Sunset Boulevard - Alexandra Palace / RAH

Prompters needed for a professional show at a prestigious venue. That's a bit shocking I think.

Judging by Twitter, people are being "upgraded" when they get there.

I bought a £15 standing room ticket about an hour before the show and got upgraded to stalls.

Also didn’t notice anyone using a script? Unless they were supposed to be holding a script in context of the show.

I didn’t see any sort of prompt for anyone on stage tonight. Also, it looks like they were moving people from the top level down, as that was basically empty - however the rest of the house seemed fairly filled.

As for the show itself - WOW. That was pretty incredible. I’d never seen Mazz before so I had no idea what to expect and she did NOT disappoint. Her vocals were out of the world and she just completely nailed her portrayal of Norma.

And then there’s Ramin. Ah, Ramin.
Say it loud and there's music playing,
Say it soft and it's almost like praying.

Maybe the best Joe I’ve ever seen. I wish we could have a cast recording with this cast because I’d listen to it nonstop.

That's good to hear.  They didn't deserve to fall flat - as probably had some investment to make up from Alexandra Palace, but ...wow calm the risk down next time.  Plus it's gone in a flash - could have done a week and made a bigger mark (ironically, in a smaller place).

Great to hear the leads were so strong.  Perhaps we'll see this mutate, if not grow, as a production.

They did at Ally Pally, so yes.

Thank you so much to the posters above who mentioned there was a programme. I managed to ask a friend who was seeing the RAH to get me one, which will make up for the lack of one entirely at Ally Pally.

Sounds like this was a lot more refined than what was essentially a glorified dress rehearsal at AP.

Did they still use that bizarre lyric change in 'Girl Meets Boy'? Was the orchestra rehearsed this time? Did Cecil B DeMille have a costume to wear? How was the sound balance? 

So many questions...

Also I think they were comping/giving out freebies eventually. Seen a few big names mention it on social media and the posts suggested they were basically hospitality guests. They really ought to have known that at those prices it was never going to fill well.

This is astonishing. It was bad enough that they hadn't learnt it for Alexandra Palace but at those prices they STILL couldn't be bothered to learn the lines? It's not as if it's a hard show to learn; it's not exactly Sondheim. 

There were two “auto-cue” screens at the front of the stage, so that can’t be disputed. However, I didn’t really notice them being used, and I only heard a few wrong lyrics, and they were mostly the odd wrong word rather than anything major.

There were definitely screens, despite your denial, and perhaps your idea and hers of what constitutes a "mistake" is different. I don't know, I wasn't there. If I recording appears, I'll check it out. I certainly wasn't going to pay hundreds of pounds for this though!!

Caught a clip on you tube really didn’t like her closing speech etc seemed to be shouting all the lines …. Clips I saw at AP she seemed a lot better
I still loved Katherine evens portrayal a few years go

The podcast I mentioned upthread The Sunset Project covers several Normas, with nice little clips, including the stories behind Patti and Glenn, Faye Dunaway, Diahann Caroll (who ALW didn’t want for the Toronto production) Debra Byrne, and a fabulous sounding German actress. It’s a lot of fun if you haven’t listened yet. ALW and RUG don’t come out of it well!