Sunset Boulevard – Savoy Theatre 2023/24

I loved Dave Willetts

Mods have asked us not to quote-post long strings of a thread, which is why I've kept it to the last two comments.  But I'll manually quote in apubleed saying earlier
"I think ALW is garbage, including this show - which I think is a bloated boring mess." 
Interesting to then hear your expanded thoughts on that, above.

The only bit I've ever found bloated in Sunset Boulevard is the way it stays too long in Norma's reverie over the old movies.  I actually like 'New Ways to Dream' and the way Joe interrupts it with a reality check a couple of times, but it's all been said before in 'With One Look' and the dreamlike music of NWTD can actually be soporific.  For that reason when 'The Lady's Paying' arrives it feels a jolt and a new breath/style even within the mansion. But I can see that Lloyd wants to keep it all psychologically tight and not allow the outside freshness to come into Norma's world - other than Joe, who isn't so fresh anymore. 'The Lady's Paying' also has that reference to 'I own so many apartments' which unhelpfully suggests Norma has a bigger world than the mansion. I haven't seen Lloyd's version, but perhaps cutting 'The Lady's Paying' puts more emphasis onto really finding something new in 'New Ways To Dream' and Act 1 balances..

Totally hear that there was always some material you liked in Sunset Boulevard, but I can't imagine a production of anything being able to take me from 'garbage/bloated/boring' to truly enjoying a body of music. But fair play to Jamie Lloyd I guess.  Perhaps my biggest travel was 'Pippin' which I liked a lot more at Charing Cross than previous Southwark Playhouse (and every USA clip on youtube I've disliked).  That was about production, although I never loathed the music, but found the book annoying and trite originally which made the music/lyrics grating.

Thaxton the best Max ever which is saying a lot given how brilliant George Hearn was (amongst others), but his absolute singlemindedness writ large is something to behold as his voice is to hear - but then he and Lloyd are a dream team: Thaxton won his Olivier for starring as Giorgio in Lloyd's Donmar PASSION.

I'll be interested to know what they do that's "meta" for Tucker. Production photos from Wicked? Footage from I'd Do Anything?

NS Nasal? What!!!!

I just thought she had such a unpleasant voice when belting. Maybe not nasal per say but my god it grated on me and genuinely almost made me cover my ears.

God I thought she was magnificent!

Andrew…?

I am literally the last person to defend ALW (before I saw this I was team Betty Buckley till I die) but good GOD Scherzinger is...insane

Yes, this interested me too @bvm as I've seen a few great reviews of the current production calling it a reinvention of the "classic" musical - but don't remember it being lorded as such when it first opened. tbf I'd tuned out of ALW back then for political reasons, and when I grudgingly tried the OLC recording rather late I was astonished at the fresh jazzy sound and general audacity, so had to separate the art from the man.  So perhaps it was more praised than I'm aware of. Mark Shenton described it tonight as 'ALW's majestic 1993' show - but perhaps he was a fan even back then.  I guess 'classic' can mean simply 'old', and 'majestic' can mean a bit 'stately'.

Nevertheless it feels like it's taken the reinvention for it to be looked back on, by some, as a Classic.
Fitting perhaps, as Norma quibbles over how her renaissance should be described: "It's not a comeback - it's a return"

Maybe Tom/Joe could walk into her dressing room to find her using the microwave that was once famously gifted to her by a fan.

Here's what Ben Brantley said about the music in his review of the original Broadway production:
"Mr. Lloyd Webber's score is full of rich and swelling melodies, although the charge brought against the composer in years past holds true: when he latches onto an insinuating musical theme, there seems to be no such thing as one reprise too many. Norma's arrogant boast, "We gave the world/ New ways to dream," pops up all over the place."