**Soho Theatre Walthamstow • 22nd May – 21st June 2026**

Considering how many times I have visited the stunning Soho Theatre Walthamstow since it opened its doors just over a year ago, this is the first opportunity I have had to wax lyrical about it in a theatre review, it having spent the last 12 months building a solid reputation as a stand-out stand-up comedy and cabaret venue. Just how impressive, and incredibly respectful the renovation of this art deco cinema is, (designed by Theodore Komisarjevsky and originally opened in 1930) is something that has not been lost on anyone that has either taken to it’s stage or booked a seat in its grand auditorium. As such it is also one of those rare occasions, that the more regular readers of my reviews will know I love so much, where the venue becomes part of the very fabric of the production itself as, having played host to artists like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Buddy Holly in it’s heyday as a respected music venue, it’s not totally inconceivable that the subject of Peter Quilter’s play, the legendary Judy Garland, just might have one day found herself appearing at the venue. It’s a nice thought, but one brought vividly to life here, not only through Jasmine Swans equally impressive set design, but by the star of the show Jinkx Monsoon, whose uncanny metamorphosis into the legendary singer brings her vividly back to life.

This is not the first time Monsoon has found reason to transform herself into the iconic legend, as regular viewers of RuPaul’s Drag Race, of which Monsoon is a two-times winner, will remember her previous transformation into Garland for the show’s Snatch Game in 2022’s All Stars Season 7. One can only imagine how much this appearance might have played in her being considered for the role in this revival of Quilter’s play, a role for which accepting the part was apparently not an instant decision for Monsoon given the plays focus being that of the legends last few months in the lead up to her untimely death in 1969. Very much at the End Of The Rainbow, as the play’s title suggests, the story takes place during a period that she was booked to perform a five week residency at the Talk Of The Town, (now better known as the London Hippodrome in Leicester Square). You would need to have been living under a rock not to have known that the stars life ended prematurely at the age of just 47, lost in the haze of addiction to both alcohol and drugs that has originally been forced upon her by an exploitative film industry in order to get their child star through the exhausting 18 hour filming schedules, and later self-administered, her ongoing dependency only adding to her increasingly fragile sense of insecurity, the performances she is booked for having long since become more torture than pleasure.

Playing Garland for laughs during a 3 minute Snatch Game on Drag Race was clearly always going to be a very different proposition for Monsoon than that of holding the audiences attention for the 2 hour 30 minute run time of this production, especially given that the highs of Garland’s career were very much in the rear view mirror during the period the play is set. It’s therefore surprising just how much comedy Quilter still manages to inject into his well balanced, if slightly overlong, script, and as in her own final appearances, his Garland is still capable of offering hilarious flashes of a sharp wit alongside the rather more tragic and altogether more sobering moments of insightful introspection, a tribute to the once great star who was drowning in circumstances that had grown far beyond her ability to control. Despite Monsoon’s own doubts in tackling the role, she not only proves more than adept at playing both sides of Garland with skill and compassion, but in the shows musical numbers, is also able to showcase an incredible voice that fills the theatre, both demanding, and rightfully receiving, rapturous applause from the enthusiastic press night audience.

End Of The Rainbow is essentially a three-hander, Monsoon being joined on stage by Jacob Dudman (as manager and fifth husband-to-be Mickey Deans) and Adam Filipe as the loyal, if somewhat long suffering accompanying pianist Anthony. “I was hired as a pianist”, he bemoans of the increasing responsibility he finds himself expected to undertake. “You were hired as Judy Garland’s pianist… It’s a different remit”, Mickey truculently replies. Alongside this core triumvirate, there are the additional roles of a BBC Newsreader and assistant stage manager which are both filled by the concert bands drummer Fred Double, (oh, the irony), his long hair and somewhat youthful appearance being slightly better suited to the latter role rather than the former.

With the story unfolding between Judy’s hotel suite at The Ritz, (payment for which was well beyond her means at the time), and her live performances at the Talk Of The Town, the transition between the two spaces is spectacularly handled, and whilst there could have been an opportunity for some slightly more inventive lighting during the extended hotel suite scenes, the chic white stage becomes awash with colour during Judy’s musical performances which, I confess, is made all the more magical by the contrast between the two. The first of these takes a while to arrive, but when it does the layered staging proves itself highly adaptable to both scenarios. With the stage also being a large one, the use of the space is very well understood by the Director Rupert Hands and Movement Director Fabian Aloise, the actors confidently able to take command the space rather than let it overwhelm them.

Despite Peter Quilter’s play having first been performed at The Sydney Opera House in Australia in 2005, and having missed the highly successful West End run here in the UK in 2010, (not to mention the 2019 film adaptation ‘Judy’, starring Renée Zellweger as the titular character), I had no idea what to expect from this production. What I got was an impressive, funny and moving tribute to one of Hollywoods greatest stars. Throughly entertaining yet bold enough not to shy away from the tragedy of addiction, the dark side of celebrity and the debilitating effects of insecurity.

★ ★ ★ ★