End of the Rainbow - Richmond Theatre and on tour
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
FOLLOWING its success in the West End and on Broadway, Peter Quilter’s End of the Rainbow returns in 2016, touring the UK in a brand new production, which opens at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester in February.
Starring Lisa Maxwell as Judy Garland, Gary Wilmot as Anthony and Sam Attwater as Mickey, it will visit Richmond Theatre from May 24 to May 28.
It’s 1968 and Judy Garland, a once-glittering star, is in London to make her explosive comeback. But off stage, holed up in her hotel room, Judy is battling with her young new fiancé, her devoted accompanist, and her destructive addictions. Will she be able to conquer her demons and reclaim her crown as one of history’s great musical icons?
Featuring Garland’s most memorable songs – The Man That Got Away, Come Rain Or Come Shine, The Trolley Song and Somewhere Over The Rainbow – End of the Rainbow is a fiercely funny and emotionally charged musical play filled with Garland’s legendary tenacity, razor-sharp wit and once-in-a-generation voice.
Lisa Maxwell is an actress and television presenter, best known for her role as Samantha Nixon in ITV’s The Bill from 2002 and 2009, and as a panelist on ITV’s Loose Women from 2009 – 2014. Her other television credits include EastEnders, The Russ Abbot Show and The Lisa Maxwell Show.
Gary Wilmot’s musical theatre stardom began when he played Bill Snibson in the hit production of Me and My Girl at the Adelphi Theatre.
His many theatre credits include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (West End and Tour), Oklahoma! (UK Tour), The Pajama Game (Shaftesbury Theatre), The Invisible Man (Menier Chocolate Factory), Chicago (UK Tour), Half a Sixpence (UK Tour), HMS Pinafore and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (London Palladium), Carmen Jones (Old Vic) and Copacabana (World Premiere, Prince of Wales Theatre).
Sam Attwater made his TV acting debut in 2009, playing Ricky in Hollyoaks. The following year he joined EastEnders and its online spinoff EastEnders: E20, as Leon Small. His stage credits include Brad in the 40th Anniversary tour of The Rocky Horror Show, Dreamboats and Petticoats in the West End, and the 2014 UK Tour of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He also won the sixth series of ITV’s Dancing on Ice in 2011, and returned for the ‘All Stars’ series in 2014.
End of the Rainbow will be directed by Daniel Buckroyd, Artistic Director of the Mercury Theatre, Colchester since July 2012, where his credits include Aladdin, Noises Off, Cinderella, Macbeth, Betty Blue Eyes, The Opinion Makers, The Butterfly Lion, The History Boys, The Hired Man and Michael Morpurgo’s Friend Or Foe.
The production will be designed by David Shields.
End of the Rainbow premiered at the Sydney Opera House in 2005, before playing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2006. It returned to the UK in 2010 in a new production at Northampton Royal & Derngate, transferring to the West End the same year where it ran for six months and received four Olivier Award nominations. A Broadway run followed in 2012, where it received three Tony Award nominations.
End of the Rainbow is written by Peter Quilter, whose plays have been presented in over 40 countries around the world and translated into 30 languages. For End of the Rainbow, Quilter received an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Play. His other plays include ,i>Glorious!, which opened at the West End’s Duchess Theatre in 2005 starring Maureen Lipman, where it was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.
Following the Colchester dates (February 12 – 20), End of the Rainbow will continue to Coventry, Aylesbury, Bromley, Torquay, Windsor, Brighton, Malvern, Wolverhampton, Glasgow, Manchester, Billingham, Sheffield, Lichfield, Newcastle, Richmond, Bury St Edmunds, Woking, High Wycombe and Cheltenham.