Jvj24605 said: "I attended the first preview last Saturday evening. Previous to this I have send the show 5x (Glenn's final performance in 1995, the final Broadway showin 1997 with the luminous Elaine Paige, Glenn's return NYC engagement in 2017, as well as the misguided PetulaClark National UStour in the late 1990s and the Signaturetheater DC production with Florence Lacey). I love the movie and have a strong affinity for the musical: I recognize its many weakness while waxing rhapsodic over countless passages in the score that allow musical theater divasto display their vocal prowess.acting range, fabulosity and idiosyncrasies to full effect.
Now ontomy thoughts on this production:
I found Nicole's performance to be big on the surface, but ultimately undisciplined and bloated and unfocused. It's all over the place from one second tothe next.Yesshe has a powerful voice, but it's not character driven; in no way does herperformance reflect a faded silent film star. To me she feels overdirected, and most traces of subtlety/emotional shading are erased. My favoritemoments are her "looks"captured on film, when she doesn't speak/sing: during these haunting moments I found her to be most effective.That being said, the audience was going wild and I felt like a minority dissenter.
Lastly, I was emotionally distanced by theactorsspeaking out at the audience (in most cases) rather than interacting face to face. I know this production has its champions, but I'm somehow not seeing it."
Your "strong affinity" for Sunset, and takes on performers and productions, matches mine (I have a truly unnatural love for this show and its story and score) and my Sunset past also includes Petula ("misguided" tour), Glenn (revival) and the superlative Elaine, in London, (my favorite performance in 5 decades of theatergoing) + Diahann Carroll in Toronto and Linda Balgord on tour.
I'm seeing this next week and haven't anticipated something more in years - as I assume I will be entertained by my mere familiarity with the material, but also stunned/surprised/appalled by the audacity of it all (But perhaps in a train wreck good way?) - while others eat it up To be determined...