Judy!

Following a critically acclaimed debut season at Southwark Playhouse under its original title, Through The Mill, Ray Rackham’s biographical musical about the life of iconic movie star and chanteuse, Judy Garland, arrives in London’s West End this Summer.

Since her first tentative steps on the stage as a young girl, Judy Garland has become an enduring icon to millions of fans of all generations around the world.

Leaving behind the usual portrayal of Garland’s life as one of pure heartbreak and self-destruction, Ray Rackham has created a poignant and ultimately uplifting story portraying the star as a survivor in a man’s world. He has cleverly created an overlapping story of three ages of Judy – Young Judy (an innocent girl filled with hope and excitement as she heads toward her life-changing performance in The Wizard of Oz), Palace Theatre Judy (a woman at the height of her performing powers in the midst of a passionate romance with Sidney Luft) and CBS Judy (an older and possibly wiser woman) – that demonstrates that no matter how hard we look for love in all the wrong places, the answer is ultimately inside ourselves.

Judy's memorable score which is brought to life by a live band, is a wonderful combination of Garland standards interlinked with some of her lesser known numbers and includes The Trolley Song, The Man That Got Away and, of course, Over The Rainbow.

Creatives

Writer and director: Ray Rackham 

Carolyn Scott Jeffs (dramaturg), Simon Holt (arranger and musical director), Chris Whittaker (choreographer), Tom Paris (set designer), Jack Weir (lighting designer), Millie Hobday (costume designer), Leanne Steedman (hair and makeup), Ed Shaw (sound designer), Julie Clare (general manager), Samuel Julyan (casting), Peter John Dodsworth (associate musical supervisor) and Michelle Hutchings (assistant producer).