Sunset Boulevard (musical)
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Sunset Boulevard is a musical with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Based on the 1950 film 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 young screenwriter 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.
The West End production, directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Bob Avian, opened at the Adelphi Theatre with Patti LuPone, Kevin Anderson, and Daniel Benzali. 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.
The American premiere was at the Shubert Theatre in Century City, Los Angeles, California, on December 9, 1993, with Glenn Close replacing LuPone as Norma and Alan Campbell as Joe. Featured were George Hearn as Max and Judy Kuhn as Betty. Lloyd Webber had reworked both the book and score, tightening the production, better organizing the orchestrations, and adding the song "Every Movie's A Circus". This new production was better received by the critics and was an instant success. The Los Angeles production also 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. It also starred Rex Smith as Joe, Walter Charles as Max and Anita Louise Combe as Betty (who went on to star in many leading musical roles in London.
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.)
Buckley later fell ill and was replaced for six weeks by understudy Alisa Endsley and then Elaine Paige. Buckley returned in early 1995 continuing in the role until May. Then Elaine Paige returned as Norma Desmond in the West End production. Petula Clark filled in for Paige during her holiday in September/October 1995, before taking over the role the following January. The last "star" to take on the role of Norma Desmond in London was Rita Moreno who filled in for a holidaying Clark in September and October 1996. The excellent reviews Clark garnered helped 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 opposite Lewis Cleale as Joe Gillis. This production featured Anthony Powell's Tony Award-winning costumes and a new, more tour-friendly set by Derek McLane. In 2004, Clark repeated her performance opposite Michael Ball 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 August 2001, a UK tour commenced in Plymouth starring Faith Brown as Norma Desmond, against Earl Carpenter as Joe Gillis. The show had a completely new set, much simpler than the original London set, but without compromising the quality of the show. Carpenter left the role of Joe midway through the door, citing the pressures of touring. There were rumours he had had a bust up with Brown. He was replaced by Jeremy Finch who had previously understudied the role. The tour finished in late 2002 in Manchester and had met with both excellent critical reviews and respectable ticket sales.
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 Connelli were considered for the role of Norma but it was eventually given to Byrne. In 2005, Judi Connelli 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, possibly due to the release of Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, according to the IMDB. [1]
Sunset Boulevard ranked 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 in the 1994 LA production
Act I
- 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)
Act II
- 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)
