Alone in the dark, with little more than her celluloid memories, Norma Desmond remains what she has always been- the greatest star of all. Now, she has reclaimed the spotlight once more.
Glenn Close returns to Broadway in the tour de force performance that earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress- and a place in Broadway history- in Sunset Boulevard.
Featuring a 40-piece orchestra, the largest in Broadway history, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning masterwork of dreams and desire in the land called Hollywood comes to the Palace Theatre for 16 weeks only following a sold out run in London's West End.
It's been 23 years since she originated the role of Hollywood has-been Norma Desmond on Broadway in Andrew Lloyd Webber's sumptuous, if uneven, musical version of Billy Wilder's classic film. Norma's got the same turban, same neuroses and the same pipe dreams only La La Land can inspire. Close, meanwhile, goes heavy on the fragility, vulnerability and dark humor for the part played on film by Gloria Swanson. If a few vocals are strained, Close commands the stage in this concert production from the English National Opera.
Well, Close and her huge 41-piece orchestra, stuffed where Napier's magnificent folly once sat and now placed in the service of rendering Lloyd Webber's most nostalgic, sentimental score with maximum symphonic, even operatic, fullness - for fun, profit and, surely, the composer's legacy. The director, Lonny Price, and the set designer, James Noone, have to work around all of that, as well as keep the Napier design out of your head, although they do come up with a series of simple but effective platforms that allow Close to appear in the rafters and then descend to her people, thus making two entrances for double applause.
1993 | West End |
Original London Production West End |
1993 | Regional (US) |
Los Angeles Production Regional (US) |
1994 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
1995 | Canada |
Toronto Production Canada |
1996 | US Tour |
1st National Tour US Tour |
1998 | US Tour |
2nd National Tour US Tour |
2004 | London Fringe |
London Concert Revival London Fringe |
2016 | West End |
English National Opera West End Revival West End |
2017 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
2023 | West End |
West End |
2024 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical | Mark Henderson |
2017 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Sunset Boulevard |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | Sunset Boulevard |
2017 | Theatre World Awards | John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater | Glenn Close |
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