SUNSET BLVD - SPECTACLE RULES

This review was written for the German magazine Blickpunkt Musical for which Mr. Dwyer is US reviewer.

When the aging, German-born, legendary Hollywood screenwriter and director Billy Wilder finally relented and agreed to attend the 1994 Broadway premier of the musical version of his classic 1950 film noir, Sunset Boulevard, he regarded the whole enterprise as “silly”. One can't imagine what Wilder would make of the minimalist, ultimately ghoulish, revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical, which has opened on Broadway after its Olivier-winning West End run. It’s camp, on a spectacular scale.

Under the uber-theatrical reconception of British director Jamie LLoyd, this version thrillingly and uniquely combines elements of opera, cinema, choreography and videography . WIlder's original story is pretty much intact, adapted for Weber by Dan Black and Christopher Hampton.

Washed-up, silent screen star Norma Desmond (Nicole Scherzinger, formerly of the Pussycat Dolls) lives in a state of delusion, sequestered in a Beverly Hills mansion with her manservant Max von Mayerling (David Thaxton). A young, hunky struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis (Tom Francis) happens on her secluded premises; soon he’s conscripted to doctor her screenplay of “Salome” which she fantasizes Cecil B, De Mille will direct her in, restoring her to screen glory.

Joe continues work on his own, “serious” screenplay with the girl-next-door support of studio reader Betty Schaefer (Grace Hodgett Young). Ultimately, Joe becomes Norma’s gigolo, all the while falling in love with Betty. After Norma’s pathetic visit to DeMille’s set, the delusions of her career comeback and Joe’s love crack open. Her breakdown does not end well for Joe, as we know.

For all its grandeur, ironically, the set design is spare - a bare stage, with performance spaces defined by dramatic “black and white” lighting (Jack Knowles), which sets the film noir mis en scene. Soute Gilmore’s costumes mirror the same black and white scheme (she did both costume and set); Norma’s single costume a slinky, black slip which drips from Scherzinger’s slinky frame, has a silver sheen. Fabian Aloise’s choreography isn’t so much dance; it's more stage movement (much of it body on floor). The company serves as Greek chorus to not only witness events, but also in its ensemble movement to propel the narrative forward. Stage-operated videocams, project close ups on a 23’ screen backdrop, all in black and white.

New orchestrations by David Cullen and Weber are marvelous, accentuating the sweep of Weber’s glorious (sometimes soupy) score. Two numbers from Webber’s original score have been cut - “The Lady’s Paying” and “Eternal Youth”. This Sunset Boulevard has three show-stoppers each eliciting standing ovations. In Act 1’s “With One Look” (as in her other numbers) Scherzinger, given her pop-group background, introduces contemporary vocal styles, but it all works. Equally compelling is Act 2’s “As If We Never Said Goodbye”; Scherzinger doesn’t play it (as some Normas have) in a trance, but as a woman on the edge of nervous breakdown. In a word, Schersinger’s performance is electrifying.

From the point of view of musical production, the standout number is “Sunset Boulevard” which is presented as a live tracking shot - with live orchestrations and vocals - beginning with Tom Francis leaving his dressing room and navigating backstage hallways and stairwell crowded with cast through the bowels of the St, James Theatre, out and across 44th Street (where some of the company joins him), then back into the theater and down the aisle, to conclude Joe’s number on stage. It runs over 6 minutes; Francis’ athleticism and cinematographers Natan Amzi and Joe Ransom’s logistics are jaw-dropping. Kudo’s, too, to David Thaxton as Max, whose deep baritone lends “She’s the Greatest Star’ a gravitas unheard before.

The dark of this Sunset Boulevard gets some relief, in flashes of humor and self-conceit. When Joe leaves his dressing room to take his place for the opening of Act 2, he’s watching the movie Sunset Boulevard, with footage of Gloria Swanson. On the stairs, he passes a life size cardboard cutout of Webber himself. When he goes by Max’s dressing room, Max is wasting time watching porn.

In the end, macabre prevails. In this Sunset Boulevard, Norma doesn’t just clutch a pistol , she wields a knife with the other hand. This Sunset Boulevard is spectacular from beginning to end.