Sunset Thoughts- Page 3

[jo]

Posted: 7/7/10 at 10:34pm

The key is whether Paramount Studios is interested in producing the film of the musical version or not, as it owns the rights to the original movie version of SUNSET BOULEVARD.

An excellent actress with a good singing voice...and strong box office draw -- hmm...they may have to go with the older actresses who may be interested to do this role ( Barbra, Meryl and Glenn).

Joe Gillis must be someone who can hold his own versus any of these actresses with very strong screen personas!

That was why William Holden was successful as the foil to Gloria's Norma. He actually got top billing in the movie, not just because he must have been a top box office draw then, but presumably also because the story was told from the perspective of Joe Gillis.


Updated On: 7/7/10 at 10:34 PM

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 7/7/10 at 10:48pm

I think Glenn on a marquee hungrily clutching Hugh Jackman would sell tickets. DELICIOUS!!!!

Not to dis Babs or Meryl but I don't think either actress is particularly sexually volcanic in the way that Norma needs to be. Glenn has a raw sexuality.

Posted: 7/8/10 at 10:50am

I have to agree with you Bettyboy... Glen has it in her gut!!!

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 7/8/10 at 5:32pm

I really like the show and I think that it's right behind "Evita" as his best show.

I think that in it, for the first time in his career, Lloyd-Webber actually wrote theatre music. I remember when I first heard the songs that were on Barbra Streisand's "Back To Broadway", I wasn't too impressed with "As If We Never Said Goodbye." I felt that with only a few lyric changes, it could be sung by any character in a relatively similar situation (a stock-broker returning to the exchange after a jail sentence or a coronary by-pass).

But, "With One Look" knocked my socks off. Here was a song written for that character and no one else. Actual musical theatre writing.

Now, having said that, there is some stuff in there that I absolutely HATE!

I love the song "Surrender". It's touching and creepy and I hate the fact that the melody of it is used in "Eternal Youth Is Worth a Little Suffering". I'm sure that it's use is meant as some sort of subtext (if she wants to be a star again, than she has to "surrender"), but it just invalidates a previous good moment in the show.

I absolutely loathe "The Lady's Paying". The scene in the men's store, when the salesclerk whispers to Joe Gillis, "As long as the lady's paying, take the vicuna." is one of the iconic moments in the film.

I know that, when you're adapting a movie into a musical, it is almost irresistable to not turn moments like that into songs. (Which makes me offer a prayer of thanks to Jerry Herman for not writing a song called "Life Is a Banquet" for "Mame.") But did it have to be turned into a gallumphing production number? With the worst of some of Don Black's almost rhyming lyrics? ("Everything is absolutely kosher/would you like to model for my brochure.") Ugh.

Posted: 7/9/10 at 11:48am

Hugh Jackman would be perfect as Joe... I can just imagine the pool scene where Joe comes out of the pool and Norma wraps a towel around him - ohhhhh that hairy chest!!!

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 7/9/10 at 11:50am

My ideal Norma is still Charles Busch.

Posted: 7/9/10 at 11:56am

Glenn does it for me.

[nealb1]

Posted: 7/9/10 at 2:10pm

Patti may not be able to say anything in her upcoming bio about "Sunset Blvd." There is probably a confidentially clause in her settlement with ALW. The same thing happened with Faye Dunaway when she was fired from "Sunset." In her autobio, she couldn't discuss it.

Hugh Jackman would be perfect as Joe, since he's all ready played the part "down under" in Austr.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 7/9/10 at 2:17pm

Patti spends two chapters about ALW and Sunset in her upcoming book and calls ALW a 'sad drunk' -- if there was some type of confidentiality clause in her settlement agreement, she's obviously throwing it to the wind.

[madbrian]

Posted: 7/9/10 at 2:31pm

I think I'd prefer James Marsden as Joe. Though Jackman is only five years older, I think he comes across much older than Marsden on screen.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/9/10 at 3:02pm

I think this show is still one of the great tragedies of musical theatre. It is, without a doubt, my favorite ALW score. The music itself. It's really haunting and appropriate. And the story works really well onstage. And Norma is such a theatrical character, and the period setting is so much fun, and etc., etc...

But the fact is that it features the worst lyrics to ever appear in a major, mainstream musical. Really, they are perhaps the most embarassing, awful, pitiful, inept lyrics ever written. They are never anything other than ridiculous cliche, they rhyme about a fifth of the time, and when they do, they're monosyllabic. ("With one look I can break your heart/With one look, I play every part...One tear from my eye/Makes the whole world cry"). The title song seems to think it's some scathing critique of Hollywood, it's so self-important and says so little, and says that little so loudly. And I agree with sondheimboy2 that "The Lady's Paying" is particularly pathetic. At every possible turn, the words took me out of the show. When you as an audience member are making up better rhyming lyrics in your head as the actual lyrics are sung, the first time you hear them, you know it's real crap.

No matter who plays Norma, it's always going to be a pretty weak show until just about every word is rewritten. The fact that Stephen Sondheim wanted to do this show is almost painful to think about. Think of the possibilities.

Updated On: 7/9/10 at 03:02 PM

[Adam Chris]

Posted: 7/9/10 at 3:32pm

This would never happen but I would love Sondheim to step and rewrite some of the lyrics.

[bryan2]

Posted: 7/9/10 at 4:44pm

Sondheim may right the best lyrics but his music
is quite another story..passion /sunday/into the woods all shows that can be intermingled with the use of basically the same notes just a little different...I know they all do this to some degree but I find most , not all, of his music not pleasant to listen to, I may not love most of his music but
MOVE ON and Finishing the Hat are my favorite show songs ever so go figure...so when he does it right it is out of the park.

[madbrian]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 2:46pm

I think Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be a terrific Joe.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 6:02pm

"I think Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be a terrific Joe."

He is way too young. Joe has to have been in Hollywood for years. He is after all, a struggling-writer-turned-successful-turned-struggling.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 6:10pm

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of the best actors working today. However, he is not right for the part of Joe. Joe is a masculine archetype, someone who Norma is instantly attracted to based his classic good looks and masculinity. I think Joseph is too small physically for the part.

[castlestreet]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 8:52pm

Considering the long amount of time that Close has had free, between when she finished the last FX season of Damages, and when DirectTV gets around to the next season being filmed, if they ever were going to make it with her, it should have been done now. Like Phantom and Evita before it, I think a movie version will take forever to get made, and will end up staring someone that has never been mentioned in the role- see Phantom, see Evita- a shame really when you consider the women most often associated with playing the part on screen.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/21/10 at 9:07pm

There should never be another Sunset Boulevard movie.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 7/22/10 at 10:44am

Tim Burton might actually do good work with this film if he were to direct. I think he could capture all the garish and gothic aspects as well as create some great fantasy sequences for Norma.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/22/10 at 10:52am

A movie of this awful musical would be laughed off the screens. the lyrics are unsalvageable:

"Shut up! I'm rich!
Not some platinum blonde bitch!
I own so many apartments,
I've forgotten which is which!"

Makes the head ache...

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 7/22/10 at 10:58am

"A movie of this awful musical would be laughed off the screens. the lyrics are unsalvageable"

As opposed to:

"Chiquitita, tell me the truth
I'm a shoulder you can cry on
Your best friend, I'm the one you must rely on
You were always sure of yourself
Now I see you've broken a feather
I hope we can patch it up together"

Now that is brilliant songwriting and we know how poorly Mamma Mia did.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/22/10 at 11:07am

Is that sarcasm, or do you really like them lyrics?

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 7/22/10 at 11:43am

I was being sarcastic. I just meant to allude to the fact that Abba lyrics make absolutely no sense and honestly do not move the story of Mamma Mia along or develop character and that was a huge hit in theatres.

I don't want to insult people, but I think most of the movie going public do not know what a good song or a good singer is. With auto-tune, Glee, and the success of Mamma Mia, I think people will listen to just about anything if they like the stars.

So honestly, I think people would like ""Shut up! I'm rich!
Not some platinum blonde bitch! I own so many apartments,
I've forgotten which is which!" because it rhymes and makes sense and they can follow it.

[madbrian]

Posted: 7/22/10 at 11:45am

"I own so many apartments, I've forgotten which is which!"

Personally, I don't like it when lyrics quote John McCain, particularly when they're not attributed.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 7/22/10 at 12:01pm

Those lyrics actually worked when LuPone played the role - beceause and I mean this - you had NO idea what the hell she was saying. My favorite was "luvflannaonamon..."