'Sunset' Rises For Christmas CONFIRMED — Page 3

Just blogged my review.

The short: Meh. It's a good (but not great) production of a good (but not great) show.

Just got back from going to see it - brilliant! Kathryn Evans is award winningly spectacular, and she BLOWS the roof off the place! Ben Goddard is almost as amazing, Dave Willets is amazing and dangerous, and no weak links in the multi-talented ensemble either IMO. The orchestrations sound big and I didnt find myself thinking it could do with a full pit orchestra. The audience seemed to love it too, tho I overheard two seperate couples complaining about the lack of the huge golden levitating mansion from the original production. This is definately one to see before it closes!

Updated On: 12/11/08 at 05:00 PM

I'm going to the final preview with my friend on Saturday. As we are on a tight budget, we got the £5 balcony seats. Hope they arn't too bad although im guessing they will be haha.

Just looked on the website and a friend is the Female Understudy! :)

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Joe plays...a couple of things. And what on Earth makes you think the rest of the people in that cast aren't "professional actors?" The programme sure as heck implies otherwise.

Max plays instruments too, the cymbals mainly

The entire cast of Sunset Boulevard consists of professional actors - who also happen to be professional musicians. As for Ben Goddard, who plays Joe Gillis, he is a highly experienced actor/singer who is also an accomplished musician. His credits include playing the lead in The Beautiful Game in the West End plus Arnaud du Thil in Martin Guerre at the Watermill last year - and his Arnaud was sensational. His performance as Joe Gillis is outstanding, both acting wise and vocally.

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Updated On: 12/14/08 at 05:57 PM

4 stars from Billington but plenty of backhanded complements to the Lord:

"At first, I was put off by the frenetic opening, in which the 13 actors hurtle around seeking to evoke Hollywood hysteria and a studio big-shot is expected simultaneously to answer a telephone and play the double-bass. But Horwood's production and Sarah Travis's musical arrangements settle down to focus on the inherent fascination of the story with its mix of movie myth and melodrama. It fits into a consistent Lloyd Webber pattern, visible in both The Phantom of the Opera and The Woman in White, in which a guileless outsider is lured into a milieu of gothic weirdness. There is a good deal of wit in the staging, so that a swimming pool is evoked through a pair of diving-frames, and an upended chaise-longue turns into a drugstore sign."