A trip to the end of the rainbow
Judy Garland’s comeback attempt takes centre stage in Jericho Arts Centre show
The story goes, a reporter once asked Judy Garland what it felt like to be a legend. Garland, not missing a beat, responded: “If I am a legend, then why am I so lonely?”
That answer is hugely telling when it comes to the life and untimely death of one of the 20th century’s greatest talents — a talent that is at the centre of the Peter Quilter play, End of the Rainbow, on April 26-May 26 at the Jericho Arts Centre (JAC).
The Quilter work is a fictionalized account of Garland’s last stand onstage — a five-week run at London’s Talk of the Town club in 1968. It should be noted that after the gruelling gig Garland was dead six months later from a barbiturate overdose, just shy of her 47th birthday and not long after marrying husband No. 5, Mickey Deans.
“Pulling the curtain back on that and letting people see how it might really have been with Judy is a bit of a departure and a bit difficult and a challenging thing to do,” said End of the Rainbow director Claude Giroux.
“We also show how amazingly talented she was. But at the end of the day, she was still that little girl whose father got her into show business when she was three.”
In 1939, Garland’s superstar fate was sealed when she appeared as Dorothy in the groundbreaking and still-much-beloved film, The Wizard of Oz.
But as the record shows, there weren’t many rainbows in her life. Started on drugs by her ambitious mother, Garland’s short life was punctuated by addictions to pills and booze.
Her demons led to unpredictable and undependable behaviour, behaviour that made her persona non grata to bookers and agents. The London gig was a big deal for a once big star in need of a big comeback.
“I read the script and it scared me, and I thought that’s probably why I should do it,” said Janet Gigliotti, who stars as Garland in the JAC show. “She was messy, difficult and there was a lot of tragedy associated with her, and she is an icon. Everybody loves her. I don’t want to do a poor job of portraying her.”
That’s the thing. Not only as an actor are you playing a real person, but you are playing one that has been loved and revered since she was a child. Oh, and who happened to be a massive talent.
“I’m not trying to do an impersonation. I don’t even know how possible that is. There’s lots of people who already do that. I wanted to make it so we learn about her,” said Gigliotti.
Gigliotti, who left a job as a teacher at Centennial Secondary to become a full-time actor in 2000, prepared to play Garland by reading biographies, watching documentaries, going down the YouTube rabbit hole and hitting the stage for a couple of local cabaret nights.
“I just wanted to sing her songs,” said Gigliotti, who is joined in the cast by Jeffery Hoffman, Gordon Roberts and Matthew Simmons. “I don’t think you could do this piece without knowing where she came from. It wouldn’t make sense.”
In End of the Rainbow, 13 songs are referenced and partly performed. There are definitely highs and lows.
“Some of them she crashes on, she can’t get through,” said Gigliotti. “She is in a bad, bad state.”
While Quilter’s play has obviously taken some licence with the great diva’s story, it’s heart and aim is pretty on-key. This was a tough time for Garland and the gruelling schedule of this nightclub residency (sometimes 13 shows a week) would have been tough for a sober 25-year-old.
“The story is about the struggle to not let that happen, essentially,” said Giroux, referring to a potential overdose. “We all know how it ended. It’s delving into the how and why it happened, is what this play is about and it’s also I think about the damaged human being that she was.”
Gigliotti doesn’t like to use the word victim, but she softens her stand on that one when she talks about how Garland was managed first by her mom, then the studio and then every man in her life.
“She didn’t know how to be by herself and the people she was either attracted to or who she attracted took advantage and controlled,” said Gigliotti. “She really, really needed constant approval. Ever since she was 2½-years-old she always had people clapping for her.”
But if we step away from the stories and focus on the songs and the stagecraft of Garland, the troubles she had do indeed end up somewhere over a rainbow.
“Inspired because of how she was with her audience and as a performer, that’s all any of us want to do is have audiences with us the way she had them with her,” said Gigliotti, who loves the songs, The Man that Got Away, and, When the Sun comes Out.
“We are really working at the idea of leaving people with some hope and joy. She had a lot of joy.”