By Harry Haun
03 Apr 2012

Buy this Limited Collector's Edition

Bennett's main sparring partner (platonic division) is a fictitious strawman — the gay pianist who accompanies her into her cabaret hell. "More than a composite," reasoned Michael Cumpsty, "I think it was important to the playwright that there be a voice in the play for her gay fan-base so I represent that. But also, dramatically, I function as the third part of the triangle between her and Mickey Deans. I don't think Mickey Deans is a bad guy, but in the end he thinks the way to save Judy Garland is to save the performer, and, if you want to try to save the performer, you have to get her up there so you have to give her the drugs. My guy is: 'No. The way to save Judy Garland is to save the person. Let me take her away to a quiet retreat.'"

Cumpsty gives a charming account of this character but didn't base it on anyone per se. "Before I met Tracie, I thought I'd have to do a lot of research on Judy Garland — see all the movies, read all the books — and then I met Tracie. Tracie is a force of nature. She's absolutely incredible. She's the most energized, committed person I ever worked with. I am mad for her. I thought, 'I won't have to do a lot of substitution. I can just respond to Tracie Bennett, and it will be like an adoring gay fan, adoring this force of nature and trying to support her and sorta keep her safe.' And that's what I do. I do it about Tracie. I don't do it about Judy because Tracie so completely inhabits that kind of personality that it's easy just to have a relationship with her in this."

The good news for Tom Pelphrey is that his making his Broadway bow with End of the Rainbow. "This is what you dream for when you're young and you start acting. I am honored that I made my Broadway debut — and specifically glad it happened with these people. They've been very generous to me."

The bad news is he's making his debut as Mickey Deans, Garland's fifth husband and fatal enabler — an all-round singularly unpleasant person to spend time with, even two hours on a stage. The actor read Deans' side of it (borrowing a title from Judy's repertoire for his book: "Weep No More, My Lady"), watched interviews with him and Judy and finally found a sympathetic way into the character as one Jersey boy to another.

	Peter Quilter
	Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

"When I first read the play, I felt I understood Mickey right off the bat. At the end of the day, he was a man who was a bit arrogant but had good intentions and was, simply, out of his league. For my money, everything that Mickey says in the play — every point he brings up, every time he yells at her — is a perfectly valid point."

The rest of the roles are manned by Jay Russell, who, by turns, is a BBC interviewer, a porter who deposits an injured Judy in her suite and an assistant stage manager. "The hotel porter who's on stage about ten seconds and has no lines — we've named him Monty, and Tracie has dubbed him 'the heart and soul of the show,'" kidded Russell.

Proximity to Bennett-in-full-stage-flight is inspiring to him, he confessed: "With her energy and commitment to it, you cannot not give 200 percent. None of us know how she does this eight times a week. She is a miracle. And the audience response! Have you ever seen anything like that? It's like a rock concert."

Standing beautifully by for Bennett is a Beauty and the Beast Belle, Sarah Uriarte Berry, who's not looking forward to the day when she slips on the star's ruby slippers. "She knows that I know that it's next to impossible to do what she does. It's, like, one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen — I think, that anybody has ever seen. It's one of the ones that's going to go down in the history books. I'm more than intimidated. She's really it."

The first review to reach the party was from Broadway's last Judy, Isabelle Keating, who copped a Tony nomination for it in The Boy From Oz.

"A tour-de-force," declared Keating, who played a Judy four years younger. "Just stunning. What an amazing voice Tracie has. She has her own unique thing but it's so Judy! I have not met Tracie yet. We spoke on the phone briefly, and what she says about acting Judy more than singing Judy I concur with completely. It's what I did. She's a phenomenal actress. I'm still somewhat overcome. It's breathtaking!"

Keating, currently on Broadway as Spider-Man's Aunt May, lamented not meeting Rosemary Harris, who originated that role in the movie, when she was right next door doing The Road to Mecca.

Molly Ranson (carrying on Carrie another week) and Kathleen Chalfant (Painting Churches 'til April 7) spent their nights off at the theatre, as did Memphis' Tony-nominated Montego Glover, Other Desert Cities' Stacy Keach, Anything Goes' Joel Grey and Don't Dress for Dinner's Jennifer Tilly.

The most unexpected first-nighter of the evening was Barbara Windsor, who is best-known for the "Carry On" films, a black-and-white knockabout comedy series. One alum made it to these shores and won a Tony for Barnum: Jim Dale, and even Windsor made it to Broadway once, grabbing a 1965 Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Joan Littlewood's Oh What a Lovely War. "When I was on Broadway, Barbra Streisand, Sammy Davis Jr., Carol Channing were all surrounding our little show."

But it's the "Carry On" capers that cling to her. "The funny thing is they show them all the time on the telly back home. It was a period of my life that's stayed with me. My life was theatre. I would just make a film and then go off to the theatre at night."

Elaine Stritch, who hoisted a few with Judy in Londontown, led the opening-night parade, followed by Tovah Feldshuh; Lindsay Nicole Chambers andColin Hanlon; columnist Michael Musto ("Tracie is a force of nature, but I thought the direction was more over the top than over the rainbow"); Larry Kramer, resplendent in a purple jacket; Ron Raines, turning out to support his "Guilding Light" co-star, Pelphrey, before heading to L.A. for the May 3 opening of Follies; Curtains couple Debra Monk and Edward Hibbert and Lisa Lampanelli.