Playwright: Peter Quilter.. At: Porchlight Music Theatre at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: 773-327-5252; PorchlightMusicTheatre.org; $45-$51. Runs through: Dec. 3
It wouldn't be inaccurate to describe Peter Quilter's play End of the Rainbow as "the Judy Garland breakdown show." No doubt catty contingents of gay men will attend hoping for an over-the-top bio similar to the way that Mommie Dearest forever camped up the life of fellow Hollywood icon Joan Crawford for generations of drag queens to imitate.
But End of the Rainbow, now making a powerful Chicago premiere courtesy of Porchlight Music Theatre, is actually a devastatingly sobering look at the legendary film star near the end of her tragic life in 1960s London. The play does depict Garland pleading for her pills and liquor, but these moments are largely played for serious and unsettling drama instead of humor in director Michael Weber's assured production.
Yet it's not all gloom and doom, since End of the Rainbow is chock full of knock 'em-dead musical numbers like "Just in Time" and "Come Rain or Come Shine" that serve as sterling reminders as to why Garland has been deemed one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century. The play demands an amazing singing actress to embody Garland, and Angela Ingersoll perfectly fits the role.
Ingersoll has fine-tuned her Garland sound through years of performing acclaimed tribute cabarets. So all of Ingersoll's inflections and quivers in her powerful belting voice enthrallingly sound just like Garland.
Ingersoll's fragile frame also frighteningly looks like late-life Garland. This is important, since Quilter's play reminds audiences that as a child Garland was not only often bullied to perform, but she became an addict when given uppers and downers to meet MGM's exhausting filming schedules.
Ingersoll's co-stars are no slouch either. As Mickey Deans, Garland's fifth husband, Kyle Hatley gets across the desperation of a young man who realizes that his plan of glomming onto Garland as a manager and meal ticket is not going to be smooth. In the fictional role of British accompanist Anthony Chapman, Jon Steinhagen does amazing double duty as both the production's music director and acting out a character symbolizing Garland's legion of gay fans who identified with her music and private struggles.
Porchlight's End of the Rainbow isn't perfect. Steinhagen and fellow actor Felipe Jorge could improve their British accents, while Christopher Rhoton's set designs feel constrained by space limitations as they shift between Garland's suite at the Ritz Hotel and the glitzy Talk of the Town nightclub.
But these quibbles shouldn't detract from a show that both showcases the amazing talent of Garland and the actress portraying her. Far from being a campy hack job, End of the Rainbow paints a tragic portrait of Garland whose spellbinding voice was paradoxically both a blessing and a curse.