SUNSET BLVD. Reviews - Page 5

[Dylan Smith4]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 1:48pm

TotallyEffed said: "I miss the Company revival so much. :("

It was truly one of a kind! I really hope we can get the pro shot at some point. 

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 2:02pm

Robbie2 said: ""

I love that the Times does their own photography, it's almost always so much better than the production photos. 

[Jarethan]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 2:29pm

BdwyFan said: "So now I’m guessing Mattress or Gypsy for Best Revival. What other revivals are there this season?"

Very premature assessment.  Remember that there were many total raves and that there has never been an ALW show that did not get mixed reviews.

i think there were a lot of money reviews…it will be interesting to see what happens to SB in the next month.  I am still betting on full houses at full price very shortly.

in no universe would Mattress be a contender for revival.

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 2:49pm

everythingtaboo said: "Robbie2 said: ""

I love that the Times does their own photography, it's almost always so much better than the production photos."

Agreed, it is a wonderful tradition and has employed many fine theater photographers over the years.

Sara Krulwich gets the star treatment

[JSquared2]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 3:01pm

BdwyFan said: "So now I’m guessing Mattress or Gypsy for Best Revival. What other revivals are there this season?"

 

No way in hell is MATTRESS a contender for even a nomination.  Besides SUNSET and GYPSY, we also have PIRATES OF PENZANCE, LAST FIVE YEARS and FLOYD COLLINS coming (and also ELF)!

[CreatureKitchen]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 3:24pm

Dylan Smith4 said: "Lot666 said: "We can never forget his trashing of Company three years ago. Still gets my blood boiling thinking about that."

I absolutely agree his Company review was infuriating. But I also don't think this is really an equivalent situation: that Company review was a complete outlier, and his review here isn't. Even though I posted earlier how I agree with him on Nicole's performance, I think he lets his distaste for the show itself color his review too much. But, to his credit, he also hates Cats and he explains in this Sunset review why the Jellicle Ball reimagining worked for him while this reimagining doesn't.

 

[greensgreens]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 3:25pm

Have folks seen silent films? Nicole's mugging is really bad - but it's not far off from the real thing (adding a bit more sex appeal admittedly). I have definitely seen some of those expressions on starlets of that time.
As for the "twerking" - it's really the perfect updated version of the dance of the seven veils. Salome was not a naive woman, she was a very sexual person and that dance was lewd and lusty and inappropriately over the top for its' time. The twerking represented that and was uncomfortable to see a mature woman do (complete with audience giggles). I thought it was a perfect visual.
Most things felt "coded" in similar ways for me, which I loved. Also, Let's Do Lunch (why would they change it from "Let's Have Lunch" which was a real Hollywood phrase with bite?!), the entire ensemble blended Joe in and they became just interchangeable people singing unimportant lines with no emotion without interaction - a representation of the system at it's finest!
But it required a lot of work to then look for the "whys" to some of the decisions and I honestly don't know if I didn't already know the show word-for-word that I would've had as good an experience. Why everything was almost like a graduate class in Sunset Boulevard where part of the fun was trying to discover and understand directorial choices. I think Sunset was a good choice because the story and songs aren't too complex for an audience to pick up. At the end of the day, the artistic/directorial choices and performances moved me in a way I haven't felt in a theater for at least two decades, maybe even since Buckley in the original run of Sunset.

[soxboy22]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 4:00pm

With Jamie Lloyd setting up a film division, is it possible Sunset Blvd. might finally get a film treatment? What with Demi Moore visiting last week amidst her resurgence (comeback? return?) and the production’s success, is it too far-fetched? An LA run at least starring a real movie star (c. 1993) ; 

[CreatureKitchen]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 4:13pm

As filmic as it is, I think this production would make a terrible movie. All the use of video is impressive because it's being managed live. You'd take away everything revolutionary about it by just making it a standard film.

[greensgreens]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 5:15pm

soxboy22 said: "With Jamie Lloyd setting up a film division, is it possible Sunset Blvd. might finally get a film treatment? What with Demi Moore visiting last week amidsther resurgence (comeback? return?) and the production’s success, is it too far-fetched? An LA run at least starring a real movie star (c. 1993) ;"

Demi Moore would be amazing but can she sing? Scherzinger recently signed with CAA and I really think will be large enough by the time cameras were to roll that she would be cast opposite some more box office proven folks in the other key roles. I really wish Paul Sorvino were still around to do Max - that would've been beautiful.

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 5:26pm

Lot666 said: "Tim Teeman of The Daily Beast indicates that "The Perfect Year" is staged in Act 2 (he describes the title song, then states that "The Perfect Year" comes "later"). Have the songs been reordered in this production?"

It’s in Act One. Fact checking is dead. 

 

[OhHiii]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 5:42pm

Yeah Jesse Green I sometimes wonder if his disdain is for theatre in general. You can often tell when he's seen a spate of bad shows before reviewing a show most expect to received a middling review and he ends up raving (see Water For Elephants). His Company review and now this one are so colored by his feelings for the material itself that there would be no way he would enter a theater and be able to level fair critique. In the case of Company, he rejected the conceit of a femal Bobbie out of hand and trashed it as not working despite the man himself Sondheim thought it the definitive version. His thinly veiled sexism in that review was truly something that I'm surprised Scott Heller let fly. In this case he hates Sunset Boulevard so much as a show and score, how did he think he would go into this and stand a chance of enjoying it? It's still the same score and it's (mostly) intact and it's not like they've remixed the songs. An older example was his NY Mag review of Come From Away in which he basically said how dare these people write a musical about this when it's New York's story and no one else's. 

Luckily, the New York Times review has never meant less in the scheme of a show's success. Next to nothing.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 5:57pm

Sondheim called the Company revival definitive? Would love to see that quote.

[Robbie2]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 10:54pm

[Robbie2]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 11:04pm

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/style/sunset-boulevard-nicole-scherzinger-broadway.html

[Robbie2]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 11:08pm

https://people.com/sunset-blvd-broadway-opening-red-carpet-photos-8731168



 

[Robbie2]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 11:09pm

[Robbie2]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 11:15pm

https://www.justjared.com/2024/10/21/nicole-scherzinger-gets-6-minute-mid-show-standing-ovation-during-sunset-boulevard-opening-night-cements-tony-award-frontrunner-status/

People reports that Nicole received “multiple mid-show standing ovations — including one that lasted 6 minutes” from the star-studded crowd on opening night.

Having already won an Olivier Award for her performance, it seems Nicole is likely going to be our next Best Actress in a Musical winner for the 2025 Tony Awards!

 

Simply stunning Nicole!!!

[Robbie2]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 11:20pm

https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/nicole-scherzinger-sunset-blvd-broadway-premiere

Inside Nicole Scherzinger’s Sunset Blvd. Broadway Opening



 

[joevitus]

Posted: 10/21/24 at 11:53pm

OhHiii said: "Yeah Jesse Green I sometimes wonder if his disdain is for theatre in general. You can often tell when he's seen a spate of bad shows before reviewing a show most expect to received a middling review and he ends up raving (see Water For Elephants). His Company review and now this one aresocolored by his feelings for the material itself that there would be no way he would enter a theater and be able to level fair critique. In the case of Company, he rejected the conceit of a femal Bobbie out of hand and trashed it as not working despite the man himself Sondheim thought it the definitive version. His thinly veiled sexism in that review was truly something that I'm surprised Scott Heller let fly.In this case he hates Sunset Boulevard so much as a show and score, how did he think he would go into this and stand a chance of enjoying it? It's still the same score and it's (mostly) intact and it's not like they've remixed the songs.An older example was his NY Mag review of Come From Away in which he basically said how dare these people write a musical about this when it's New York's story and no one else's.

Luckily, the New York Times review has never meant less in the scheme of a show's success. Next to nothing."

Never having gotten to see the Company revival is very frustrating to me (still hoping the pro shot is made available), but I thought his review was interesting and his argument rather compelling for why the gender switch doesn't work. I have no idea if he's right, of course. And he clearly loves the original work. 

[inception]

Posted: 10/22/24 at 12:15am

Probably a discussion for somewhere else, but if he said the gender switch didn’t work, he was wrong.  The only hiccup really was Joanne telling Bobbie to have an affair with her husband.  It felt like a trap Joanne was setting instead of how in the original she comes across as a randy "Cougar."

joevitus said: "
Never having gotten to see the Company revival is very frustrating to me (still hoping the pro shot is made available), but I thought his review was interesting and his argument rather compelling for why the gender switch doesn't work. I have no idea if he's right, of course. And he clearly loves the original work."

 

[RSrichie]

Posted: 10/22/24 at 9:35am

did she eat him alive on stage?  This photo exemplifies the problem I have with this production.  It makes no sense.  It’s the emporer’s  new clothes.  Artsy farts pretentiousness.  She’s a powerhouse but she’s not playing Norma Desmond.  I agree, this production is a ‘stunt’.

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 10/22/24 at 10:09am

I'm continually bemused by how many people can't wrap their head around this abstract take on Sunset Boulevard, but presumably wouldn't have a problem seeing a production by Shakespeare that isn't literally staged in Elizabethan reality.  Theatre is an artform. Realism is not the paradigm of theatre. Please open your minds to be challenged by theatre at intentionally encourages you too think less and feel more.

[djoko84]

Posted: 10/22/24 at 11:50am

This is a reviews thread, why are the fangirls posting publicity articles about Nicole's red carpet fashion and the opening night parties? The tweens on here are a joke. 

Updated On: 10/22/24 at 11:50 AM

[SeanD2]

Posted: 10/22/24 at 12:25pm

QueenAlice said: "I'm continually bemused by how many people can't wrap their head around this abstract take on Sunset Boulevard, but presumably wouldn't have a problem seeing a production by Shakespeare that isn't literally staged in Elizabethan reality. Theatre is an artform. Realism is not the paradigm of theatre. Please open your minds to be challenged by theatre at intentionally encourages you too think less and feel more."

It's not about it being abstract (at least not to me), it's about the director making choices that do not illuminate the text and in fact work against the text. There are a lot of ways to do an abstract Sunset Blvd that still serves the text, like the good abstract Shakespearean productions do, but this production isn't it. 

Updated On: 10/22/24 at 12:25 PM