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Post by chernjam on Apr 22, 2024 19:46:15 GMT
Enjoyed this book lately, found it by accident, already two years old, but never heard of it. Murder at the Adelphi: A rehearsal diary of the original London production of the musical ‘Sunset Boulevard’ by Peter Gale www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Adelphi-rehearsal-production-Boulevard/dp/1802275207Very detailed rehearsal diary of the original production, details a lot of changes to the show during rehearsals / previews / after. Also a lot of gossip / details about the LuPone / ALW-clash that developed. Entertaining read. Oh wow -after listening to Michael Riedel's podcast that had audio interviews with ALW, Patti and Glenn, which helped flesh out what he had previously written in book form - am surprised to find another Sunset thing like this that has been off the radar for me! Looking forward to downloading it tonight. Although I really have a lot of work to do, I can see being sidetracked by this pretty easily
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Post by chernjam on Apr 16, 2024 20:13:59 GMT
It’s doing an extended run in New York too and with the huge St. James to fill and a fairly recent production of Sunset in NY, I imagine tickets may be a little easier to come by over there, especially in the winter months. Broadway ticket buying habits have moved to very last minute with tickets for even Cabaret/Merrily readily available up until the day of the performance and with dynamic pricing. From the looks of things already though, advance ticket sales seem to be doing well. At least from the 5 dates I've been consistently checking from the day they first started. I'm going on October 12 and was one of the first buyers where you had your choice of seats. Seeing how many seats are already gone when we're 6 months away is surprising to me in 2024.
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Post by chernjam on Apr 15, 2024 17:46:27 GMT
When this comes back (which it will after these awards, box office and ALW's ego/pride) the replacement for Norma will be a HUGEEE A lister/Hollywood star type for sure, then will change every 4-6 months. It has the potential to run for a good 2-3 years in my opinion. My guess is that after 6-9 months on Broadway, Nicole will reopen the show at a different West End theatre late 2025 and do the first 6 weeks THEN hand over to the next star. Depends on the success of Broadway and if she extends/wins awards there. Quality casting of a A lister (possibly American) Norma, the right theatre, starting on the right month (with not much competition for example ) will mark the success of this shows' future life. WATCH THIS SPACE!! Soooo exciting. The only way I could see Nicole making a "RETURN" with this to the West End would be if it takes off and does as well with the Tony Awards as it did with the Olivier's. Because right now the focus is on NY (with even Nicole doing a shout out to coming for Broadway in her beautiful speech... which btw - you Brits are so awesome in actually letting people speak and perform and have their moment unlike here in the US where 30 seconds in the orchestra starts to shoo you off) It's really tricky because if (and hopefully it will) be the critical and financial hit here that it was in the UK, there's going to be a temptation to take the money and run and end on a high note. Particularly with broadway economics being so awful. I was one who imagined POTO when it regained top-grossing production every week for its last year was going to rip up the closing and go back to open-end or at least extend again. But the financials are so awful here right now. I think Jamie Lloyd and team are more about doing something that's buzzy and makes their money back. But the days of "now and forever" runs are becoming less and less a thing. All that being said, let me ask- how do you all think Hannah Waddingham would do as Norma in this production?
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Post by chernjam on Apr 14, 2024 20:23:57 GMT
7 WINS - WOW - Considering the original received none, what a incredible turn-around... So happy for the entire creative team, but especially ALW that this masterpiece finally got the critical appreciation and acclaim it deserved all along!
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Post by chernjam on Apr 14, 2024 19:40:38 GMT
W O W That's friggin amazingly awesome. The perfect moments with the stars, ALW cut out - done seemingly effortlessly and flawlessly. These musical moments in awards shows are rarely that exciting (even Glenn in the 1995 Tony Awards singing on stage at the Minskoff didn't have this excitement, mostly because they made them cut AIWNSG and sped it up)
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Post by chernjam on Apr 14, 2024 19:00:51 GMT
do they release clips online like the Tony Awards for those of us across the pond
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Post by chernjam on Apr 12, 2024 18:29:52 GMT
I have to admit, I'm really not a fan of Sarah Brightman. Just never enjoyed her voice or performances. I recognize that puts me in the minority in terms of the vast public, but, can't help it - and I had purchased a number of her CD's (when that was still a thing) thinking maybe I needed to warm up to her or something. But all these years later - Ann Crumb > Sarah Brightman in any Aspects of Love songs; Sierra Boggess > Sarah Brightmas in any POTO songs... etc. Which saddens me because the amount of energy and marketing and social media this production is doing would in most cases genuinely have me excited and contemplating planning a trip to Australia. But I don't have the slightest interest. I sincerely hope I'm in the minority and that this will be a grand success, just because I love the score so much and happy to see it having a renewal of interest and success that seemed to have eluded it the original productions and revivals to this point. On a completely other note, kind of funny that they used "The Lady's Paying" instrumental to open the video for the first day of rehearsal. Almost to say to the fans of that song who were angered by it being cut in the London/forthcoming Bway production "we've got it"
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Post by chernjam on Apr 5, 2024 23:04:09 GMT
At this point, I doubt they'd have Nicole do it at the Oliviers. The votes for the awards have been cast, so its not like that will influence anyone in the UK. And all it will do is have a public performance filmed and ready to be dissected any and everywhere between now and October. Which if people remember the Cinderella fiasco at West End Live probably isn't worth the risk.
Just my guess but Hopefully Sunset cleans up at the Olivier's, and she waits to do something like this at the Tony Awards next year, which will coincide with the end of her contract on Broadway.
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Post by chernjam on Apr 4, 2024 4:18:21 GMT
They told people enquiring that there wouldn’t be a cast recording to begin with I think. chernjam might remember. In which case it was only decided after seeing pressure on social media, including from our members directly contacting them. Power to the people etc ✊🏻 Hi Burly - yeah when I harrased them it wasn't an emphatic "No" like they had said, say for example, Aspects of Love where it was "there are no plans, but we will pass your inquiry on to the right department." For Sunset they were kind of like saying "we have no news at the moment, but keep checking our social media." I think they figured especially when it became evident early on this was going to explode, to milk everything out and try to keep building anticipation. I noticed that unlike some other productions any clips that were on Youtube disappeared pretty quickly. And as some pointed out there supplies of brochures and stuff would run out of stock and have to be resupplied. As for the album - I was excited that they announced these different versions and built up a lot of excitement to "pre-order." TBH as much a mega fan I am, I was nowhere planning on throwing down $777 for two tickets for something 6 months out. Haven't bought tickets this far in advance since the original Sunset in 1994 (when two tickets were $200 a record at the time) When they announced the pre-order though, I dutifully lined up, picked a performance, found some great seats and pulled the trigger. And then no link to buy the recording. Some kind folks at seatgeek assured me a link would be sent and two hours later I got an email with another "password" to get into the site early. Only to purchase something I won't have for 6 months again. Heck they didn't even guarantee what the difference between the 4 different versions would be. And like Burly said, I don't even have a record player but almost on impulse bought that special edition vinyl (I resisted). I thought for sure there would be a digital download for the pre-orders, but alas no... But honestly, it obviously helped create a stir for ticket sales. I have two couples that are friends and are nowhere near as huge a fan of Sunset or even theater in general who shocked me today telling me that they ended up getting tickets today as well. The fact that they didn't go to the 2017 revival and I don't think they've actually seen any broadway show since the pandemic, I was really surprised when they told me they were on the mailing list to and found themselves online checking seats and decided to buy them before they disappeared. The three performances I was checking out at 10 am this morning by this evening, lots of the seats that were available were gone. I hope that there will be some news report because I'm fascinated to hear if all this speculation bares out to a substantial advance in ticket sales.
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Post by chernjam on Apr 2, 2024 18:13:36 GMT
Joe: "It's been real interesting..." Norma: "Yes... hasn't it?"
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Post by chernjam on Mar 27, 2024 3:40:35 GMT
Our first follow up - courtesy of NY Times:
"Scherzinger, who said she has committed to nine months in the role, will be joined on Broadway by her three Olivier-nominated co-stars, Tom Francis, Grace Hodgett-Young and David Thaxton." That would bring her run to June (in time for the Tonys and possible room for extension thru summer)
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Post by chernjam on Mar 25, 2024 22:07:23 GMT
When the original Broadway run was announced with Nicole for 6 months, I had assumed a late Fall start (thinking November-ish) to get her past the Tony nominations deadline and try to eek her into a few more months.
Now with this announcement, I'd assume a marketing gimmick where "6 months only" will magically extend (kind of like when Glen came in 2017 with the revival and by opening night the 10 weeks were extended thru the end of June) Just economics wise, they probably need Nicole and for it to be selling out for 9 months to recoup on Broadway.
I'm curious if Rachel will be coming along too. I remember reading speculation that she might and then take on the role full time in Summer 2025 (which we're getting way ahead of ourselves here)
Very exciting though. And as much as it's been infuriating waiting for news of the recording, (mostly because I was anxious that ALW would follow with his recent trend of not re-recording anything) I do like that they're using that to help build momentum. I'm definitely down for buying tickets next week (which will be like I did for the Original Broadwy production - mail ordering in March for November 1994)
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Post by chernjam on Mar 25, 2024 18:33:49 GMT
Finally! The info chernjam has yearned for 🥳 As someone might say: " Great day. . ."
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Post by chernjam on Mar 20, 2024 1:33:52 GMT
Does anyone know who votes for the Olivier Awards? I was curious if its like here in NY where producers send voters some promotional stuff from their shows to advocate for their shows? Just thinking that perhaps they were sending the recordings to the voters first as an exclusive before making it available
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Post by chernjam on Mar 15, 2024 13:16:50 GMT
Adam Higgs, who's part of the orchestra, just posted this. ITS COMING This is the closest to official confirmation I've seen - so I'm pretty psyched. Great news on this the ides of March
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Post by chernjam on Mar 14, 2024 16:48:42 GMT
I'm no doubt being oversensitive (and yes, in other threads I would be the one reminding the fandom that it's showBUSINESS etc etc) - but it is rather annoying that the objective of the LONDON cast recording is now to increase the NYC sales. And not reward those of us who almost bankrupt ourselves seeing it repeatedly at The Savoy! #RantOver On the flip side of the coin though, you may not be getting a recording at all if it wasn't for a potential transfer. There's a chance they only recorded it in order to help publicise a potential Broadway run. I actually think the frustration should run the other way - the fact they've done a "cheap" live London recording means it might never get a "proper" Broadway cast studio recording. Company and Back to the Future both sold the London recordings exclusively and never bothered re-recording after their Broadway transfers (despite Company otherwise trying its best to pretend the London run never happened!) Granted they were studio recordings, but still. I'm sensitive to the fact that it's, as BVM points out its showBUSINESS and its easy for us to pontificate on what should/should not happen; how much money "they" have, etc. and have no idea about the actual financial workings behind the scenes. London is far more closed-mouth about those things than NY. And as ALW shared when POTO closed, its insane how much more expensive it is for anything to open on Broadway. (The number of openings and closings here this year has been dizzying and hard to keep track of) I get that even for a super fan like me, who'd be willing to fork over the price of a ticket to the theatre for a properly recorded, full length version of Sunset I'm in the minority and that ALW, et al can't look to me for their financial prospects. Once I've bought my one copy, that's it (unless I gift it to others) and with so many digital ways of sharing/stealing it, I can appreciate the good old days when a new CD would arrive and people would run out to buy them are long gone. All that being said, it is confusing for a super-fan to see Sondheim revivals get re-recorded every time there's a new production. It's no secret that most of Sondheim shows and productions have never come near being the juggernauts that ALW shows have. So maybe he has fans backing him and his productions knowing that they're not going to recoup most of their investment and don't care - they just do it for the art. In any event, I'm hopeful that with this production that perhaps ALW is finally getting the artistic appreciation he's always deserved along with the audience acclaim. I honestly can't remember reading such critical praise for anything he's done since I've followed him when Sunset had its World Premiere - now coupled with the sell outs it was receiving at the Savoy. So perhaps they're being cautious in not over-marketing this? And trying to be strategic and respectful of critics, (and now Olivier voters) as well as audiences in planning a release of a recording?
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Post by chernjam on Mar 12, 2024 16:33:53 GMT
I was hoping that they were going to release the cast recording sometime after the Olivier Award nominations - great marketing opportunity and maybe a way to help with moving nominations to actual votes for the award itself?
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Post by chernjam on Mar 12, 2024 13:30:41 GMT
If I'm remembering correctly, this revival of Sunset Blvd received more Olivier Award nominations than the original production did 30 years ago - so happy for the creative team, especially ALW to see something he poured his heart into finally getting the critical AND audience acclaim it deserved.
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Post by chernjam on Feb 22, 2024 0:21:53 GMT
I'm one of those who probably takes technology for granted and just assumed it was a lot easier for them to pull this together than it actually was. Granted I've only seen clips online, but Tom Francis made it look effortless
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Post by chernjam on Feb 11, 2024 4:55:57 GMT
Where is the cast recording may I ask? Sadly I am now more or less 100% convinced that it will be released at whatever point they think it will boost sales for NYC the most. Be that when tickets go on sale, when it starts previews, when it opens or at some other time the producers feel would be optimal. Bit of a shame for a LONDON cast recording and for the UK fans but there we are I guess. (Given it's the 4 same principles I even wonder if they'll bother plastering OLC on the cover and just call it something vaguer, which would also be mildly annoying). Problem is the buzz in the wider community dies very quickly after something closes. So there isn't much incentive to release it now. (To echo other comments above, I also find NYC obscenely expensive. Seems to be 20 quid every time you get a coffee, sandwich and maybe something sweet and you almost need a loan for a decent hotel room. Feel ripped off the moment I step off the plane!) I'm hoping that the Olivier announcements are generous for this production (if I remember correctly that's in a few weeks) maybe between that and the awards they'll release the recording and open advance ticket sales for NY? Its hard to keep buzz and momentum up that long between productions, but I think there's such a natural excitement that any notable thing (Noms and hopefully wins... cast release... NY theater announced/box office opens) are all being carefully planned to maximize things Could be wishful thinking, but the number of public statements that seemed to indicate a recording was made and coming, its the only thing I can figure.
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Post by chernjam on Feb 8, 2024 4:04:46 GMT
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Post by chernjam on Jan 22, 2024 4:32:44 GMT
I was having a look at bookings out of curiosity just now (I'm already booked to see it in July). They have a traffic light system on the date page to show availability and I had to scroll through to the end of October to find a single date in green which is good availability. Just shows how we all love a bit of nostalgia. I wonder if the producers expected it to be this popular I would never have expected or anticipated that it would sell this well... but I suppose nostalgia coupled by the fact that this is being created as a huge "event" is definitely catching people's attention
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Post by chernjam on Jan 15, 2024 20:39:23 GMT
I know we're not supposed to be encouraging these boots/slimes/whatever - but with each one I've found I'm more excited and can't wait for this to arrive on this side of the Atlantic. It's going to be a long 11 months
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Post by chernjam on Jan 11, 2024 14:37:31 GMT
Couldn't agree more. Along with Evita and Piaf, the best thing Elaine ever did. Even ALW said she did something with that score he hadn't heard before and "thrilled because she dared". I saw her closing night on Broadway - electric. oh wow - another person that was there for the Broadway closing night. That was indeed an unique experience. I remember Paige being in the middle of closing night speech and there being a miscue which led to the orchestra starting to play the bows/close out, Paige shrugging and it ending somewhat anti-climactic. Not to get too off topic - I never cared for Paige's "Norma." The first time I saw her, my expectations were so high having read all the reviews from London and I found her trying to be too comedic. I get that many expect that and see the original film as a dark comedy. But after Close playing it so seriously, Buckley being so vulnerable and heart breaking - Paige, I just found myself not caring at all about Norma and found myself bored. Petula I think my expectations were so low as well that I was pleasantly surprised (maybe I was in Sunset withdraw and was just excited it was touring...) but if I had to rank them, she would be higher than Paige in my book.
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Post by chernjam on Jan 9, 2024 19:30:39 GMT
You know what Patti LuPone said after finally seeing the original production of this show? It’s boring. And I can only reflect my experience seeing the Glenn Close concert production and agree with her. I think what Jamie Lloyd has done with some of these touches is just try to make it entertaining and lighten the mood. ESPECIALLY with this highly minimalist practically monochrome production we need a bit of a break sometimes!!! I would suggest that some of the light touches are meant to be more than JUST a cheap laugh - the twerking is definitely part of the character and scene, as is the idea of Norma’s first husband idolising a photo of her in her more youthful prime. The ALW cut out probably more of a cheap laugh. I don’t mind though, I’d rather be entertained than bored. Did she actually see the original production after she left or was this her reflecting on the show herself? It's not abnormal for her to piss all over ALW after she's left a production of his. She dissed Evita too, yet still finds a way to sing Don't Cry for Me Argentina in concert and talk about how special she was for singing it in the original key and how those who've followed after haven't and blah, blah, blah... I'd love for her to sit and hear Nicole singing the hell out of this score - in the original, high notes...
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Post by chernjam on Jan 8, 2024 22:52:42 GMT
As one who lives in the NY Metro area, just seeing the lavish praise that the US critics had for this Sunset in London dwarfed the praise they have had for the show in my memory. At best Sunset got "mixed-to-positive" reactions. Reading the NY Times, Washington Post among others practically begging them to bring the production out here, I think it will be very well received. As for the ticket prices, that's just an accepted reality as well. When I paid $300 a ticket for Hamilton, it mattered little to me that there was pretty much one set piece and not the most lavish of costumes/etc. The performance, the story, the music were top notch... Bad Cinderella - as much as I'm a huge ALW fan and liked some of the music from it, and from the looks of the production were more extensive than many others - I had really no interest even going for the great discounts that were offered. Hearing how many theatregoers from the US flew in just to see Sunset and came back raving about it - I think this will be the event of the 24-25 season and wouldn't be shocked if "Gypsy" gets delayed.
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Post by chernjam on Jan 8, 2024 3:08:22 GMT
those final bows followed by that teaser for Broadway. Wow Thanks for sharing... now the long wait begins
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Post by chernjam on Jan 6, 2024 23:41:37 GMT
It's so awesome reading all of these posts and kind of reliving the excitement of 1993/1994 - when Sunset opened in Los Angeles with much better reviews and then speculation began building that Glenn Close would come to NY instead of Patti, only to be announced in March, when tickets went on sale - for a November 1994 debut. Deja vu all over again... 30 years later, this acclaimed production has people on this side of the pond already excited and waiting.
Just hope for a cast recording in the meantime
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Post by chernjam on Jan 6, 2024 5:28:37 GMT
It's sad that there hasn't been a really satisfying revival of Evita (nor successful one since the original production). I do love the score -although I do agree with some of the criticisms people have offered here. A few months ago as I was getting lost in you tube algorithms and such I stumbled on this which I found fascinating and shows the impact a director and their vision can bring. The clips I've found from this production seem fresh and innovative:
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Post by chernjam on Jan 5, 2024 18:58:59 GMT
Brilliant Insta/Facebook post by Christina Bianco on auditions for the Broadway alternate! 🤣 I just can’t work out how to save it and post it on here. But very clever! www.instagram.com/reel/C1umG82NwL8/OK I'm not the biggest theatre fan who follows all of those actresses and nuances carefully and closely as I suspect many others do but that was friggin brilliant and I couldn't believe how spot on they were (and that I actually caught the subtleties)
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