'End of the Rainbow' review — Jinkx Monsoon dazzles as Judy Garland

Read our review of End of the Rainbow, starring Jinkx Monsoon, now in performances at Soho Theatre Walthamstow to 21 June.

Summary

• Jinkx Monsoon is starring as Judy Garland in Peter Quilter's End of the Rainbow
• Monsoon's Broadway credits include Chicago and Oh Mary!
• End of the Rainbow plays at Soho Theatre Walthamstow through June

To have two-time RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon take on Judy Garland in Peter Quilter’s bio-play End of the Rainbow is inspired casting. The drag queen turned Broadway star, whose recent credits include Chicago, Little Shop of Horrors, Pirates! The Penzance Musical, and Oh, Mary!, is an LGBTQ+ icon, who has even portrayed Garland before during her second season on Drag Race.

The parallels are unmistakable between Monsoon, who has been candid about her personal history with addiction, and the deeply troubled Garland: an actress and singer made famous by The Wizard of Oz, who continues to be idolised by the gay community. On press night, it felt as though our very engaged audience could have been whooping and hollering for Jinkx, Judy, or Jinkx as Judy, as the line between actor and subject becomes blurred in Rupert Hands’s absorbing production.

Monsoon plays Garland nearing the end of her life, preparing to perform in a string of shows at The Talk of the Town nightclub (now the Hippodrome) in London. Only in her mid-40s, Garland is on the verge of marrying her fifth husband, broke, and battling a drug and alcohol dependency that prompts violent mood swings (two glasses shatter offstage when Monsoon flings them across the room). One scene tumbles into the next as the setting drifts between her suite at The Ritz, the nightclub, and BBC studios (for a radio interview), replicating her fugue state. The ever-present piano of Jasmine Swan’s set, and the white drapes that extend to the steps of the stage, show how Judy is always required to perform, even when she is hidden away in her hotel room.

End of the Rainbow sounds heavy — there is no avoiding the sadness that seeped into every corner of Garland’s life — but it’s also incredibly funny thanks to Monsoon’s delightfully sharp tongue and masterful delivery. One moment she’s coquettish and simpering, pawing at her stern, exploitative fiancé Mickey (convincingly played by Jacob Dudman); the next she growls with anger, eyes flashing, when denied booze and pills. Monsoon’s Judy is petulant, childish, and wheedling, exploiting vulnerable moments to get her next fix, but she’s also forgetful and broken, deliberately stumbling through a fourth-wall-breaking medley of “Get Happy” and “When You’re Smiling”. Monsoon delivers the full rainbow of emotions.

While many are already familiar with Garland’s story, Quilter’s script drops in expository references to her history, citing competitiveness with other starlets of her time (“Liz Taylor was charming — so charming you wanted to run her over with a car,” she growls), rejection by ex-partners, and her decades-long abuse by the film studios that got her hooked on pills as a child star. As Judy says, “No wonder I skipped down the yellow brick road — I could’ve flown down it.”

There are also lovely, intimate moments during Judy’s downward spiral, such as when she is getting ready to go on stage, and her pianist Anthony (Adam Filipe) touches up her make-up. It is one of the quieter, more honest interactions in the play, when Judy confides her fears to Anthony and he, in turn, thanks her for “saving my life”. It is a scene that acknowledges the power of Garland’s story for a community that has long been marginalised and oppressed.

This portrait of an icon undone by fame and the selfish motivations of those around her has chilling relevance for women who are let down by the entertainment business today. There is little salve at the play’s end, as the loyal Anthony narrates the events of Judy’s tragic final days. Yet, when Monsoon returns to the stage one last time to sing the title number, dressed in one of Swan’s resplendent gowns, it is a reminder that her powerful voice lives on.

End of the Rainbow is at Soho Theatre Walthamstow to 21 June. Book End of the Rainbow tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: End of the Rainbow (Photos by Danny Kaan)