Jordan Catalano said: "God, people are gonna hate this. I have no idea if I liked it or not. Really gonna have to think on this."
Well, it was only the first preview. There's always room for improvement. Would you consider seeing it again?
The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes. -Harold Prince
All these comments are doing is making me wish I didn’t have to wait so long to see Sunset lol.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
I'm kind of a Sunset purist, but Jordan's "people are gonna hate this" comment has me curious to witness it for myself, and I'd love for a limited run at BAM or similar to make its way over here. I know ALW's ego might prohibit Off-Broadway, but who ever thought he'd collaborate with Jamie Lloyd?
If there's any kind of big spoiler-y choice in the staging, particularly in the mad scene/finale, I will almost certainly not get to see this and would be curious.
Lol wtf. Is this like American psycho cross Oklahoma revival?
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
From the videos I've seen of the curtain call after the actors leave the stage, credits are projected like it's a film. I don't know how others feel about that, but I think that kind of works well with the concept of the show. Just wish I could see this production! Hopefully, NT Live films it!
The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes. -Harold Prince
Scarywarhol said: "If there's any kind of big spoiler-y choice in the staging, particularly in the mad scene/finale, I will almost certainly not get to see this and would be curious."
ggersten said: "Scarywarhol said: "If there's any kind of big spoiler-y choice in the staging, particularly in the mad scene/finale, I will almost certainly not get to see this and would be curious."
Whether or not this is a successful revival of "Sunset Boulevard" is truly going to be up to each individual person. I heard every single comment you could imagine on the way out tonight. The ladies sitting next to me didn't know anything about Jamie Lloyd or his style and were confused because they only knew the show from the past. I, of course, knew the director so had a good idea what I was going to get tonight and for the most part, that's what I got. So my expectations were appropriately tempered for a production of this huge musical. I made the comparison to Ivo's "West Side Story" and the dancing from "Oklahoma" but in the end this production borrowed from both, equally. As for that "West Side Story", I quite enjoyed it whereas the "Oklahoma" revival I hated every single second of it. I'm on record saying I never mind a bold new take or reimagining of classic shows. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't but more often or not you're left with at least something new to take away from a show you maybe thought you knew by heart.
So for what I thought worked tonight, I think the casting worked very well. Some choices were a bit "odd" but hearing Nicole talk at the stage door, that's all Lloyd's decision so I can't put any of that on her. She does sound brilliant singing this score and I hope ALW decides to do a cast album for it. Even if you hated everything about this tonight, it would sound great recorded. Tom Francis, whom I'm already a big fan of from "Rent and "& Juliet" really didn't disappoint here. He matched Nicole perfectly and gave an all around excellent turn as Joe. I'm sure by now everyone's seen the curtain call photos but when the lights came up on her bloody body I gasped a bit. Absolutely never expected that and props to Lloyd for surprising me in a show I figured I'd know everything he'd do.
What didn't work (for me). Way too heavy on use of film/projections. A few scenes worked well like the title song but even that was a bit too "meta" for me, singing "Sunset Boulevard" while standing next to a poster for the show in front of the entrance. This was still set in the same time period but these backstage videos of people showed modern technology like when Betty finishes her script, she writes "The End" on her MacBook Pro. People will say it's fine because with no set/costumes it doesn't really exist in any time period but my argument to that is that it absolutely does. She's going to see Mr. DeMille. A real life person who existed in a very definite point in time so this show HAS a time period, try to ignore it or not.
There is also an excessive amount of fog used in this show, so much so that there are scenes performed in it where you can't see anyone at all just a stage full of smoke and that's a bit annoying. One of the things that bothered me about "Doll's House" was the talking about things instead of showing them and obviously that's true here, too. I just don't think "here look at my script" "this looks like 10 scripts" makes any sense when you're just standing there staring at each other. Again, I know this is how he works but it's just something that I find silly.
So I very much liked certain things about this and really disliked others. I think what worked for me outweighs what didn't so if someone would ask if I recommend it I would say if you're already a fan of the show then yeah, definitely go check it out. I don't know how many new fans of the musical this will make but I love to be proven wrong with things like that. Can't wait to read other reactions to it.