Alone in the dark, with little more than her celluloid memories, Norma Desmond remains what she has always been- the greatest star of all. Now, she has reclaimed the spotlight once more.
Glenn Close returns to Broadway in the tour de force performance that earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress- and a place in Broadway history- in Sunset Boulevard.
Featuring a 40-piece orchestra, the largest in Broadway history, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning masterwork of dreams and desire in the land called Hollywood comes to the Palace Theatre for 16 weeks only following a sold out run in London's West End.
There aren't many circumstances in which I'd use the phrase 'bare bones' to characterize a musical that boasts, among other big gestures, a 40-piece orchestra-incidentally, it's said to be the largest to play on Broadway in 80 years. Yet 'stripped down' and 'spare' are the words that come to mind when considering 'Sunset Boulevard,' the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that this month returns powerhouse star Glenn Close to Broadway as silent-screen recluse Norma Desmond, a role that earned her a Tony 22 years ago. This revival, directed by Lonny Price and now open at the Palace Theatre, was staged last year in London by the English National Opera. The entire West End cast has made the journey to New York, and be assured: aside from the enormous orchestra-and perhaps a bulbous chandelier that makes the one from 'Phantom' seem like a toddler's night light-there's little here to distract from Close's mesmerizing Norma, or Lloyd Webber's pop friendly score.
Not so Ms. Close. To be sure, she is 69, much older than the 50-year-old character whom she plays, but that doesn't matter in the least. If anything, her greater age makes Norma's plight all the more pitiable, and Ms. Close's performance, by turns adamantine and childishly needy, is as memorable in its own way as was that of Gloria Swanson in the movie. No, the fundamental problem with turning 'Sunset Boulevard' into a musical is that it is perfect, a fact that is well understood by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, whose book is largely faithful to the Wilder-Charles Brackett script, give or take a sprinkling of superfluous four-letter words (though their lyrics are sing-songy and ill-crafted). The truth is that 'Sunset Boulevard' doesn't need songs, or anything else that it doesn't already have in abundance. Saving Ms. Close's presence, to change anything at all is necessarily to diminish the film's overwhelming effect.
1993 | West End |
Original London Production West End |
1993 | Regional (US) |
Los Angeles Production Regional (US) |
1994 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
1995 | Canada |
Toronto Production Canada |
1996 | US Tour |
1st National Tour US Tour |
1998 | US Tour |
2nd National Tour US Tour |
2004 | London Fringe |
London Concert Revival London Fringe |
2016 | West End |
English National Opera West End Revival West End |
2017 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
2023 | West End |
West End |
2024 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical | Mark Henderson |
2017 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Sunset Boulevard |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | Sunset Boulevard |
2017 | Theatre World Awards | John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater | Glenn Close |
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