![]() This particular musical form seems to have fallen out of fashion, but it’s a great way to settle an audience and I wish more shows would use them. Sunset Boulevard’s full orchestrations should have their own Olivier Award, with an entr’acte that sends shivers down the spine. Joking aside, it was a directorial decision which grew on me and on reflection added hugely to the emotional impact of the piece…I’m just not sure it will be to everyone’s taste. Here is one of Director Lonny Price’s most daring and divisive decisions: The ghost of “Young Norma” may not be to everyone’s taste, and when she pops in to take over from “Normal Norma” so that Glenn can have a breather, some of the audience might feel that she’s being a bit forward. Norma also dances a pretty mean ballroom – seducing Joe on the kind of floor which Rudi Valentino suggested because, well, “you need tiles to tango”. The outfit in which she arrives for New Year’s Eve must have cleaned out most branches of Swarovski in the Northern Hemisphere. Norma’s costumes (Anthony Powell) reflect her stellar character – each more lavish than the last. It’s a number of its time, and sits uncomfortably between deliciously camp and vaguely homophobic.ĭespite this kind of niggle, Act One zips along relatively unhindered by any flaws in the book and offers a sumptuous feast of hummable melodies along the way. Here, Stephen Mear’s staging seemed stiff and formulaic. Yes, Close is mesmerising – “New Ways to Dream” is another great tune belted out to optimum effect, but then we have numbers which seem strangely anachronistic to a modern musical theatre audience: “The Lady’s Paying” with its lame and lazy assumption that everyone in retail and fashion must be camp, needs choreography to be even more outlandish if that’s the boulevard it’s going down. Sunset Boulevard © Richard Hubert SmithĪs I’ve already laid my cards on the table and said that Sunset has one of my favourite scores, I must be honest and say that as a book, I’ve never felt it works 100%. ![]() And if there’s one thing Andrew Lloyd Webber knows how to do better than anything else, it’s to write epic songs for iconic women so once she’d done with the monkey business, Close’s “With One Look” brought the already shaken house down around her like a female Samson shaking the temple pillars. Close walked down the minimalist staircase to thunderous applause. It’s an almost uniquely Broadway thing to applaud an actress simply for walking on stage, but here it felt spontaneous despite being a very “un-London” thing to do. Why are you so late?” marking the arrival of one of Theatre and Film’s most iconic characters – Norma Desmond. Even a chorus comprising highly experienced West Enders had a minor battle with this on the first preview, but by the second night nerves had subsided and they were in powerful voice with every quick-fire syllable in perfect time.Īs much as Joe Gillis is at the heart of the show (he’s in almost every scene), what everyone is really waiting for is those two short iconic lines “You There. ![]() His opening number “I guess it was 5am” is rich in exposition and segues neatly into the first big chorus number “Let’s Have Lunch”. Michael Xavier is a safe pair of hands, at first lending Joe Gillis the harmless charm of a floppy-haired retriever. The orchestra is phenomenal under the baton of Michael Reed, producing a sound of exquisite beauty. Lloyd Webber’s score is epic, David Cullen’s lush orchestrations sweep and soar through pentatonic scales into the realm of some of the finest show-stoppers of the modern British musical. Anyone who has seen the original Billy Wilder movie will hear movie dialogue as lyrics throughout the prologue – all credit to the team of Christopher Hampton and Don Black for their understanding of the brooding cynicism of the original movie. Joe Gillis (he of the dead body) narrates the show. Although a clever idea, it’s a directorial choice which doesn’t quite work. A dead Joe Gillis floats over the production with a strangeness which never feels quite comfortable and at times just looks odd – particularly so from high up. This is in some ways a slightly surreal Sunset. I saw the production across two nights – firstly from the Balcony (the nosebleeds) and then on the second night from the Stalls. Two utilitarian scaffold stairways intertwine around the on-stage orchestra. The ENO have brought a show known for the lavishness of the famous staircase in the original West End & Broadway productions to the Coliseum and pared it down dramatically. I bought tickets to Sunset Boulevard with a sense of both excitement and dread: How could this possibly live up to the hype? Could Glenn Close still sing? Having had the privilege to see Glenn in 2002 at the National Theatre in A Streetcar Named Desire, and having Sunset Boulevard as one of my favourite scores, I was worried I might just be expecting, well, too much?
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