Sunset Boulevard (ENO)

I'm booked for next Thursday and frankly, I'm happy to see either.

Is Ria Jones a rehearsed understudy or did they draught her in last minute because she knows the part and was available?

Rehearsed. 

Shes been gagging for this for the last 3 weeks

I just saw a pic of her curtain call on Twitter. What the hell was she wearing? Did she have the "perfect year" dress over the salome one?

Any links?

So, understudy stands in for much lauded but sickly star, and gets rave reviews. 

24 hours later star makes miraculous recovery and is back on stage.

Ring any bells? 

*cough*sarah brightman*cough*phantom*

Also when the stars photo, basically a headshot, is on all the advertising and is as big as the logo.

Considering the whole point of these musicals was to help increase the eno audience this kind of bad taste won't get people returning any time soon

I have very little sympathy for people who think the position of the name of the star entitles them to see the star in the role no matter how unwell the star in question may be. If you literally don't understand how live theatre works, and that sometimes people get too ill to do their job, then you definitely don't deserve a refund. People are not machines. You may book to see the star but PEOPLE ARE NOT MACHINES. You may think the producers are legally obliged to give refunds or exchanges if the absent star is above the name (this is not true, not even on Broadway; they do it there as a goodwill gesture, not because they are obliged to) but PEOPLE ARE NOT MACHINES.

Besides, what's the difference? What if the poster was just the show logo, and the posters said "SUNSET BOULEVARD with GLENN CLOSE" rather than "GLENN CLOSE in SUNSET BOULEVARD"? Are you honestly saying people would in that situation say "well, I booked to see Glenn Close, but it's my own silly fault for being disappointed, this is fine"? People are going to book to see particular cast members wherever they are on the poster, and you can put someone's name below the title but that doesn't magically make them not a major Hollywood star who people are going to book specifically to see. If you think about it for half a minute, it makes absolutely no sense that the star's name being above the show's name makes a sudden massive difference. Hell, if it did, producers would NEVER put the star above the title, because if there was this legal loophole, why in the hell would the money people not exploit it for their own ends instead of leaving it there for disgruntled audience members to exploit? This is the same idiot logic that makes people think they should legally be allowed to not have to pay 5p for a carrier bag because it's got the shop's logo on the side therefore counts as advertising, even as they wear their Nike trainers and chat on their Apple iPhones which they bought with their own money.

Anyway. Speaking as an individual, I think it would have been the done thing to at least offer exchanges (I'm choosing to ascribe no weight to the rumours that Close is expected to be off for the rest of the run), but the person sitting at the box office doesn't get to make that decision, not even the one who has "manager" written on their name badge, and anyone who has been rude about that either in person or online deserves to step on Lego bricks in their bare feet every day for the rest of the year.

IT IS LIVE THEATRE AND PEOPLE ARE NOT MACHINES.

I saw that Phantom documentary a while back too, where the bitchy chorus girls made that claim. Of course, the BIG difference is that Sarah Brightman could actually *cough* sing *cough* so she had nothing to fear with Claire Moore going on at all. (In fact, she's gone on to make a highly successful career as a recording artist beyond the world of Musical Theatre and spends a lot of time performing fairly spectacular shows around the world.) 

I'd imagine Glenn Close's indisposition is due to the strain on her vocal chords, if the reports we have been reading on here this past week are correct. I dare say she (and the producers) will have been realistic when contracts were signed, admitting that she might have to miss performances for whatever reason, and this is why an understudy has been put in place. (The Madonna/no Madonna comparison is no comparison as far as I'm concerned. That is something altogether different, and this is why we often hear of pop/rock concerts being cancelled.) I would also imagine Ria Jones knew EXACTLY what she was signing up for too- apart from most nights watching the telly and texting her mates in her dressing room: the fact that IF she had to go on it would not go down well with many in the audience.

I sympathise with the people who were disappointed by Glenn's absence last night; I too have been in the position where I would have been gutted to miss a particular artist in a role (much as I LOVED Victoria Wood, it was Julie Walters I wanted to see in Acorn Antiques the Musical. Funnily enough I booked my third pair of tickets for Aspects of Love when it was on at the Prince of Wales just to see Sarah Brightman. When it was announced she was off, the producers kindly offered to exchange my tickets for another date...) 

I'm not bothered about seeing Glenn myself, so I won't be booing Ria Jones if she's on for my show. But I do hope she makes a full recovery and returns to the show as soon as possible, so that those who really wanted to see her in the role can.

Putting the Glenn/Ria issue aside for one moment - do people think Norma Desmond is ALW's most iconic female role?

The fierce opinions, controversy and backstage drama concerning who is/isn't appearing has forever been a huge issue for Sunset Boulevard. This is not the same for Christine in Phantom. Even in Evita there was never this level of drama!

What's different about Sunset? It really is his only show where the star can sometimes be seen as bigger than the show!

You are exactly right - ALW never conceives his shows as star vehicles - the show is always very much the star. 

But it has ended up being the key to Sunset's lack of longevity (when compared with his monster hits).  Patti LuPone was unknown to anyone in the UK apart from West End theatre enthusiasts, and the show was sold off the back of his name, and the film.

That all changed when he employed La Close, and also created a monster where the public expectation was that a star should play Norma.  This was replicated in London when Elaine Paige took over - a musical theatre star who had long since transcended the West End bubble (one of its very few breakout stars in fact) and had been a household name since the late 70's.