Sunset Boulevard

Watched them unloading the kit into Newcastle Theatre Royal today.

Really looking forward to seeing this one evening this week.

I’m gagging for it. Are you going on opening night?

Hope you have a great night and enjoy the show.

Working this one tonight and Thursday, then in to see it as a paying punter on Friday. Beyond excited - I was a huge fan of the
Adelphi original, and loved the previous tour too with Faith Brown, one of the loveliest people I've ever met.

I remember working the merchandise stand for the whole run, and one night while I was restocking after the incoming a man came up and asked if we had any posters. I said not officially on sale, but I'm sure I could get one for him. He said "Thank you very much, that's very kind, I'm 'Mr Faith Brown', and we'd like to have a poster from every venue on the tour." I got him the poster and he took my name and address - at Christmas that year I got a card from them, and a lovely signed photo of Faith as Norma as thanks for my help!

Quite a looker

Went to town after work, the wind changed and I was blown into the box office, getting a great half priced seat.

Interval now. Enjoying it but the lugging of those staircases around every two minutes really is distracting!

So Ria is pretty fantastic as Norma. There were moments I felt she could have made the character more unpredictable but the way she played it actually worked well and I loved her voice,so strong and clear. Danny was good acting wise but I felt his voice wasn’t quite upto such a big score. He had this strange ability to make me not like him but like him at the same time.
Molly as Betty was very lovely indeed and I enjoyed Adam Pearce as Max. The stair case was cleverly split into 3pieces but it didn’t bother me how much they were moving it about. Very glad I saw this production I don’t feel like it’s a tour done on the cheap and it’s worth a look!

Wow. What a great show, and some fantastic performances. Having read on this thread about the whole 'film within a show' idea the set changes didn't bug me as much as they might have done otherwise - it fits having the 'crew' come and strike the set after each scene is filmed. Some really lovely uses of projection too, especially combined with the lighting for scenes such as Salome with red flames licking up the sides of the set. Even the car chase, which I've never really liked in any version I've seen, didn't seem too bad and works well as a filmed element (though they do need to oil the gear stick, it was squeaking like a tortured mouse every time it was moved!).

I loved the costumes, especially Norma's 'New Ways to Dream' one, and turbans were very much in evidence!

Ria was absolutely incredible as Norma. She went from fragile to bossy old boot to batsh*t crazy with such ease, and her voice was possibly the most suited to the score out of all the Normas I've seen. She brought the house down after 'With One Look' and 'As If We Never Said Goodbye', and quite rightly so.

Not knowing a great deal about Danny Mac I was really impressed with him both in terms of his acting and his singing. It's a big role to carry off, especially as he's hardly off stage, but I thought he did a really good job. Molly Lynch was great as Betty with a lovely singing voice, and the two of them performed 'Too Much In Love' beautifully.

The stand-out for me though was Adam Pearce as Max. I was't sure if he would be too young for the part, but once he started to sing... oh my! That beautiful deep, rich voice... goosebumps all over! I think it was the first time in my twelvety-something times of seeing the show that I've actually felt any kind of sympathy for Max, but Adam really brought a greater depth to the character, and his love for Norma was very evident. There was a lovely moment during 'New Ways' where Norma reaches out to Max and gently takes his hand, both of them caught up in the memory of their time together as actor and director.

All topped off by a superb ensemble and an orchestra which sounded as though it was 4 times the size it actually was, and it made for a fantastic evening of theatre, with a standing ovation on all levels to finish things off.

I'm looking forward to going back to see it in full on Friday with my other half and parents, who've never seen the show before or heard the score, and seeing what they make of it!

I've been excited to read how well the tour has been received. Sunset is one of my all time favorites, so seeing it having successful re-incarnations makes me hopeful that if they ever do the film with Glenn, perhaps that will spur interest in a full fledged, open-ended revival - especially now that some other directors have had stabs at it and shown how it can be done without the glorious production that we had the first time (I miss Napier's sets, but...)

In Leicester they had acrylic magnets, a mug, a set of postcards with the costume designs and a large costume print of Norma's dresses (the original Anthony Powell designs). Nice program too, no brochure yet though I'm told it will be available soon.

Bit weird to sell the Anthony Powell print when the costumes aren’t in the show. Feels a bit like the end of Bullseye... “look at what you could have won”

I guess there’s a lot of leftover stock after the Coliseum/Broadway.