Sunset Blvd.
Sunset Blvd.
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#0Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/10/05 at 6:09pmHey - I just had to watch this movie in my film class in college and loved it. Just wondering how the score/musical is and what ALW did with it. Anyone know any sights where i can see clips from the show or see pictures of the set and stuff. Thanks.
#1re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/10/05 at 6:32pmYou can see Glenn Close perform (in costume) on the ALW 50th B-day celebration.
". . . POP . . ."
#2re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/10/05 at 7:56pmThe score is derivative of some of his earlier stuff, repetitive(sp?) . I was disappointed as Sunset Boulevard is one of my favorite movies, but I cant stand Webber. Glenn Close is the silver lining in the otherwise mediocre cast recording. She is Norma Desmond. George Hearn is also a frightening Max, as he sounds just like Erich Von Stroheim. There are a couple sites you can visit with pics of the set, they look spectacular Im a huge All About Eve fan, but im scared to even go near Applause.
#4re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/10/05 at 10:39pm
"Glenn Close is the silver lining in the otherwise mediocre cast recording. She is Norma Desmond."
Glenn was miserable as Norma. If you are going to buy a version, get the VASTLY SUPERIOR London cast recording with the divine Patti LuPone. Now SHE is Norma!
Up In Won
Leading Actor Joined: 9/15/04
#5re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/10/05 at 10:46pmGlenn's daughter rides horses and competes where i do. Anyway, I never saw the show, but I really like the cast recording. Go figure. We weere sitting at Phantom and my mom leans in and goes, "This sounds like Sunset!" And I haf to tell her that Webber had done both. Silly parents!
I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
#6re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/10/05 at 11:07pm
I love Patti. I really do, but I think she was in over her head with the role of Norma. For whatever reason she chose to play it cool and play all the dialogue moments exactly as they had been done in the film... extremely nonchalant and laid back... then when she sings she explodes and it causes a rather awkward imbalance of the material.
the revisions that were made for the LA and Broadway runs tightened the show and made everything flow much better so the LA CD is more enjoyable in my opinion for that reason alone. And then there's Glenn Close who delivers a knockout performance as Norma Desmond. She is a PSYCHO on this recording! I don't agree with the criticisms that Glenn is not a singer because at times she really does seem to be channeling a bit of Patti in her vocals. And she acts the hell out of any line she is given. Someone said it, I can't remember where, that no one can sing like Patti LuPone, but no one can play a psycho like Glenn Close and this is true. You can almost see the action and things that occurred on the stage just by listening to the recording because Glenn's performance is so over the top that it literally places images in your mind of what she must have been doing.
I love this show. I do understand that the music tends to be somewhat repetitive due, in part, to the large amount of underscoring, but for me it all just plays out marvelously. It's one of my favorite Webber shows and one of my favorite musicals period.
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#7re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/10/05 at 11:19pmUnlike, say, Evita, this score doesn't drive me instantly up the wall. Some of it is actually quite nice. But it is very, very repetitive. There are waaay too many reprises, and it really detracts from things.
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#8re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/10/05 at 11:30pm
ALW wrote Norma as a belt singer (Patti LuPone). I don't know that I agree with that. I always thought Norma was more ethereal. There are about three motifs that are repeated over and over.
The set was the highpoint of the show. It moved forward and backward and up and down. It was a huge set, which dwarfed poor Elaine Paige when she was playing Norma.
You need to watch the movie "Jeffrey" where Nathan Lane plays a show tune singing priest: Sunset BOU-leevard.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#9re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 12:15amWell, see that's why i wanted to see pictures/video of the set cause i hear it was amazing. I'm a really big set person, if the sets not good then i loose interest really quick. anyone know any good sites? Thanks.
#10re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 11:35amThere IS a video, somewhere around, of the original Sydmonton festival production with Patti LuPone and Kevin Anderson, in addition to a great cast, workshopping the show in what looks like the corner of a room somewhere:) It's great, stripped bare of all the glimmer, you can see there's a really good plot and a lot of good music theatre.
There's always room for pathos - and jazz hands.
#11re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 11:42amI do have a bootleg video (bad, I know) of Elaine Paige in the Broadway production that I got on E-bay. Quality is not great, but, heck, it is Elaine!
My mother always used to say, "The older you get, the better you get, unless you're a banana." - Rose Nyland
apdarcey
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/10/04
#12re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 11:45ami always found it interesting to learn that sondheim originally had the rights but then gave them up to lloyd webber because sondheim felt that to musicalize this show it would have to be turned into an opera, and he didn't think that he could do that, so he let them go to someone else.
#13re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 12:11pmGoth - but then again, it's not hard to 'dwarf' Elain Paige with a set. She is one tiny lady.
#14re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 12:12pmDefinitely, Patti's singing is amazing. She is the only Norma that sings "With One Look" the way it was written. When Glenn signed on, ALW changed then ending of the song so that the range is much smaller -- the key changes for the very last section. I don't know if any of the other Norma's would have been able to pull the song off like Patti did . . . . maybe Betty.
". . . POP . . ."
#15re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 12:15pm
Yeah, you can totally tell the keys of the songs were changed after Patti - who absolutely nails that score.
There's a rumor/story that Meryl Streep was in the audience for the Sydmonton thing, trying to get the part of Norma, and after Patti sang her first song Meryl was crying - though whether it was from emotion, or from the fact that she knew she could never sing the score and therefore play the part....no one knows.
There's always room for pathos - and jazz hands.
#16re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 12:48pm
Sunset is one of my top 5 favorite shows. I don't find the score derivative from ALW's works in any way. And believe me, coming from someone who doesn't consider himself an ALW "fan," that's a compliment. I've always thought the score was perfectly blended into the action and (especially) the style and time period of the show.
Easily his best score.
sharon1
Broadway Star Joined: 6/3/03
#17re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 1:23pmI may be mistaking but I don't think so but Michael Ball was the original performer at Sydmonton. He was the first Joe. If I am wrong someone I am sure will tell me
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#18re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 1:28pmHow does the show work? In the movie the guy, the main guy, i forgot his name, dies in the pool. Do they do that on stage? How is it done?
#19re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 1:43pm^^ Yep, it still starts with Joe dead in the pool. There's a projection of his floating body and "water lights" on a scrim, with live police standing behind it, just visible throught the scrim, positioned as though they were looking down to the pool.
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#20re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 1:50pm
Interesting, i read online that he falls into the orchestra pit at the end...sounds cool, wish they would do a revival of this show or at least a touring company.
check out www.theatre-musical.com - it's a great site.
#21re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 1:59pm^^ Yeah, into the pit. The whole stage floor raises about a foot, revealing the front edge to look like pool tile (as though the orchestra pit IS the pool), with the water-reflective lighting on it. VERY cool set!
#22re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 1:59pmKevin Anderson is Joe in the Sydmonton production.
There's always room for pathos - and jazz hands.
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#23re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 2:06pmwow, i gotta find some sorta boot leg copy of this show haha. I wanna see it bad.
#24re: Sunset Blvd.
Posted: 4/11/05 at 5:50pmTo expand on the key changes between Patti/Glenn. Not only was the end of WOL changed, but both arias were dropped in key completely. And I hate the fact that all Normas I've seen or heard besides Patti yell out "this time will be BIGGER and BRIGHTER than we knew it..."
Spitting distance? ...how vivid.
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