Jinkx Monsoon on starring as Judy Garland in 'End of the Rainbow'

Broadway star, drag queen, and cultural icon Jinkx Monsoon is crossing the pond to tell the moving story of Judy Garland’s final months in End of the Rainbow.

Summary

• Drag Race and Broadway star Jinkx Monsoon is crossing the pond to play Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow
• Monsoon has starred in shows such as Oh Mary! and Pirates! The Penzance Musical on Broadway
• Performances begin at Soho Theatre Walthamstow from 15 May

"I love Judy Garland as much as any drag could,” Jinkx Monsoon says over Zoom from New York. “She’s just so ingrained in culture here, and when you’re someone like me who’s interested in Old Hollywood, and how it shaped the Hollywood we know today, her story is so prescient.”

Monsoon, a two-time RuPaul’s Drag Race winner turned Broadway star, is crossing the pond next month to play Garland in a revival of Peter Quilter’s acclaimed bio-play End of the Rainbow at the fledgling Soho Theatre Walthamstow.

It’s not the first time she’s stepped into those famous ruby slippers. During her second stint on Drag Race in 2022 – when she won the title Queen of All Queens – she portrayed Garland in a comedy challenge called Snatch Game, winning her both the contest and an army of fans including Heartstopper’s Joe Locke, who called her impression “incredible”.

“I created the impersonation by starting with what I love most about her, and then turned the dial up,” Monsoon says. “I studied all of those idiosyncrasies and mannerisms that we know her for, and then took them to a crazy level.”

Anyone who’s seen it can attest to the accuracy, and hilarity, of the resulting performance. But playing Garland in Quilter’s drama, which centres on the star’s final months and was the basis of the Oscar-winning biopic Judy, takes things to a whole other level. Is she ready for the challenge?

“Fortunately the same things I studied for the comedic portrayal are the same things that will go into the work of knowing her for a serious interpretation. It all starts from love, and then I start pulling out hypotheses from there – it’s called acting,” she says, emitting a hearty and somewhat wicked laugh — one of several that pepper our chat.

She’s especially fascinated by Garland’s paradoxical personality. “She was a world star who seemed to be uncomfortable being in front of people. And when we add that together with what we know about people with addictions, it all just starts to make too much sense.”

Monsoon, whose real name is Hera Lilith Hoffer, finds this very close to home. “I’ve been very open about my struggles with addiction, and my decision to quit drinking because of its interference in my life. There were no protections in place for her [Judy Garland] as a young overnight success, and I relate to that so much in my own very small way. As a famous drag queen, I can’t tell you how often the alcohol was free. You just start living your fantasy and stop thinking about consequences and reality.”

She mentions Britney Spears as an example of Garland’s modern-day equivalent, of someone given a huge spotlight at an early age without the necessary protections and support. “It’s a really difficult duality to possess a talent that attracts people to you, and attracts a lot of positive attention, but the pressure of being that person lends itself to looking for those crutches in life. We know this happens, and yet we still watch it happen to people, especially women, time and again.”

Monsoon seems to have adjusted to the pressures of fame comparatively well since winning the fifth season of Drag Race in 2013, when she introduced herself with the words “My name is Jinkx Monsoon, I’m 24, and I’m Seattle’s youngest MILF.” Afterwards, she continued her stage acting career, starring in productions of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Hairspray in Seattle, and cabaret show The Vaudevillians, which toured the world including a run at the Soho Theatre in 2016.

She later made her Broadway debut as Mama Morton in Chicago, becoming at the time just the second modern drag queen to perform in a major Broadway musical. And she followed this up with starring roles in Pirates! The Penzance Musical and last year’s Tony-winning hit Oh, Mary!, playing Mary Todd Lincoln in Cole Escola’s uproarious comedy (which recently won an Olivier Award in the West End and now stars Catherine Tate).

Having revealed during her first appearance on Drag Race that Broadway was her ultimate ambition, how did the reality measure up? “I’ll say two things about having a dream come true,” she replies. “The first is that, as soon as it happens, people start asking you ‘what’s next?’, as if getting to Broadway isn’t somehow enough, you know? So when I got there I was like, ‘y’all, I just got here, let me be on Broadway, I’m having the time of my life’. The second is that when your dream does come true, that’s when the work really begins, because if it really is your dream then maintaining it is just as important as getting there.”

Alongside Broadway stardom she’s also been making waves in the UK, including a guest appearance on Doctor Who as the musical villain Maestro in 2024 episode “The Devil’s Chord”, opposite Ncuti Gatwa. It’s a country she’s always felt an affinity for, she says, having grown up watching shows such as Keeping Up Appearances and Absolutely Fabulous (her stage surname is taken from Jennifer Saunders’s character Edina Monsoon). “There were so many British influences in my early life, it made me feel I just got the place. And since I first started coming to the Soho Theatre with my cabaret I guess they must like me because I keep being invited back.”

The latest invitation, which initially came from End of the Rainbow director Rupert Hands, has come at the perfect time, she adds. “I can’t wait to be back, it’s been too long. And to put it bluntly, I’m coming back as a woman, right? So I’m ready to fall in love with London all over again.”

It’s also giving her the opportunity to get her teeth into more serious acting, which she says is a challenge she’s relishing. “I want to prove that I’m an actress, and do anything an actress can do, including drama and tragedy. I never want to feel like I’m done exploring what’s possible as a performer. But I should also say that this is Jinkx Monsoon and Judy Garland – there are going to be some moments of levity.”

The play, which is set in London, sees the 40-something Garland preparing for a run of shows at The Talk of the Town nightclub – the venue that is now, incidentally, the Hippodrome Casino – together with her pianist and young fiancé. It’s an unflinching look at the actress at both her best and her worst.

Monsoon says she’s well aware that she’s stepping into some significant acting shoes, not least those of Tracie Bennett, who originated the role in London and on Broadway, and Renée Zellweger, who won an Oscar for the film version. But she doesn’t seem daunted. “When my agent first brought me the play we did a reading of it over Zoom – and somehow the material was just so palpable and so electric that day. I felt so connected to it I immediately said ‘I absolutely have to do this.’”

And how is she feeling about tackling those famous songs, including that certain number referenced in the title of the show? “That’s the part I’m most excited about, partly because I feel like that’s when Jinkx and Judy really line up. It just feels different when I’m singing to an audience. As a drag queen, telling a story through song is the first thing you learn on stage. And with Judy Garland, singing is such a huge, huge part of her story.”

Garland died in 1969, and during her first stint on Drag Race, Monsoon had a memorable encounter with a US military veteran, Dave Lara, who revealed he had met the star towards the end of her life, and felt guilty for giving her the sleeping pills that were later found by her body. I’m intrigued to know how this moment resonated with her as a lifelong Garland fan.

“There were so many special things about that. But the thing that stood out to me the most was hearing about how Judy Garland visited gay bars. He said she was so warm and lovely, and loved being around gay guys because they let her be her, and knew that Judy Garland was her drag, I guess. And hearing that about her made her real, it made me realise she really was one of us.”

It’s rare to encounter a performer with such an innate understanding of their character. The combination of Jinkx Monsoon and Judy Garland has proved to be a winning one before, and you’d be brave to bet against it proving so again. To reference her famous line after winning Drag Race the first time around: Stand by London, it’s Monsoon season.

Book End of the Rainbow tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the May 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Jinkx Monsoon as Judy Garland. (Photo by Hunter Abrams and Sam Lee). Inset: in Oh, Mary!, Chicago, Little Shop of Horrors, and Pirates! The Penzance Musical. (Photos by Frank Correa, Evan Zimmerman)