiet scenes that have even more of an impact. The scenes in which Garland softly pleads with Mickey and says "don't give up on me," or, suffering from the side effects of taking too many pills, she finds the determination to throw them away, have just as much resonance as the powerhouse performance numbers. Also, the decision to stage this production on Phoenix Theatre's smaller Hormel Theatre stage was a good one as it provides an intimacy and connection with Garland that you couldn't get in a larger space. Set designer Douglas Clarke has crafted a nifty hotel suite with a revolving platform that quickly transforms us to the Talk of the Town club for the performance numbers. Adriana Diaz's costumes are period perfect, with wide collars on the men's shirts and wide lapels on the suit jackets, and some knock-out dresses for Garland. Daniel Davisson's lighting is effective for the hotel room scenes, set at various times of day, as well as perfect lighting for the performance numbers and a sublime final fade-out. While I know the entire play is a work of fiction, I also have seen and heard some video and audio clips of Garland at that time in which her behavior, both on stage and off, was very erratic. I'm not sure if Quilter incorporated any of these documented pieces into the play but the combination of his realistic portrayal of an addict and Shubitz's stellar performance capture both the joy and pain of Garland. The end result of their work made me feel like I've now seen Garland live on stage, spent a couple of hours with her off stage and have much more sympathy for her then I ever had before. So if that was the goal of Quilter, he has succeeded. While it isn't a perfect play, the way Quilter effectively weaves in two of Garland's best known songs, "The Man That Got Away" and "Over the Rainbow," at key moments helps with the shortcomings. Even though there may be some problems with the play itself, this is a production to see for Shubitz's amazing performance, one you won't forget for a long time after the curtain comes down. End of the Rainbow runs through May 17th, 2015, at the Phoenix Theatre at 100 E. McDowell Road in Phoenix. Tickets can be purchased at phoenixtheatre.com or by calling (602) 254-2151. Director: Karla Koskinen Cast:
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