If you don't all know the story by now, dears, you should!
Back in 1993, in London, Andrew Lloyd Webber mounted a sumptuous musical version of the film classic, "Sunset Boulevard," starring Patti Lu Pone! Perfect casting, I thought, and I could not wait for it to travel over her to Broadway, so I could see Patti!
But that is not what happened.
That greedy little goblin Andrew decided to open a production of the show in Los Angeles, with Glenn Close playing the lead role of Norma Desmond. Patti was contracted to reprise the role on Broadway. But, when the raves started pouring in for Glenn, who, as far as I am concerned, pulled an Alex Forrest on Patti, Andrew jettisoned Patti in favor of Glenn. In her famous memoir, Patti rel;ates how she tore apart her dressing room--Glenn is lucky she did not tear into her!!!!--and received a settlement large enough to fund an impressive backyard pool, which she still refers to as the Andrew Lloyd Webber Pool!!!!!!!!!! Good for you, Patti!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At least Patti got some glory in London. Now, twenty three years later, Glenn is going to London to reprise the role!!!!!!!!!! Will Patti be pissed??????? Or won't she care????????? It is anyone's guess.
Out of loyalty to Patti, I never saw the show at all. And after Glenn, there were some impressive Normas, like Betty Buckley and Elaine Paige!!!!!!!!!
But Glenn?????? Why, again? I mean, look at this photo!!!!!!!!! Where is the pathos and vulnerability that Gloria Swanson brought to the role. This shot looks like over-camp; someone who is auditioning for a musical version of "House Of Wax" than playing Norma Desmond.
Lonny Price is set to direct in London next year. I know he will do something magical with it, as far as the staging goes.
But why must Glenn come with the package???????????????????
Ah, the "Sunset Blvd Scandal"! My goodness, hard to believe nearly a quarter century has whizzed by since then! Tho not quite as hard to believe as the fact some imbecilic investors actually seem to think this utterly horrendous flop of a "musical" could possibly be resurrected into a salable commodity in 2015- they must be out of their minds. It was a $13 million money-losing fiasco in the 1990s: who had the bright idea to bring it back from the grave?
ReplyDeleteOver time, as I have seen various productions and listened to all the cast recordings, my attitude toward the Patti Lupone debacle changed. At first, I fully agreed "she wuz robbed" and couldn't understand the WTF left-field entrance of Glenn Close. Patti did initially impress with the original cast recording, but upon seeing the Bway production one immediately intuits she would have been a wet firecracker on the live stage. "Sunset Blvd" is an undercooked, elephantine mess with no cohesion and no audience-gripping material aside from the two blatantly socko star-turn numbers. Patti came off a bit too young and confident for the role, yet was also dwarfed and diminished by the enormous set (as indeed happened later to Elaine Page, who was swallowed up in the scenery to the point you could never tell where she was). Glenn Close, and later Betty Buckley, were at least able to command the stage by dint of their height and overdone mannerisms: a Pyrrhic victory, but better than being rendered invisible.
The show is a staggeringly overblown star vehicle that perversely lacks anything for its star to work with. Literally nothing of interest happens in the first act after the opening "With One Look", and even less after the second act opener "As If We've Never Said Goodbye". Both are killer diva power ballads, a gift from heaven for larger-than-life belters. But there is ZERO, nada, nothing whatsoever for the diva to build on or even bridge between the two hits. Minus those two showstoppers, Sunset Blvd is empty spectacle: every other song in the show is an inane recycling of Max Steiner themes, with repetitive lyrics that make Taylor Swift seem like Cole Porter (not for nothing did Paul Rudnick mercilessly mock this show in his popular "Jeffrey" as "Sunset BULL-ee-vard").
The terrifying flying mansion set is exciting for the first 20 mins, until it literally overshadows and confines every scene that doesn't take place in it (as it lifts and looms, one fears for the lives of front-row spectators as well as the chorus dancers). This could never be duplicated without the kind of "stupid" money investors throw at original productions, which is why Sunset stinks on ice as a road show with static sets. In 1993 on Broadway or LA or the West End, while the audience was bored out of its skulls waiting for the two big numbers, at least they could amuse themselves idly hoping the flying mansion might break down and cause multiple deaths.
The only things of value to come out of "Sunset Blvd" are the two big Norma Desmond numbers, and you don't actually need to see them performed in front of you to enjoy them. It could be argued they are better heard than seen, since they're essentially Norma's internal monologues. The show is the epitome of the Emperor having no clothes: there is no "there" there. A shame, because the idea of a Norma Desmond musical seemed intriguing. I recommend Norma Desmond fans view the clips of Glenn Close, Karen Mason and Betty Buckley on youTube: it can save them the ticket price, and three hours of their lives they'll never get back. (You might already have those clips on a dvd somewhere, RQ)
ReplyDeleteI have heard BARBRA peform the two numbers. They are decent, but not classics. If that is the best the show offeers, that does not say much. When "Sweeney Todd" was first on, back in 1979, Sondheim was toying with SB as a musical vehicle ofr Angela Lansbury. Now, THAT might have been interesting. When the show opened on Bdway in 1995, David Richards, the short lived replacement for Frank Rich, delivered the classic opening line--"The mansion has landed."
So, I hav e never had a keen desire to see the show or hear the entire score. And now you have validated that, so thank you!
UGH! I forgot about Babs' pathetic desperate rush to jump on the "Sunset" bandwagon before anyone knew the wheels would fall off so quickly. This was around the time Barbra began her descent into the truly unpleasant, tedious, not-fun version of herself that she is now. Back in 1993, she was still powerful enough to cajole Andrew Lloyd Webber into letting her be the first singer to exclusively introduce the "Sunset Blvd" songs to North America. Hilarity ensued, because in true Barbra fashion she missed the entire friggin point of the songs, so her delivery was DOA. Her versions landed with a giant thud, so no one cared about "Sunset Blvd" until the London cast album with Patti Lupone came out shortly after.
ReplyDeleteThe two songs are compelling anthems to show business, star power and self-delusion, but they don't work unless the singer has some visceral connection to the material. Barbra had been so successful for so long, never having her star dimmed, impervious to criticism or changing public tastes, that she had no clue what the emotional core of these songs were. Her recording was rote recitation of the lyrics with a rubbery, vague attempt to sound sincere. In a word, she sucked.
Others did rather better. Arguably Patti Lupone's original versions are the best audio recordings, enhanced considerably by her bits of plot dialog before and after the songs that give them more context (missing from other recordings). That said, her delivery of "With One Look" is problematic, and indicative why Webber reneged on bringing her to Broadway: she belts it out with a bit too much brash Italian self-confidence and youthful vigor. It sounds great, she gets the basic idea across, but she kind of exceeds the mark a bit too much and blows the point of it being Norma's character introduction and setup. OTOH, no one has ever done a better version of "As If We've Never Said Goodbye" - that one, Patti nails perfectly (Barbra's is so poor by comparison it beggars belief).
I didn't care for Glenn Close's performance in the show as a whole: she couldn't transcend the feeling of it being a publicity stunt (which it was). However, she does give the best overall interpretation of "With One Look" live on stage: her body language and impaired vocals get an enormous boost from acting abilities. For those four minutes, she IS Norma Desmond come to life and fully realized. But she drops back into overly-styled and mannered mode for the remainder of the show.
Betty Buckley was competent but far too baroque, Elaine Page was like watching paint dry as she struggled thru. Ironically, the most mesmerizing Norma was Karen Mason, the understudy who spelled Betty Buckley for two weeks. Karen was absolutely gripping from beginning to end: she singlehandedly transformed this lazy trainwreck of a show into something approaching art. I've often wondered if "Sunset Blvd" would have been received quite differently if it had opened on Bway with Karen Mason in the role- she ran away with it in a manner no one had seen since Barbra in Funny Girl. If you weren't lucky enough to catch Karen Mason during those two weeks, you'll never know how good this show could have been in better hands.