Tracie Bennett to Travel to the End of the Rainbow as Judy Garland

Olivier winner Tracie Bennett will play Judy Garland in Peter Quilter's End of the Rainbow at the West End's Trafalgar Studios beginning November 16. The limited engagement will open on November 22 and run through March 5, 2011. The production will be directed by Tony winner Terry Johnson (who is currently represented on Broadway by La Cage aux Folles) and feature Hilton McRae as Garland's musical directory Anthony, Stephen Hagan as her fifth husband Mickey Deanes, and Robin Brown as a radio interviewer/stage manager. The actors will be accompanied by a six-member band.

Bennett, who won an Olivier Award for playing Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray, has many stage credits including La Cage aux Folles, Les Miserables, Sex, Chips and Rock 'n' Roll, High Society, Guys and Dolls and Spring Awakening. McRae has appeared in The Kreutzer Sonata, Experimentum Mundi, Rock 'n' Roll, The Wizard of Oz and Caroline, Or Change. Hagan's theater credits include The York Realist, Cyrano De Bergerac, The Real Thing and The Giant. Browne has appeared on the West End in Murder at the Vicarage, My Little Boy, My Little Girl and The Constant Wife.

Set in 1968 London, End of the Rainbow follows Garland late in her life as she struggles with drug and alcohol addiction while performing a series of concerts in hopes of reclaiming her former glory. The show will feature such Garland classics as "The Man That Got Away," "Come Rain or Come Shine," "The Trolley Song" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

The production will feature set design by William Dudley, sound design by Gareth Owen, lighting by Simon Corder and musical directon from Gareth Valentine.