End Of The Rainbow

So today is my birthday, or as it's just gone 12 in the words of Morrissey "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore" it was. To mark entering my 5th decade I went out for Sushi and caught Tracie Bennett in The End Of The Rainbow which is currently touring pre Broadway and playing Brighton this week. It is a year since I saw this in London and Tracie's portrayal of Judy in her final days has received non stop praise ever since she first opened in this show.

A year on and she is still putting everything into the role, a stunning performance, really powerful and mesmerising.

She belted out Judy's songs, both pitch perfect and drug fuelled alcoholic mess and showed what went on behind closed doors and was covered up in the 60's but still goes on today. This time last year I likened this performance to what was going on with Amy Winehouse, and we all know how that ended up.

Despite the gloom of the addictions the show still has it's camp funny moments, which you'd expect for a Judy Garland audience. There is a scene were her gay pianist, who lives in Brighton, asks her to leave her current fiance and come and live with him in Brighton and bury Judy, but she didn't choose that path stayed with him, feeding her addictions and died. But could Judy Garland really ever have lived a quiet life in Brighton, even in the 60's ?.

I loved Judy staggering into her hotel suite after a night on the lash with ripped stockings and grazed face. Most unbecoming of a lady but we've all been there just to lesser extents. Maybe it was that scene or the fact that I am now so old that I chose to come straight home and get my slippers on rather than go out partying who knows.