New Jersey Theater Review: Judy Garland Bio ‘Chasing Rainbows’
Judy Garland’s voice was unparalleled and rich, an emotive contralto that lasted long into her later years with a loud and winning showiness to go with its melodramatic nuances. But that voice concealed a troubled backstory, as the woman born Frances Ethel Gumm toted the baggage of a closeted gay father, an ugly duckling’s insecurity and the twitch of addiction through her entire life. Between the ravages of drugs and drink and the fears of being picked last, Garland was dead by 47.
As Renée Zellweger earns Oscar buzz for her mournful, cutting portrayal of the latter-day “Judy,” a new musical at the New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse looks at her earliest years — the ups-and-downs of when Gumm turned Garland. Fresh-faced musical “Chasing Rainbows: The Road to Oz,” conceived by Tina Marie Casamento and written by Marc Acito, looks to the time before Garland became the darling of MGM and the star of 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz.”
