Angela Lansbury in Sunset Boulevard

I was reading an article I found in a playbill I have from the city opera production of sweeney todd, with Elaine Paige as mrs. Lovett. The article was on Stephen Sondheim. It said that Sondheim was interested in turning sunset boulevard into a musical 30 years before webber did. It also said that Sondheim was considering Angela Lansbury for the role of Norma Desmond.
I think that would have been an interesting production. Lol

The story goes that he ran into Billy Wilder at a party and mentioned it him, Wilder said NO! It needs to be an Opera! It is about a dethroned Queen.

Sondheim agreed. The project was abandoned.

Also, It thought I remember reading that Sondheim and/or Price were considering updating it and changing it from a silent screen star to a faded TV star ala Doris Day..


I DISTINCTLY remember Lansbury's name popping up in the gossip pages when Lloyd Webber announced he was doing it. After a while her name was replace in the rumor mill to Shirley Maclaine.

If you want to get a sense of what Lansbury might have been like as Norma Desmond... check out the Hal Prince film SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE.

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Updated On: 5/10/08 at 12:56 AM

I guarantee you I wouldn't have left at intermission had Angela Lansbury been in it.

Coolkid..have you seen the original film? If you have you will see that all ALW did was set much of the dialogue to recitative then stuck in long songs that just recap what as already been covered. He was too lazy to write "new" music for the show, so he took a stack of old songs from his trunk and told the lyricist to fit new words to them. (Ever wonder why none of the songs sound of a whole piece?)

There was a story in the NY Times just after MERRILY closed saying that Hal Prince would direct Angela Lansbury in SUNSET BLVD with a score by Sondheim. (IN a letter to me Sondheim explained this was just "Miss Lansbury's press agent wishing it into existence.")

Johnboy, you were lucky to escape at intermission. I had to stay for the whole show. It was the word professional production I have ever seen.

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JohnBoy, I agree,. Angela is a treat in anything she does!

Updated On: 5/6/09 at 02:51 AM

When I was living in NYC in the mid 1980s, and making the rounds, there was a notice posted on the Actors Equity bulletin board in the lounge for upcoming Broadway productions, and it said something like:

Sunset Blvd., music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Starring Angela Lansbury
Casting TBA

It was up there for almost a year before it came down. And that was in 1985-86.

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I'm always amused with these casting suggestions for Norma Desmond, especially when people suggest 'older' actresses, etc.

Seems most aren't aware that Norma is only 50 years old in SUNSET BLVD., not in her 70's as most assume. Gloria Swanson was only 49 years old when she was filming the original Billy Wilder film.

She would have been great & I wonder what Sondheim would have done with it.

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So, Johnboy2, you missed the second act? Then you missed the big secret. The one all audiences are sworn to never reveal. The secret that is not on the album?

Pity.

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Billy Wilder wanted it done as an opera? Wow! I could just see that....Maria Callas as Norma Desmond....that would have rocked!

bway - there's no such thing as an "overall concensus" - especially here

That being said, though, I never really heard anyone say anything good about the play itself (critics or audience members.) I talked to some who were just happy to see Ms. Lansbury live onstage - and I got the impression it wouldn't have mattered what she was doing.

I know there were issues during previews, which as usual got blown out of proportion. Ultimately, it came off to me as a project that never really gelled - and I personally thought part of that was due to her non-committal performance. However, when the material is so sub-standard, rating a performance is kind of an exercise in futility.

Ms. Seldes, however, seemed to float above it somehow, and that kind of made Ms. Lansbury suffer by comparison.

edit - I really want to add that this is ONLY a comment on that particular piece - and ONLY in response to the idea that anyone can be without question. I saw Ms. Lansbury in SWEENEY TODD, and it was breath-taking!

Updated On: 5/11/08 at 10:13 AM

I think Lloyd Webber did a great job as a matter of fact, and it's one of my favourites from him too. I really don't think Sondheim would have done a very good job with it, and I think it really needed the big orchestrations that Lloyd Webber for the most part delivered upon.

And if I'm not mistaken, Wilder actually applauded the fact that Don Black & Christopher Hampton for being able to incorporate some of his very lines into the songs and dialouge.

But I can't argue with the fact that you can hear a little Cats & Phantom of the Opera in Sunset at certain points! Overall though, I love it!