Why did SUNSET BOULEVARD fail? — Page 2

It's my favorite ALW score too.

Also, by the time it opened on Broadway the era of the big sung through musical had come to an end.

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Does anyone know why Judy Kuhn was replaced by Alice Ripley on Broadway?

Saw it in LA - loved the show, the magnificent sets and staging, the score and the magnificent Glenn Close.

I enjoyed the show because you could go back again and again to see what kind of performance the star actress would give.

Glenn Close commanded the stage and was mesmerizing in the role.

Betty Buckley was a very pathetic rather passive Norma
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Petula Clark found humor in the role I hadn't thought was there.

Diahann Carroll walked through her performance when I saw her. Big disappointment. She only delivered the goods in the final staircase scene. However it slanted the entire show towards Joe Gillis giving Rex Smith the ability to shine. He was excellant in the role.
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Would have liked to have seen Rita Moreno. I can kind of imagine Patti doing it from clips I've seen. I think Faye Dunaway might have possibly played it as she did Joan Crawford which might have been a hoot.

We felt the exact opposite about Close in L.A.

I thought her singing was better than expected and her acting was atrocious. A complete surprise to me.

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The real test of it is that the show should work without a giant set and a major film star in the leading role.

I do like the music, but there's just too much of it. It bogs the plot down, and this is essentially a film noir mixed with dark, comedic overtones. I think too many characters sing too much in the musical version. Half the score could be cut. I loved Max in the movie because he speaks so rarely, but when he does, it had such weight to it. His character sings and says too much in the musical. The mystery and gravitas is gone.

I am also not a fan of most of the music for the Joe/Betty scenes. It would be great if they were played without music. More simple and real. Then with one good song for them. The grand, sweeping music should be left for Norma in her house. The fantasy in her mind.

To me, the show just doesn't have a lot of impact or bite or energy. But it does have some pretty music. Too much of it.

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I appeared in a non-Equity production on Long Island. The audiences who came gave us standing ovations, but we had much smaller audiences than for other shows. Even my own friends who usually see all my shows turned this one down--"oh, it's too depressing." I think the score is ALW's best after Evita, and the book follows the film faithfully, perhaps too much so. I think the other posters are correct; the expense of the massive set doomed it. (Needless to say, our production did not levitate Norma's house for Artie's New Year's party, and the audience neither know nor cared.)

There are a lot more good composers than lyricists working in the theatre today.

A really good theatre lyricist is a rare find. The last one I was utterly blown away with was Howard Ashman. Yes, that long ago.

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Updated On: 2/3/14 at 03:16 PM

I loved the Canadian cast when it played in Vancouver. We went with our school and Rex Smith gave us a backstage tour afterwards (which as a 15 year old was kinda exciting since he was one of my first crushes in Pirates of Penzance.) I've heard that Diahann Carroll gave inconsistent performances, but I thought she was great as Norma when I saw her. It's not a great show, but I like a lot of the music, and yes, the set was amazing. Maybe it's simply because it is the cast I saw, but the Canadian highlights recording is by far my favorite--Carroll manages to sing it better than Close while, IMHO, acting it better than LuPone, there is no music I miss from the complete two disc recordings, and for whatever reason they souped up the orchestra with fifty more players which makes it sound all the more lush.

I think the appeal to she show, for me is that the score sounds like a remarkable mixture of the EVITA & CATS scores...if that makes any sense. Thinking about that, it almost sounds like it would be a bad thing, but it sounded perfect to me. I can definitely see where the story would not hold up particularly well though.

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Since when is anyone on this board respects anyone's opinion?

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I always have and I've been a member since 2005. Maybe you should give it a try.

^ Ah, well see, I like her Cruella DeVil.

Yeah, it genuinely kinda shocked me how little they actually deviated from the screenplay when I got around to at least researching the original movie.

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