ENTERTAINMENT

Review: Searing performance lifts dark 'Rainbow'

Kerry Lengel
The Republic | azcentral.com

Midway through Phoenix Theatre's "End of the Rainbow," Jeannie Shubitz, playing a middle-aged Judy Garland strung out after a 20-year bender, sings "The Man That Got Away."

Alone in her hotel room, she croons to herself, "The night is bitter / The stars have lost their glitter," her voice choking with a lifetime of regret. Shubitz's rendition is so achingly sincere that you hardly notice when the canned music slips in to support her and transform solitary sorrow into a searing showstopper.

Many of us fantasize about being a fly on the wall in the lives of the rich and famous, but in "End of the Rainbow," a 2005 drama by Peter Quilter, we get more than we bargained for.

The setting is December 1968 in London, where Garland, the silver-voiced chanteuse of "The Wizard of Oz" and "A Star Is Born" fame, is staging what will be the last of her career comebacks, performing a five-week cabaret show at a club called the Talk of the Town.

The four-person cast also includes Jeff Kennedy as her accompanist — and stand-in for her adoring gay fan base — and Caleb Reese as Mickey Deans, her new manager and fiance. Twelve years her junior, he will be presumed guilty of being a gold-digger until proven innocent (among other possibilities).

Scenes alternate between Garland's hotel suite and the stage at the club, where she sings such slyly selected standards as "When You're Smiling," "You Made Me Love You" and "Get Happy!" — a tune from Garland's film "Summer Stock" that's actually about Judgment Day. The concerts are first a triumph and then a disaster as the aging star begins to lose her battle with addiction to alcohol and pills.

Shubitz's performance is astounding as she puts her character through a wringer of passion and rage, ecstasy and despair, and in the concert scenes she sings with power, grace and verve, but also with the brittle edge of a woman at war with her own failing body.

It's a harrowing journey, but there also is comic relief as Garland lets her diva flag fly. When Mickey tells he doesn't know where to find roast beef for dinner, she snaps, "Just drive around till you smell gravy."

Phoenix Theatre's production is directed by Karla Koskinen, who coaxes closely observed performances from all of the leads. Reese's Mickey may end up as the villain of the piece, but to the actor's credit, he never plays the character that way but delivers a nuanced interpretation of a man who's put himself in an impossible position with no good choices to make. And while Kennedy's Scottish brogue isn't fooling anybody, his tender portrayal of the piano man Anthony is so affecting that you simply don't mind.

As the title implies, "End of the Rainbow" isn't a full portrait of Garland's life and career but rather a snapshot of its dark denouement. For this reason it sometimes edges uncomfortably into voyeuristic territory, but that's also what makes it so compelling. It's a car crash on the freeway of stardom, and we cannot look away.

Phoenix Theatre: 'End of the Rainbow'

Reviewed Friday, May 1. Continues through Sunday, May 17. Phoenix Theatre, 100 E. McDowell Road. $30 and up. 602-254-2151, phoenixtheatre.com.

Reach the reviewer at kerry.lengel@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4896.