Judy’s return some­thing to talk about
By Talia Carlisle

Pour the cham­pagne because Judy Gar­land has come to town.

Peter Quilter’s smash hit show End of the Rain­bow opened to loud bel­ly laughs, big smiles and plen­ty of cheers at the Welling­ton Opera House this week­end.

While the audi­ence and stars were dressed to impress, the show doc­u­ment­ed the beloved The Wiz­ard of Oz Star Judy Garland’s less than sparkling tur­bu­lence through fame and addic­tion — all wrapped in a bow of beau­ti­ful cos­tumes and spine-tin­gling songs by a mas­ter­ful band.

This includes the grand­est of grand pianos — with plen­ty of stage pres­ence giv­en its size- an unfal­ter­ing and at times comedic char­ac­ter itself through­out the show’s twists and tantrums.

Ali Harp­er is sen­sa­tion­al in her trans­for­ma­tion into the sparkling yet trou­bled song­bird Judy. Ali spans Judy’s reper­toire of songs and emo­tions eas­i­ly, from beau­ti­ful “Blue Skies” to our rec­og­niz­able high­light of the show — “Over the Rain­bow”, which starts with a mem­o­rable cel­lo solo by Nathan Park­er, and ends with no dry eye in the house.

Ali’s por­tray­al of Judy is mon­u­men­tal­ly mov­ing from start to fin­ish. This is emanat­ed through her every sound, twitch, and hair tou­sle, every word, every kiss, and reach­es into every heart in every seat of the Opera House.

Best described by a fel­low audi­ence mem­ber — Ali “dis­ap­pears” and in her place Judy is alive before our star-struck eyes. Every joke, every melody and all of her sequined glo­ry absorb the audience’s delight in a vor­tex of beau­ti­ful chaos, that we only have until Sun­day to see.

“I can still make you laugh,” Judy says — and she does — let­ting her quick wit and intel­li­gent comedic ref­er­ences shine through­out the show. No mat­ter her esca­lat­ing mon­ey trou­bles or roman­tic spats, she can see life for what it is but choos­es to find cause for cel­e­bra­tion.

She doesn’t shy away from any oppor­tu­ni­ty to woo the press or crowd, or a lover — steal­ing a kiss and even a man’s pants bare­ly 10 sec­onds into the show.

Ian Har­man has to be thanked for the effort­less­ly chic and sequined cos­tumes that trans­form Judy into the rec­og­niz­able and sparkling sen­sa­tion we know and love. Judy’s col­or­ful char­ac­ter is in stark con­trast with the min­i­mal and beau­ti­ful set, also designed by Ian.

Ian puts The Ritz into Judy’s glossy hotel room, which mag­i­cal­ly trans­forms into the flashy hotel stage for her Lon­don per­for­mances every night with the most mag­i­cal of glit­ter­ing light­ing designed by Jeff Hewitt.

Small details give hints as to Judy’s cur­rent and past career state, such as the tini­est grand chan­de­lier, and her suit­case packed with tow­els “to keep up appear­ances”.

Judy’s sweet and tal­ent­ed piano accom­pa­nist, music direc­tor and “best friend” Antho­ny is played by Tom McLeod with charm, humour and unend­ing patience. He sees Judy’s heart, her good­ness, her tal­ent and pas­sion and helps us all in the audi­ence to see it too — all while tick­ling the keys and keep­ing the band in line as the show’s mul­ti-tal­ent­ed musi­cal direc­tor.

Glenn Hor­fall plays Judy’s long suf­fer­ing — or long ben­e­fit­ting — fiance Mick­ey Deans, with all of the charis­ma, charm and gai­ety that Judy is seek­ing in a com­pan­ion. Some­one to make light of the dark and drug-filled world she has man­aged to keep hid­den behind closed doors, until now.

“I am the luck­i­est girl alive”, Judy exclaims, just weeks before her untime­ly death, despite her unease at being so far from home in Lon­don, her dif­fi­cul­ties sleep­ing since being force-fed pills as a child actor, and resort­ing to name call­ing, swear­ing and beg­ging for alco­hol to feel tem­porar­i­ly “her­self”.

Yet, her opti­mism shines through in the dark­est of times — cel­e­brat­ing her Lon­don arrival with tap-water instead of cham­pagne and always a trick up her sequined sleeve.

Even when Judy has no ener­gy left to give, she will find her­self at her hotel room bal­cony, to ensure the town, or the tire­some Porter (and Assis­tant Stage Man­ag­er, played by Kevin Orlan­do) have some­thing to talk about.

As Judy sings her heart and her soul out into the rafters, it’s hard not to believe that we too will find bet­ter days ahead, some­where over the rain­bow.

As her final songs steal our hearts, again, and the haze of smoke thins, I won­der if the Judy we knew was just that — all smoke and mir­rors.

All I know, is that the real Judy is here, in Welling­ton, and to miss it would be the great­est tragedy of all.