End of the Rainbow on Broadway Reviews

As befits a play about Judy Garland, a woman known for liberally mixing her pills, Peter Quilter’s “End of the Rainbow” is a jolting upper and downer at the same time. After watching Tracie Bennett’s electrifying interpretation of Garland in the intense production that opened on Monday night at the Belasco Theater, you feel exhilarated and exhausted, equally ready to dance down the street and crawl under a rock.....Ms. Bennett seems to keep every chapter of that history, and the disjunctive reality it created, alive in her performance. Foul-mouthed, flirtatious, hypersexual, childlike (though never innocent), unedited, manipulative and supremely self-conscious: Ms. Bennett’s Garland is all these things as she makes love and war with Mickey and Anthony.

Both those themes are hardly touched, and some may feel this biography needs more, but "End of the Rainbow" never intends itself to be anything but a sketch of a frail older woman falling to her demons. It's hard to watch, but even harder not to watch. That's completely because of Bennett, a veteran of the English stage, but a newcomer here. That should change quickly. At one preview, audience members shot up from their seats and coaxed one more number from Bennett, begging for one more moment, just one more, please, with Judy. There can be no better compliment.

There are productions that exist solely to feature a spectacular star. This is one of them. Rush to the Belasco to catch Bennett and revel in her—and Garland’s—glory.

Somewhere over the rainbow, Judy Garland never spotted her pot of gold. But a British actress named Tracie Bennett found hers - in the person of Judy. She is sensational in the erratic Broadway show End of the Rainbow, about Garland's last attempt at a comeback, which opened Monday night.

Rather than turn in another technically fine, ultimately safe Garland impersonation, Bennett gives us the Garland mystique. Without resorting to mimicry, Tracie Bennett captures Judy Garland’s legendary mix of talent and volatility. This is all the more key since Peter Quilter’s West End import isn’t very good. It’s a decent vehicle for a drunk driver.

In a full-throttle performance that holds nothing back, Tracie Bennett channels an off-the-rails Judy Garland near the completion of her downward spiral, giving End of the Rainbow a fiercely dynamic center. But there’s a gulf between the vehicle and the vulnerable human being that the actress rarely traverses in this bio-drama with songs, thanks to writing by Peter Quilter that hits every obvious note except the pathos, and to Terry Johnson’s unrelentingly emphatic direction. ... A gutsy performance trapped in a one-note play that gives us the broad outline of the tragic star but lacks the insight to penetrate her heart.

The British actress is so good that, for someone not a serious Judy devotee or somebody who gets kicks from watching train wrecks, she is really, really hard to be around. No doubt, this is not the response desired by producers of "End of the Rainbow," the pseudo-biographical play-with-music that transferred from London with understandable raves for Bennett.

By the end, you might feel this is over the top rather than over the rainbow, but you still admire the talent and chutzpah that never got away.

Tracie Bennett can sing like Judy Garland, more or less, and if you have any interest in hearing her do so, go see Peter Quilter's "End of the Rainbow," a play about the last pathetic months of the drug-sodden Garland's life, in which Ms. Bennett gives what amounts to a miniconcert of Judy's Greatest Hits. Be forewarned, however, that Mr. Quilter's script is heavy on bitchy one-liners and light on insight, and that Ms. Bennett's portrayal of Garland-at-the-End-of-Her-Rope is a heavily shellacked impersonation that slops over into shameless caricature.

That Bennett performs this show eight times a week is a marvel indeed; seeing it just once kind of wore me out.

Bennett successfully walks the fine line of convincingly portraying Garland's larger-than-life, bizarre behavior without making it feel like a campy parody. Although erratic, her Garland is also poised, witty and emotionally longing for some stability.

Bennett is something of a saving grace. She certainly gives her all. And while she doesn’t look or sound much like Judy — she is too lean and mean to suggest her frailty — she evokes the right desperation whenever she sings. That is quite often. The story regularly shifts to the club and Judy belts hits like “Get Happy,” “Just in Time,” “You Made Me Love You” and “The Trolley Song.” These are the moments when “Rainbow” beams brightest.

It’s trash. Judy swills, Judy sings, Judy vomits, Judy goes on singing. Pulp rubbish by playwright Peter Quilter. [...] In her wilder throes as Garland flailing through a number, Bennett gets awfully Kabuki about it, but you can’t deny her power even if she’s driving a third-rate hearse of a play.

Tracie Bennett stars (if such a word can be applied to an impersonation bettered any night in any downtown drag bar) as Judy in late 1968. [...] See Judy pop pills. Watch Judy vomit. Avert your eyes as Judy services her young buck. Listen as Judy, jazzed on Ritalin, loudly unravels before an adoring audience.