Sunset Boulevard – Savoy Theatre 2023/24

Kind of gutted I miss it by a few days not in London again until the 9th January

Has Joe been cast?

He is just as important as Norma to me, and is so often cast weakly. Hope to know who it is before tickets go on sale

Perhaps we spoke / assumed too soon - I’ve just had an email from ATG confirming the presale time, but also mentioning it includes exclusive tickets for ATG TheatreCard members only.

So it looks like there’s a ringfenced allocation for members. Whether they’ll be on the dates / at the price bands we want though is anyone’s guess!

Thanks A.Ham - I've not received my email yet... is it a special link for ATG card holders?

Entirely separate to my knowledge - I don't know who is Joe, I just know it's been cast

Jamie Lloyd has a knack for getting performances out of people that perfectly complement his vision for the production – so I expect he will pull off the same thing here. 

With regards to "the new generation of MT fans" – is NS really a star draw any more? Who knows. I feel as though that argument only just about held water for Cats. 

It's only a dozen years since a silent movie won just about every award going. The Artist made a lot of people more aware of the silent era, so assuming everyone young is ignorant of film history is pretty misguided.

I've always thought the libretto is very light on mention of exactly what was wrong with Norma when the talkies arrived. Presumably that's why they rewrote the intro to 'With One Look' as the first is a bit elliptical and relies on knowledge of the phenomenon to get what the lyrics are saying:
"There was a time in this business you wouldn't remember, we had the eyes of the whole wide world, but that wasn't good enough for those Einstein's in the front office, they wanted the ears of the world as well"
The rewrite is clearer, but it's the show's only clear statement on it:
"Once upon a time not long ago the head of any studio new how and when to play his aces, not they put some talentless unknown beneath their sacred microphone, we didn't need words we had faces........they took away the gold of silence, when all they needed was this face of mine".

Later, Max: "Talkies came; I stayed with her, took up this life" doesn't underline it much.

I guess the writing team were skirting mention of Norma having a voice or acting style that didn't work for talkies, as the singing requirements of the role suggest she's just fine - though Glen Close and Betty Buckley's 'old fashioned' style plays into it usefully. You'd think world weary/cynical Joe might go into it more, but it would need to be early rather than when he literally chucks Norma's reality back at her at the end. Perhaps there's a version of 'Sunset Boulevard' in a parallel universe where all Norma's lines are sung on note.

You really do overestimate the general public...