Sunset Boulevard (musical)
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Image:Sunsetlogo.JPG Sunset Boulevard is a musical play based on the movie of the same title. The plot revolves around Norma Desmond, a faded star of the silent screen era, living in the past in her decaying mansion on the fabled Los Angeles street. When a young screenwriter named Joe Gillis accidentally crosses her path, she sees in him an opportunity to pave the way for her comeback to the big screen. (When Gillis comments, "You used to be in pictures, you used to be big," she retorts "I AM big . . . it's the pictures that got small!") A thwarted romance and tragedy follow.
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[edit] Production History
With music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, direction by Trevor Nunn, and starring Patti LuPone, Kevin Anderson and Daniel Benzali, the production first opened at the Adelphi Theatre (owned by Lloyd Webber) in London's West End. Reviews were mixed - many critics felt that the score was repetitive and more time had been spent constructing the mammoth set than working on the book. Still, it was an instant sell-out success.
LuPone was later replaced when the production moved to Los Angeles and Webber began auditioning new actresses for the role of Norma Desmond. Webber also did some re-working to the script as well as the score, tightening the production and better organizing the orchestrations.
The American premiere was at the Shubert Theatre in Century City, Los Angeles, California, on December 9, 1993, with Glenn Close as Norma and Alan Campbell as Joe. Featured were George Hearn as Max and Judy Kuhn as Betty. This new production was better received by the critics and was an instant success. The Los Angeles production also re-recorded a new cast album which is considered the definitive version of the production.
Sunset Boulevard opened on Broadway at the Minskoff Theatre on November 17, 1994 with Close, Campbell, and Hearn recreating their roles from the Los Angeles production and Alice Ripley joining the cast as Betty. Also in the cast were Allen Oppenheimer and Vincent Tumeo. The production opened with the highest advance in the history of Broadway ticket sales. It ran for 977 performances. In a season with few new musical productions, it won several Tony Awards, and Glenn Close - with vitually no competition - walked away with the Best Performance of an Actress in a Leading Role.
The Toronto production opened in 1995 with Diahann Carroll in the lead role. Her performance was also praised by critcs though the production closed sooner than expected.
LuPone, who initially had been promised the Broadway run, sued Lloyd Webber and won an out-of-court settlement reputed to be an extremely healthy sum. She wasn't the only actress to get paid for not playing - Faye Dunaway, set to replace Close in L.A., proved to be unable to meet the vocal challenges of the score, and was let go. She, too, sued Lloyd Webber. Frank Rich, in his book The Hot Seat, noted that these lawsuits contributed to Sunset Boulevard setting the record for the most money lost by a theatrical endeavor in the history of the United States. Despite its record advance sales, weekly operating costs were so high that it could not pay back its initial investment, and its road companies generated large financial losses. Rich puts the final figure near or above US$20 million, making it what he termed a "flop-hit", as it ran more than two years.
The London show was revamped to follow the lead of the New York production and starred Broadway and TV veteran Betty Buckley. She and the revamped production garnered rave reviews. (Buckley then followed Glenn Close as Norma Desmond in the second year of the New York production.)
Then Elaine Paige starred as Norma Desmond in the West End production, followed by Petula Clark. The excellent reviews and buzz from both productions helped to launch a second national tour in the US. A first attempt starring Linda Balgord had been aborted due to exorbitant costs involved in transporting the set, so Lloyd Webber called in director Susan H. Schulman to design a scaled-down production, with Clark again in the lead. In 2004, she repeated her performance at the Cork Opera House in Ireland for broadcast on BBC Radio. To date, with more than 2500 performances to her credit, she has played the role more often than any other actress.In 2001, a UK tour commenced starring Faith Brown as Norma Desmond, against Earl Carpenter as Joe Gillis. The show had a completely new contemporary set, much simpler than the original London set, but without compromising the quality of the show.
In 1996, Debra Byrne and Hugh Jackman starred in the first Australian production of Sunset Boulevard. The production opened the newly restored Regent Theatre, Melbourne. Both Robyn Nevin and Judi Conelli were considered for the role of Norma but it was eventually given to Byrne. In 2005, Judi Conelli and David Campbell starred in a new Australian concert version for The Production Company in Melbourne (State Theatre) and in Sydney (Luna Park), both for limited seasons.
In July 2005, Lloyd-Webber's Really Useful Group announced that a film version, with Glenn Close reprising her role, was to be produced with an expected release date of 2006. However, as of 2006 the projected date for release of the film has been put back to 2008, according to the IMDB. <ref>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469609/</ref>
It came fifth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals" (wherein Nation refers to the United Kingdom). [1]
[edit] Musical Numbers
The following list is as according to the 1994 Los Angeles "American Premiere" Cast Recording
[edit] Act 1
- Overture / I Guess It Was 5AM
- Let's Have Lunch
- Every Movie's A Circus
- Car Chase
- At the House on Sunset
- Surrender
- With One Look
- Salome
- Greatest Star of All
- Every Movie's a Circus (Reprise)
- Girl Meets Boy
- Back at the House on Sunset
- New Ways to Dream
- Completion of the Script
- Lady's Paying
- New Year's Eve
- Perfect Year
- This Time Next Year
- New Year's Eve (Back at the House on Sunset)
[edit] Act 2
- Entr'acte
- Sunset Boulevard
- There's Been a Call/Journey to Paramount
- As If We Never Said Goodbye
- Paramount Conversations/Surrender (Reprise)
- Girl Meets Boy (Reprise)
- Eternal Youth Is Worth a Little Suffering
- Who's Betty Schaefer?
- Betty's Office at Paramount
- Too Much in Love to Care
- New Ways to Dream (Reprise)
- Phone Call
- Final Scene
[edit] External links
- Boulevard (a comprehensive fansite)
- Andrew Lloyd Webber and his musical: Sunset Boulevard (An Andrew Lloyd Webber Site)
