Sunset Boulevard – Savoy Theatre 2023/24

I'm ambivalent towards the extended note but if there was any point in the show to be purely self-indulgent, 'home' is THE note. Cerebrally it really shouldn't be 18 seconds long but I'd be lying if I wasn't mightily impressed every time she pulled it off, before going into 'at laaaaaaast' in the same breath! By which point you've just got to hand it to her, and be swept along by everybody else's excitement at the feat.

Btw, 'Home' started off at just under 5 seconds at the first couple previews... how insane it got!

What I will say about Elena Roger - and this is from a big fan, so take it as you will.

I remember one of the reviews describing her voice an electric screwdriver - it made me laugh because it was true in a way. By the time she reached Broadway her voice was very tired. In town she had an alternate (Abbie Osmon who was superb replacing Laura Michelle Kelly in The Lord of the Rings) and another actress I forgot). On Broadway her vocals sounded tired and it didn’t help singing opposite Ricky Martin.

Broadway critics can be very malicious, but I can totally understand why this would potentially get a shoeing.

Broadway prices relative to West End prices are astronomical. There is just much more of an elite element to seeing shows on Broadway. They won’t be able to see the money on stage. Costumes. Sets. Glitz.

Nope.

The note we're all talking about. Mods please delete if not allowed.

https://www.tiktok.com/@sunsetblvdvids/video/7320610893216238880

As one who lives in the NY Metro area, just seeing the lavish praise that the US critics had for this Sunset in London dwarfed the praise they have had for the show in my memory. At best Sunset got "mixed-to-positive" reactions. Reading the NY Times, Washington Post among others practically begging them to bring the production out here, I think it will be very well received. As for the ticket prices, that's just an accepted reality as well. When I paid $300 a ticket for Hamilton, it mattered little to me that there was pretty much one set piece and not the most lavish of costumes/etc. The performance, the story, the music were top notch... Bad Cinderella - as much as I'm a huge ALW fan and liked some of the music from it, and from the looks of the production were more extensive than many others - I had really no interest even going for the great discounts that were offered. Hearing how many theatregoers from the US flew in just to see Sunset and came back raving about it - I think this will be the event of the 24-25 season and wouldn't be shocked if "Gypsy" gets delayed.

SO SELF INDULGENT!!! Absolutely loving that.

I wonder what Patti thinks….


Actually, I think we know

For me the note hold isn't the self-indulgence I think of in terms of the production, though I may have used the word. It's a feat and I admire and respect it, I don't get the point of the note hold past a certain point, but it doesn't matter to me. It would be a bit like going to the Grand Canyon and saying it's too big.

For me the self-indulgence is things like the monkey and the ALW cut out and the twerking... all the little touches that deliver a laugh but have nothing to do with advancing or supporting the time and place, which is why I've said I think the show needs to decide what it wants to be (and I hope I've been clear it isn't a massive distraction, but something I've noticed.) I just don't understand what things like the Pussycat dolls photo on the mirror is meant to contribute to the story of Sunset Boulevard. Maybe there's a subtext there about the power of the creatives, who can do as they please in creating: you want your stupid turban, here's your stupid turban, we're making art here. This is a really inventive show that, consulting my cliche machine, pushes the envelope and thinks outside the box. I would only suggest if it was a masterpiece, every step beyond and every innovation would have made sense and contributed to the whole.

I agree with you to a point but perhaps JL didn’t want to be quite so formal & po-faced? The ‘silliness’ is restricted to a very small portion of the show after all. The twerking & ‘dancing’ are different again as they’re a direct expression of Norma being who she is or wants to be seen as.

The expression on David Thaxton’s face when he was looking at that photo tickled me no end.

I don't see how anybody can consider it in character for a faded silent film star to be tweking in 1950, but OK.

&Juliet and What’s New Pussycat played with time shifting. Shakespeare is time shifted repeatedly. In fact you never see a Shakespeare in it’s original era nowadays.