Sunset Boulevard – Savoy Theatre 2023/24

Wouldn't be surprised if it's to do with the album release as New York is getting a Dolby Atmos listening event as part of the Box Five Club on Friday (www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sunset-blvd-the-album-exclusive-listening-event-tickets-1040694995747)

So would match up if they do an event within the Savoy for it.

It'll be something to do with the album. I can't see Mean Girls going anywhere soon.

I’m ‘lucky’ enough to have a signed Cinderella vinyl so can happily give this the swerve.

Think I’ll stick with my signed World Premiere recording of Sunset, starring a proper Norma.

OK Dearie.

Would she be a proper Norma is she was in a turban with a chimp? Is it just the staging and direction that make her not proper or is it fundamentally Nicole herself? Because putting all of the trappings of JL’s production aside I don’t think her acting or singing could be faulted.

pray tell what a 'proper Norma' is, then (:

THAT’S Normal Desmond, THAT’S Norma Desmond 😃

Those things were directions though, yes they might be directions that suit NS own back story but if, for example, we replaced Sarah Brightman with Nicole in that very traditional Australian version, would she work?

The beauty of theatre is reinterpretation otherwise it'd just be Gloria Swanson impersonations until the end of time. The fact Jamie Lloyd broke from the Norma (boom boom) of what Sunset Boulevard should be like is why it was so well received in London.

No, I mean if we put Nicole into THAT production instead of Brightman. Could NS play a “traditional” Norma?

Norma can be a variety of people, but it's a character, a creation of the actress playing her. When someone is just playing a hyper realised version of themselves, that to me isn't acting or a proper character. That's just them, it's Nicole as Nicole. So many former pop stars have been slated on here for weak performances and just being themselves, there is a level of hypocrisy here.

Im not saying the production wasnt good, or didnt work for what it was (although it was too jokey for my liking). But it wasnt a great acting performance from Nicole for me.


Also it wasn't me that used the term 'proper Norma' originally.

Glad to see this forum didn't let me down, predictable as ever when others disagree with the main opinion 🙄🤣

Pop stars are equally a character created by their backers/coaches/managers/stylists/agents/etc.- unless you can say you know Nicole beyond her artistic persona- I'd argue that a hyper-realised version of Nicole the pop star *is* a character. The 'mugging', the exaggeration- has been discussed over the last 50 pages of this thread at least.

Whether or not it's a great acting performance depends on how much one knows about Nicole's CV and the similarities between her past personas and her Norma. 

What you call hypocrisy here is tricky for this specific work and production when the meta aspect is the very essence that makes the show click so powerfully with audiences who did resonate with it.