Wayward idols face the music

It's 1968 and in Peter Quilter's moving play, Judy Garland (Caroline O'Connor) is appearing at the Talk of the Town, another comeback in a career that ended the following year when she was just 47.

Husband-number-five-to-be Mickey Deans (Michael Cormick) has a full-time job keeping Garland from anything in a bottle, while pianist Anthony (Jonathan Gavin) is the dogsbody that every diva needs.

Quilter pulls no punches in his evocative musical drama: Deans becomes her supplier when Garland threatens to walk off the high-paying show unless she has some "grown-up sweets", and Anthony - a composite character representing her gay fanbase - is adoring but ultimately cannot save her.

O'Connor's stunning performance captures Garland's physical and vocal mannerisms, but this is no mere impersonation. She conveys a star's ego and the vulnerability of a woman so abused by "bloody men", booze and drugs that she cannot resist them even as she rushes headlong into the gutter.

Meeting Joe Strummer
Gilded Balloon
****

Meeting Joe Strummer is about another icon, as seen through the eyes of two south London lads who form an unlikely friendship through their mutual love of The Clash's lead singer. Nick (Nick Miles), like Strummer, keeps his public-school backg round quiet when he meets working-class Steve (Steve North) on a protest march in 1977 and the play parallels their on-off relationship with Strummer's career.

Writer-director Paul Hodson draws on the actors' own real-life experiences and the play oozes authenticity.

With minimal effects, striking performances and well-chosen tracks, it neatly examines how Strummer's music helped politicise a generation.

Moon the Loon
Pleasance
***

In Moon the Loon (by Chas Early and Martin Keady), Early plays the manic Who drummer on his descent into chemical-fuelled madness despite the love of long-suffering wife (Reanne Farley) and a therapist's attempts to unravel the chaos in his head.

Early gives an energetic performance, yet we learn little about Moon and why he was hellbent on destruction. But the fact that he neatly itemised his prodigious drugs purchases - "they're tax deductible" - will gladden the heart of anyone about to send a cheque to HM Inland Revenue.

All to 28 August. Information: Rainbow, 0131 226 2428; www.assemblyrooms.com. Strummer: 0131 668 1633; www.gildedballoon.co.uk. Moon: 0131 556 6550; www.pleasance.co.uk