Sunset Boulevard – Savoy Theatre 2023/24

I know.  While I really wanted to believe it was all live, I was looking for giveaways/indicators to suggest it was pre-recorded or lip-synched. Serves me right for being cynical - I'm just jealous that I'm not clever or smart enough to work out the logistics and contingency planning for such an incredible undertaking.  It is an absolutely astonishing achievement.   I now really want to see when it is bucketing down and Tom Francis decides to grab a "Sunset Blvd" branded black hoodie or brolly to keep himself dry on his wander...

Tom said they have people with umbrellas following them just in case.

SUNSET BOULEVARD: The film of the film of the filmed film filmed by Jamie Lloyd

It's very unlikely to get filmed, Paramount owns all screen rights which pretty much prevents any sort of NT Live showings. 

I'm tempted to go along one evening and stand outside to watch how it's done.

I imagine people will actually start doing this. If so I hope it doesn't get out of hand causing them to have to rethink the staging of it.

Thats true.

I can’t really understand where you’re going with this.

IMHO producers can produce whatever they want directed by who and in which ever style they want. The public can then decide whether to by tickets or not.

I don’t think you can say producers should be restricted to only putting on what Joe Public “expects.”

And the fact that this is reimagined is literally on the front page of the website.

(Plus even if it’s NOT what you were expecting, I can’t recall the last time an ALW musical had such good word of mouth online, so anecdotally most people who weren’t expecting what they got seem to be pleasantly surprised).

Looking at the Curve website, it was restricted somewhat to 36 countries and not in North America so I suspect since it was a one-off due to the pandemic, it was allowed by Paramount. 

One thing to point out was that it was a concert version rather than a full production.

Either way, staged or not, the new show seems to bear very little similarity with the movie so that shouldn’t be a barrier. It’s more likely to encourage interest in the original than diminish it surely? Unless Paramount think this version is so awful that it would sully the original’s reputation.

I have to be honest, as much as I like stage-to-screen recordings, I am not sure that this one would transfer well. Reason being is that the scale of the minimal set, giant screen, the big close-ups and zooms would probably not work in a cinematic form. The reason this production works (for me) is due to the switches between stage and screen - literally, the close-ups, the final zoom in to Norma at the end, the use of bright white screen with silhouetted actors on stage, the side-on camera shots of actors playing out to the audience and vice versa, the chorus aspect, the linear staging, the forced perspective/tunnel effect created by the rear stage lighting, the use of smoke and light and the way it envelopes people, the fourth dimension element of roving camera operators, the wall of sound that has been created through the sound design. All of these elements (and many more) are what makes this an astonishing piece of theatre - the director has left gaps that are subsequently filled by the audience interpretation and imagination. To try and switch this to a cinematic form could work, I guess (with the right people), but I think a lot would be lost if it did. It would feel quite Hitchcockian.

…and if people don’t know, but have their interest piqued…internet. Its not like any of this is a secret. People that are sufficiently interested go and find out. In the past they went to the library and flicked through back issues & looked on microfiche for old reviews. Now, if they really cared, they’d do a bit of research rather than letting their privilege ‘expect’ what it was like.