Sunset Boulevard Revival Broadway Thread — Page 31

I saw the "Revival" last night and I can't say with confidence that this show by webber/black/hampton deserves a second look.

Yes, it is a former best musical winner, but you have to put it in context with what was happening in the commercial theater the year it was eligible. It was a NOTORIOUSLY weak year for new musicals with only one other nominee...Smokey Joe's Cafe (a musical revue at best). Plus, Sunset Boulevard was the only nominee for original score/book of musical. In other years, I highly doubt that the show would have won either of those three awards.  Watching it last night, it was apparent that the show hasn't aged that well.

The book is serviceable, but dated mellow drama of the 1990's where characters real problems are glossed over instead of truly examined. The only memorable parts of the score are Norma's (those still work well, but the lyrics aren't necessarily gold throughout..especially the title song Sunset Boulevard). The recitative is amateurishly written filler at best. The underscoring abruptly switches sounds from that of hollywood film glamour to what seems like cut material from webber's unabashedly upbeat Joseph and the amazing technicolor dream coat. The show does work, but age reveals that its not in ways the classics like South Pacific, or the King and I do...it has that late 80's early 90's mega musical style that just doesn't play very well in 2017....we're too sophisticated for it now.

I get how Napier won best set design...which leads me to why they revisited this show without it. Lonny Price has not envisioned something radically different than Trevor Nunn did, so the result is one of confusion and thrift. It looks cheap in all the ways it shouldn't. The scaffolding does not resemble anything having to do with film or old hollywood. Calling this a revival is a stretch, this is a concert staging. Not a problem in the slightest except they are misrepresenting what this is.  This should be at encores, not the palace. And I have to say, as much as I respect Price for his life dedicated to the theater, he has not done this  concert staging any favors....it's confusing, it's half baked, it's just flat out uninspired. Having a young chorus girl play her ghost is ridiculous.

The principal cast is mainly wonderful, and where price has succeeded is in getting their performances. xavier as joe and johanson as max are first rate performers and use all their talents to bring the characters to life. dillon as betsy is winning if not stereotypical ingenue. The legendary close is wonderful as always...you aren't watching close you are watcihng norma. The only thing that I think is truly an issue is her singing. She took flack in the 90's for not really being a singer which i've never understood.  She was a wonderful singer then and sounded the perfect combination of where character meets song....here she just doesn't have the voice anymore and concentrates on on the acting (brilliantly i might add). But, I think its essential to the character for her to be able to sing the score. otherwise she IS just a washed up has been who has no business even trying to go back to work. We need the singing to know that she was a star, had the talent. Those songs need to sound gorgeous for us to understand how much passion she has for what she did and wants to do again. close is giving a screen performance here, but it calls for a musical theater performance....it doesn't work well without her being in full voice.

I get it, with the palace going through construction soon no long running show would want to move in at this point. Plus, close got the reviews in london which they could use to attract people who never saw/want to revisit this ronny award winning performance. And of course its cheap to produce at this level, but this is just not for broadway in this form in my opinion.

 

 

standingovation79 said: " I get it, with the palace going through construction soon no long running show would want to move in at this point. Plus, close got the reviews in london which they could use to attract people who never saw/want to revisit this ronny award winning performance. And of course its cheap to produce at this level, but this is just not for broadway in this form in my opinion.

 

This show is far from cheap to stage. The forty piece orchestra speaks to that.

 

 

"

 

Standing Ovation: The character is called Betty Schaeffer, not Betsy. 

I actually was expecting something to look cheap, since ALW described it as a "staged concert", so my expectations were pretty low, and instead I feel like we got not only a fully staged musical theater piece, but even more than the usual, since the colors of that magnificent orchestra haunted me from the 1st minute the show starts. Also I thought it was going to feel cheap, but I found this production amazing, and far from cheap, and if they really didn't invest much money, well, it looks like they did spend a lot. I thought the mansion was brilliantly done with lights, and Schwab's was just great. I think it looks expensive actually!

I am definitely happy that the 3 times I saw, I can say that 2 times it was fully sold out. One of the 3 times I saw some empty seats in the balcony. So this lavish production can be considered a hit.

Updated On: 3/17/17 at 02:50 AM

CT2NYC said: "chernjam said: CT - I hated Elaine Paige in this.  Thought her singing was overrated (Mason and Buckley definitely were better than Paige) and her acting was ridiculous.  She was playing it almost as a cartoon. 

Glad to know someone agrees with me, and, unfortunately, I don't think it's exclusive to SUNSET BOULEVARD. I've seen her in the live recording of CATS, and there's just something very "cheesy" about her acting. She doesn't inhabit her roles the way that others do. It's all very "acted," for lack of a better word. As far as her voice is concerned, it's good, but it doesn't have that special something that distinguishes it from other good voices. She was my least favorite Norma, by far."

Judging only by videos available online, I think Ms. Paige's voice was lovely (maybe too lovely for the part), but what annoyed me about her performance was the way she tended to sing the first half of a line and then speak (or shout) the rest. It's like she could only sing a note or two at a time and then she had to switch back to talking. Kyle Barisich, the current Raoul in Phantom, does this and it drives me crazy.

I've also watched of videos of Ms. Clark in the role and her accent and intonation are very grating. The way she sang warbled "We gave the WUURRRRLD new ways to dream!" was so bizarre.

frik said: "...I'll be in New York the last week of April and many good seats were left. But I think I might have made a mistake in my enthusiasm this was so: I got myself two front-row-centre seats, at $299 each....Ouch....
Now I don't mind having spent so much money - the most expensive ever for a Broadway show I attended. But a couple of posts back some people were commenting on the size of the stage and that front-row seats were really to close to take it all in. Great to see miss Close up close, but...

Did I make a mistake in choosing front-row?"

The first time I saw the show, I sat in the exact same aisle seat you bought and I'm the one who posted about it earlier in this thread. Yes, you will see every detail of Ms. Close's face, but I really don't feel that this row should be sold as "premium seating". The stage at the Palace Theatre is very wide and you simply cannot keep your eyes on everything going on from so close, and the projections will be a wash. The experience is like sitting about a foot from a television screen. If you can convince Ticketmaster to allow it, I would exchange those seats for something in the same section, but at least 4-5 rows back. 

BTW, I'll also be in New York during the last week of April to see it again. My seats for that performance (April 29) are in center orchestra row E, on the aisle.

Had an additional thought on Sunset Boulevard.

I agree with most of the positive comments on here, so don't want to re-hash.

I have been thinking a lot tho about this production, and the real soul/needs/wants of the characters. Would love to see a Steven Pasquale / Glenn Close pairing, or Steven with Jan Maxwell.

 

Lot666 said: "frik said: "...I'll be in New York the last week of April and many good seats were left. But I think I might have made a mistake in my enthusiasm this was so: I got myself two front-row-centre seats, at $299 each....Ouch....
Now I don't mind having spent so much money - the most expensive ever for a Broadway show I attended. But a couple of posts back some people were commenting on the size of the stage and that front-row seats were really to close to take it all in. Great to see miss Close up close, but...

Did I make a mistake in choosing front-row?"

The first time I saw the show, I sat in the exact same aisle seat you bought and I'm the one who posted about it earlier in this thread. Yes, you will see every detail of Ms. Close's face, but I really don't feel that this row should be sold as "premium seating". The stage at the Palace Theatre is very wide and you simply cannot keep your eyes on everything going on from so close, and the projections will be a wash. The experience is like sitting about a foot from a television screen. If you can convince Ticketmaster to allow it, I would exchange those seats for something in the same section, but at least 4-5 rows back. "

Now that is an idea...contacting Ticketmaster. Thanks for the suggestion!

sk

 

 

frik said: "Now that is an idea...contacting Ticketmaster. Thanks for the suggestion!"

Good luck!

Lot666 said:
The second time I saw the show I sat in center orchestra row E, and I can assure you that you will still be able to see the star up-Close (pun intended) and personal from that distance.

"up-Close" is pun-tastic! I love it!

 

I'm seeing it next week from the front row. I saw An American in Paris from the same front row center seat and didn't have a problem with the wide stage. My preference is always to be as close as I can. I've also found that the further back you go, the more chances of disruptive audience members around you. At least when you're in the front row there's nobody in front of you for added distraction.

CT2NYC said: "Her spoken dialogue comes across as a little low-key in the videos, but she really commanded that stage. It was an elegant performance, and her voice is a force of nature, in my humble opinion."

Elegant is a good word for it. Ms. Buckley seems to have exhibited the necessary gravitas to speak quietly and still have the audience hanging on her words. In contrast to Ms. Close's take-no-prisoners bravado, Betty plays the part with a quietly commanding presence.

CT2NYC said: "...with Betty Buckley, and I don't think people were ready for a "wounded" Norma."

Another apt adjective. In the first mansion scene where Joe meets Norma, she does come across as wounded, yet she also manages to make it clear that underestimating her could have grave consequences.