Revival Theatre back on track with ‘End of the Rainbow’

CEDAR RAPIDS — Judy Garland didn’t find a pot of gold at the end of her rainbow. Living a life full of talent and afflictions, she was just 47 when she died of an accidental barbiturate overdose in London in 1969.

But Revival Theatre Company is choosing to celebrate — not mourn — her final chapter in its staging of “End of the Rainbow,” music director and company co-founder Cameron Sullenberger of Cedar Rapids said.

The production, put on hiatus during the pandemic, will run from Oct. 14 to 17 at CSPS Hall, 1103 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids.

Sullenberger, a die-hard fan of the 4-foot-11-inch cultural giant, doesn’t agree with people who call Garland’s life “tragic.”

Instead, “I have to agree with her children,” he said. “This woman did everything she wanted to do. She did more films than most people do by the time they’re 80. She had worked herself to the bone, she had become an icon and a legend in her own right. She didn’t have anything else to prove.

“She enjoyed what stardom brought to her — and she also suffered what stardom brought to her. It all started when she was young and wasn’t allowed to eat. They put her on diets” and a wide assortment of pills, he said.

“I don’t think her whole like was a tragedy. I think that she dealt with this in the background until it became so big she couldn’t handle it. …

“Though the show that we’re doing does show a very bittersweet and sometimes raw and unnerving part of her life, I want people to remember how incredible she was,” Sullenberger said. “I hope that shines through.”

Finding Judy

It’s a star vehicle for the actress playing Garland, and in this case, that’s New York-based Janelle Lutz, who bears a striking resemblance to Garland, physically and vocally. That’s served her well, from playing Garland in “The Boy from Oz” and another production of “End of the Rainbow,” to including Garland tunes in her cabaret repertoire.

“End of the Rainbow” focuses on the final months of Garland’s life, when she was performing her shows at London’s The Talk of the Town nightclub. Revival Theatre audiences will hear Lutz sing such fan favorites as “The Trolley Song,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “The Man that Got Away” and of course, “Over the Rainbow.”

A native of California’s San Jose area, Lutz grew up watching classic movies from the 1920s to ’50s, including such Garland films as “Easter Parade,” “Meet Me in St. Louis” and “The Wizard of Oz.” “The Man that Got Away,” from “A Star is Born,” set her on her Garland brick road when she sang it in a college talent show, then again when it was the appointed audition song for a Dallas production of “The Boy from Oz,” in which Lutz was cast as Garland.

When Sullenberger and artistic director Brian Glick conducted a national search for the person to lead their show, they liked what they saw in Lutz.

“Janelle is wonderful,” Sullenberger said after working with her in 2020, before the pandemic set in. “She’s funny. She has that frenetic Garland quality in her personality. She’s a Garland fanatic like me, but you (have) to be if you’re going to be doing this. She has a strong voice, and she captures the Garland persona.”

That meshes with Revival’s vision for this show.

“What Brian and I want to do is not make Judy so macabre,” Sullenberger said. “Judy was a happy person. She had some problems, like everybody does. Unfortunately, her problem was not at a time where people could adequately deal with it.

“She was probably too far gone at the time to really do anything about it, but we want to make sure that the audience knows that it’s that talent, that spark, that extra something she had that was way bigger than her problems.”

Lutz “is really good at balancing that,” he added.

Just don’t expect the Lollipop League to come popping up. The show doesn’t sugarcoat Garland’s life.

“It is based around a real rough part of her life,” Glick said. “It's not real cheery. It's not ‘Wizard of Oz.’ I mean, there is a lot of adult humor and content. Judy at her worst was not pleasant, and Judy at her best was that — she was the best. So we get to experience both those sides of her.”

COVID effect

Lutz and the rest of the company had the production performance-ready in March 2020 when COVID-19 shut it down.

“We had two out-of-town actors from New York,” said Glick, of Cedar Rapids. “And when we heard Broadway was shutting down and New York was shutting down, that was having a trickle-down effect into Iowa, as well. We were rehearsing at Theatre Cedar Rapids and when we heard that they were going to shut down, it all sort of enclosed on us.

“We realized that this was inevitable, that we needed to stop what we’re doing and we need to get these people back home, because flights were getting scarce. …

“It was a combination of all of those things that threw up a lot of red flags and said we’re not living in a bubble — this is affecting everybody,” Glick added. “And everyone got a flight the next day and we got them home. That was a big concern of ours.”

Even though Glick and Sullenberger had hoped to resume production a year ago, they knew they needed to wait for the COVID vaccines to be readily available. Nineteen months after the show closed before it even opened, they’re forging ahead.

“When the vaccines kicked in, that really elevated the conversation about when we could reopen,” Glick said.

“Even though we do have vaccines, and though we do have safety measures in place and a better understanding, we’re still in the middle of it,” he said of the pandemic. “But it is the reality in which we live, so we take the precautions we need to move forward.”

Show notes

Three of the four cast members are returning to their roles, but Garret Taylor, who was set to play Anthony, Garland’s pianist and friend, is now working with “Wicked” on Broadway, so he had to bow out of "Rainbow.“ Another New York actor, Trevor Martin, is stepping into that role.

Local actors rounding out the cast are Jim Vogt as Garland’s fiance, Mickey Deans, and David Morton, moving through several characters. The band is “completely different,” Sullenberger noted, changing with players’ availability.

Unlike a traditional musical, Sullenberger said Garland is the only character who sings in this show, describing it more like “a play with music.” However, the Anthony actor needs to be well-versed in music, since he leads the onstage band and plays the piano. Sullenberger also will play piano when Martin’s focus is pulled to the acting side, rather than Anthony’s band-leading side.

Another plus is that Lutz has worked with Martin before, “so there’s already chemistry,” Glick said. “That’s really important. We actually worked a little bit with Janelle on communicating who would fill that role, because they do have to have a really good pairing. They have to be able to work really well opposite each other.”

Lutz said she’s not impersonating Garland, but is seeking to honor who she was — this tiny person who had such a huge life.

“I love her spunk, I love her ability,” Lutz said, “and I find it incredible, her vulnerability when she sings and her vulnerability in every moment that no matter what the song, no matter what the time, she could give her heart and soul into every single song in every single concert in every single moment. And whether that did end up turning out to be her collapsing down and walking out on a show, she was brave enough to give that honest, honest performance.

“I think that's what it is: I love her braveness of being able to be honest in her performances. She never put anything on. It was never a fake. It was never a facade. She felt everything she sang every single time. ”

Lutz is thrilled to see theater reopening, to return to the stage, and to return to Cedar Rapids for this role. She spent the pandemic in New York, managing a restaurant, instead of acting. But to nurture her artistic soul, she watched movies, read actor biographies and for a time, listened only to Judy Garland music.

To further prepare for her return to “End of the Rainbow,” she read books about Garland, made a Garland playlist on Spotify, pulled out her script, and went running every day to get back into shape.

“I have been looking forward to every single aspect” of returning to the show, she said after landing back in Cedar Rapids last week.

“Being around a theater and theater people again, working on something I love so dearly, diving into this incredible woman again and simply getting to do what I do. It’s a very big gift.”

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