Sunset Boulevard (ENO)

I'm going tomorrow too. Not sure if I'm excited or scared.

I have to agree. His styling looks all wrong. And I hope he can pull off the darker edgy side to joe, michael always seems a bit too smiley and clean cut

Maybe that's the only reason she got the part this time, because she had the clobber 

Like Norma with the car 

They are using only the entrance dress (no turban) and the "perfect year" one in act one.

Young Norma Desmond is literally the worst idea ever.

I've just seen the show tonight and it was great. It sounds really wonderful.. The orchestra that is. The voices are undermiked at times and sometimes it all sounds a little'small' but overall it's a real pleasure to hear that score played by a full orchestra.

And what a score it is. Pretty sublime.

Michael Xavier was pretty good.. Horrible costumes though. And I wish he'd keep his top on. His 'muscles' just look weird- like he's had implants. He has all this ab/moob bulbage and no arm muscles at all. It was really distracting actually (in a bad way). Though the show queens next to us were very easily pleased by it.

Siobhan Dillon was lovely ..

Fred Johnson(?) playing Max was fabulous.

There were some dodgy staging moments- I could do without the 'Young Norma' doing her drifting around bit and the hanging body of Joe was just BAD. Having it hang up in the air all night was so clunky.

However... GLENN CLOSE.
What a superstar. Her slightly unsteady voice only added to the character, and when it's called for, boy can she deliver the money notes. Her 2 big solos were true showstoppers. It's not an Imelda level jaw dropper of a performance but she is pretty sensational in it. Camp .. Funny.. Glamorous .. Heartbreaking.

I have a strong feeling she will get absolute raves for this- and deserves them.

Maybe this could lead to a musical film adaptation? After he was so impressed by the way the Australian production of Love Never Dies was filmed, Lloyd Webber has publicly stated that he wants all of his shows to be filmed.

Just a thought.

I'm seeing this with BurlyBear Friday week.

Glenn C has said in numerous interviews that is the idea... To get the show back in the public a consciousness and then make the movie.

Yes yes yes.

Jake Gylenhaal as Joe please.

Loved it. Chris Hampton and Don Black were on the audience. I didn't spot Lloyd Webber. The set is joined black metallic staircases across the stage. Orchestra lush and sounds marvelous. Huge ovation for Close's first entrance. She sounds pretty much the same as she did twenty years ago with slight shortness of breath. Her Norma is funny, bonkers and terrifying and had the audience at the palm of her hands at all times. A few line flubs.

The paramount scene is spine tingling and very emotional. They use a car-can't tell if it's the same one from the original production. Few lyric changes in Too Much In Love to Care.

Michael Xavier slightly hammy and phony. Arches his back a lot and opens his arms wide. Totally bankrupt of originality, cynicism, and was a bit too showbizzy and hammy. He's in slightly better shape, but from my second row seat, I got second hand embarrassment seeing make up around his abdominal and chest. I was very happy when he put the robe on and continued the song, which I thought could have had more grit and grunt. It was too smooth for it to be convincing. Fred was fantastic, and Shivaun was wonderful. I normally don't like soprano ingenue types, but this girl has a lovely voice. I thought she was miscast in Ghost, but she was wonderful in Miss Saigon and here.

"I spent the last month fasting" Joanna is obese; it was very funny. Through the show there is a young Norma that appears and walks across the stage, which I think worked in concept but not in execution.

Overall it's a fantastic and very engaging staged concert where they proved it really was a solid show that wasn't just a big and impressive set.

I bought myself a program and 19/100 framed autographed Anthony Powell Norma Desmond costume design sketches which I am adding to my Norma Desmond shrine.

There's an interesting article about Sunset Boulevard in the archives of The Stage

www.thestage.co.uk/features/2016/the-archive-sunset-boulevard-ready-for-another-close-up/?utm_content=buffer093a5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Oh, Ryan, that wasn't you applauding as Michael Xavier climbed it of the pool, was it? Loved the dropping his shorts under the dressing gown and Max collecting with a white glove ...

I liked it, but didn't love it... a bit of a mixed bag for me. The orchestra was wonderful (apart from the trumpet), too bad they had to play some really dull bits like "Let's Have Lunch". Glenn Close has never been much of a singer and she didn't turn into Betty Buckley, but she wasn't worse than 20 years ago and her performance was magnificent. Honestly, by the beginning of the second act I was very disappointed by most of the things I saw untill then, but her "As if we never said goodbye" healed all my bitterness. It was really, really sensational, I had tears in my eyes since the spotlight hit her. And her performance in the final part was incredible as well.

Michael Xavier is a funny Joe, enjoyable but with no instrospection or anger. His rendition of the title song was lovely, in "Too Much in Love to Care" he couldn't really hit the note. Betty was fine (a part from her costume in the first scene, but you can hardly blame her), but it's a thankless, underdevolped role so it's impossible to shine. Max was strong in the lower notes, but his "fade" in "The Greatest Star of All" was, well, not on point. Quite enjoyed his performancem, tho.

Apart from the sensational Glenn Close, there are no really other memorable performances and the direction didn't help at all. It was quite bad, imo, with some really tacky decisions (the dead body of Joe over the stall all the time, the F*CKING Young Norma just to name the worst bits). Still, quite enjoyable and occasionally fabulous.

★★★½