Sunset Boulevard...- Page 4
Sunset Boulevard...
#75re: Sunset Boulevard...
Posted: 7/3/08 at 4:37am
Just to add to lepetitefromage's post:
I feel sorry for Mr.DeMille. Poor guy can't get Norma off his back!
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.- Bette Davis
#76re: Sunset Boulevard...
Posted: 7/3/08 at 10:57amJudy Kuhn wasn't a casualty of this show. She didn't come to Broadway with it because she got pregnant. I like Judy but am more than happy she bowed out as it gave Alice Ripley a chance to take on a large role.
<-- Tevye, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, March 2018
stanton
Featured Actor Joined: 3/8/06
#77re: Sunset Boulevard...
Posted: 7/3/08 at 3:16pmI herd She wasn't asked to come to Broadway to begin with which didn't matter because she was pregnut. Plus if they wanted her back as Betty then why didn't she come later on in the Broadway tun?
I wish I could sing.
stanton
Featured Actor Joined: 3/8/06
#78re: Sunset Boulevard...
Posted: 7/4/08 at 2:10amIf a movie ever gets made of SB I doubt now they would cast Glenn Close. I have a feeling that if MAMA MIA is a huge hit Meryl Streep is going to be Norma Desmond but who will be Joe & Betty?
I wish I could sing.
LePetiteFromage
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/19/08
Muhlethaler
Featured Actor Joined: 10/13/06
#81re: Sunset Boulevard...
Posted: 7/4/08 at 3:35pm
The difference between the London and American recordings is obvious just from looking at the orange/grey covers. I much prefer Patti LuPone and Kevin Anderson on the recordings as the London production sounds to be about real people in an unreal situation rather than the more OTT gothic charade that the musical sounds to be on the American recording. Glenn Close sounds like Margaret Thatcher when she was going through her softer-more-caring phase - maybe they used the same voice coach! I still enjoy listening to Glenn but she's funny and horrific, as opposed to Patti's diva-trying-not-to-look-down.
I also have a soft spot for Faith Brown (who had been a Thatcher impressionist earlier in her career) on the UK tour recording.
I'm going to see West End stalwart Kathryn Evans in an actor-musician production at the Watermill, where a lot of John Doyle's productions started out, in a couple of weeks. I'm really looking forward to this although I'm smiling wryly because ALW didn't used to allow directors to tamper with his musicals, but is obviously showing his "naked Sondheim envy" again.
LePetiteFromage
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/19/08
#84re: Sunset Boulevard...
Posted: 7/4/08 at 4:04pm
I like Glenn's Norma, but my mother hates it. Patti really nails the singing, but Glenn is just somehow so much more believable as a crazy old has-been to me. No offence, Glenn! Mum hates the way she sings "be me" though, so will only listen to Patti. XD
I too am going to the actor-musician 'Sunset Boulevard'! But, like, two weeks after Scrippsy. 
But I got my mother to pay for the tickets, so it's ALL good. 
Updated On: 7/4/08 at 04:04 PM
#85re: Sunset Boulevard...
Posted: 8/9/08 at 12:34pm
Review of the actor/musician production of Sunset Boulevard at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, Berkshire, UK.
This is a slightly edited version of a post already made on the West End board but has been posted here in response to my promise to the charming and friendly LePetiteFromage. If anyone wishes to know more please follow the link...
https://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.cfm?thread=972386&dt=18&boardid=3
It was going to be interesting to see if an ALW musical would bear the scrutiny of a small-scale production and this one does very well. You notice the ropey bits of writing in the same way you do on the recording but there aren’t that many of them and this is one of the better musicals to have an ALW score. I don’t think the actor/musician concept added anything to the show in the way I felt it did with Mack and Mabel and was simply used as a device to squeeze a big musical into a very small and intimate theatre. The actors tended to sit on the sides or were unseen offstage when playing them and I read somewhere there were 11 instruments, which is more than I was expecting and so the score still sounded very lush.
The set consisted of a revolving spiral staircase that descended into the organ pipes of Norma’s instrument (the keyboard sat in amongst those pipes looked suspiciously like an electric organ) and was set against a large backdrop of an early black-and-white film star. The car chase was a bit feeble but the enormous mansion was not missed, not even during the New Year’s Eve party scene where Craig Revel Horwood’s staging had Norma icily focussed, walking through her mansion whilst the party happens elsewhere in slow motion around her. There were 12 in the cast, Kathryn Evans as Norma Desmond being the only cast member I didn’t see playing an instrument. As posted elsewhere on this site, this West End veteran is so ripe and ready for this role and she certainly made the most of it. The revelatory moment for me in her performance was not in the singing or the acting but in a small instant prior to As If We Never Said Goodbye when Norma has returned to the studio and is caught in the hustle and bustle with scenery and cameras and lights flying everywhere. She is enjoying the excitement of it all immensely, like a child at Christmas, when suddenly from nowhere a microphone swings directly in front of her face and the expression of pleasure and delight suddenly turns to one of abject horror and she immediately pushes the thing away. If that was in the London production I certainly didn’t notice it and only spotted it here from my seat over the stage as Kathryn was facing away from much of the audience at the time. In her performance it was one of those instances where something very small manages to achieve something revelatory.
Ben Goddard as Joe Gillis played woodwind and electric organ and was possibly not quite world-weary enough for the role but that’s a small complaint. Thom Coles was in there as Artie Green being talented, talented and gorgeous (as he was in Mack and Mabel) – this guy so knows how to sit on a swimming pool handrail. And, as posted by others on the West End board, much more was made here of the Joe/Betty relationship and that in no small way to do with Laura Pitt-Pulford’s performance in the role, wringing every last depth of emotion out of her character.
It was my first time at this now internationally renowned theatre and it perhaps wasn’t as idyllic as it sounds but that was possibly because of all the building work going on. However I’ll definitely be going back should a future season include something of interest.
jimmycurry01
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/05
#86re: Sunset Boulevard...
Posted: 8/9/08 at 5:53pm
Sunset Boulevard did thrive on Broadway for a very healthy run of three years. It was however a very costly show with the law suit as well as weekly running costs and never made back its initial investment. Whether it made back the investment or not, a three year run with 977 regular performances is nothing to balk at.
With Patti in the show there would not have been the expensive law suit and perhaps would have had a better chance at making the money back, but it still cost a fortune to run.
philly03
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/20/07
#87re: Sunset Boulevard...
Posted: 8/9/08 at 6:11pm
Sunset flopped pretty badly if I recall correctly. And it really wasn't a healthy 3 years. The run was I believe almost entirely sold out (if not all together) until Glenn Close left, and it went down to a modest crowd and by the time that Elaine Paige (who is my favourite Norma!) came, the numbers went further down and it couldn't support the funds too well. Actually, if it had begun it's run 10 years later I think it could have possibly run longer, especially with the big ticket price jump-ish!
And in regards to Judy Kuhn, as much as I liked Alice, I am a huge Judy Kuhn fan at heart so I always prefered her! Judy obviously had some of her best times going on around 93-97; Sunset American premiere, baby, Pochantas movie, Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert, King David concert/thing on Broadway, first solo CD, & more. I'm also guessing she didn't want to get the "seconds" of Alice Ripley, who also got good reviews for the role. I'm sure Alice Ripley (like Alan Campbell) didn't want to leave the show either and they had no problem keeping her around!
LePetiteFromage
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/19/08
stanton
Featured Actor Joined: 3/8/06
#89re: Sunset Boulevard...
Posted: 8/10/08 at 2:07amWell I wish I had more footage from Patti doing Norma. I think if Patti "Did a Return to Norma" it would be a huge event. I think Patti LuPone would never do it. Plus I think ALW would never allow it.
I wish I could sing.
#90re: Sunset Boulevard...
Posted: 8/10/08 at 2:00pmPerhaps after Equs, we can get Kate Mulgrew to star as Norma....
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