MUSICAL THEATRE
Sunset Boulevard, Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; Book & Lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black.
At Princess Theatre Final date announced.
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
Stars: *** (3)
This review is published only on this blog. I’ll present a radio review on Arts Weekly on 3MBS on Sat 1 June 2024. KH
Sarah Brightman - PIC CREDIT DANIEL BOUD
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Sunset Boulevard, is a saccharine, sentimental version of William Wilder’s 1950 movie which is a biting indictment of the Hollywood movie machine and its star system that chews up and spits out its artists.
The narrative is peculiarly reminiscent of The Phantom of the Opera in which a reclusive, older man (the Phantom) is obsessed with a young woman. In Sunset the older, reclusive movie star, Norma Desmond, becomes obsessed with, and virtually imprisons the young, impoverished Hollywood screen writer, Joe Gillis (Tim Draxl).
Even the music and songs, particularly those sung by Norma, echo musical motifs and melodies in Phantom to an unnerving degree. In fact, on the way home I was singing a song from Phantom rather than one from the Sunset!
Sarah Brightman has come to Australia to play Norma, this faded, former star of the silver screen, in a production directed by Paul Warwick Griffin.
Strangely, Brightman’s career is almost a mirror of Norma’s once lauded movie career: the glittering star that Brightman was in Phantom when she initiated the role of Christine Daee all those years ago, is a stark contrast to her stage career decades later.
Brightman has not performed a theatrical role on stage for almost three decades – and it shows. Evidently, she does occasional concerts and has had enormous success with recordings and concerts and is still held in high regard.
She focuses her performance on the other worldliness of Norma, her obsessiveness, delusions, self-absorption and complete alienation from the real world: the real world for Norma being Hollywood movie set which, in fact, is nothing like the real world.
The role requires power, charisma and a commanding stage presence but, unfortunately, Brightman does not have it here. Her voice has not survived all those decades. It has rather too much vibrato and lacks control, although the voice was stronger in the second half and her songs were certainly more affecting.
Her acting is disappointingly wooden, perhaps because she is trying to capture the posturing of a silent movie star. She seems trapped in her body and her range is limited to posing and floating and she lacks the ghoulishness of the magnetic Gloria Swanson.
In the final scene, when Norma trails eerily across her balcony after having killed Joe Gillis, she is surrounded by a swarm of police, cameras and lights. Her total mental breakdown should be moving as we anticipate her famous final line: “Mr. De Mille. I’m ready for my close-up now.” It is not!
Ashleigh Rubenach, Tim Draxl - PIC CREDIT DANIEL BOUD
The supporting actors, in contrast, are compelling. Draxl is full-voiced, charming, vigorous, smart and provocative. We want Joe Gillis to succeed and we want him to get the hell out of that ghastly mansion.
As Betty Schaeffer, Ashleigh Rubenach
is delightfully exuberant with a fine musical theatre voice. We want
Betty’s life to be wonderful because she is the only positive thing I’m
this bleak story.
Playing Norma's valet and protector, Max Von Mayerling, Robert Grubb slips into the shadows and then surges out to rescue Norma. His song, The Greatest Star of All, is touching.
The ensemble is versatile and talented, singing some jazzy, upbeat numbers such as Let’s Do Lunch and Ashley Wallen's choreography is snappy rhythmic, pulsating and unusual.
The design (Morgan Large) is glorious, with a sweeping staircase and Art Nouveau iron work. Sheer scrims edged with lacework drop front of stage, reminding us that Norma lives behind a metaphorical veil which hides her ageing, loss of spirit and mental condition.
Projections (George Reeve) in black-and-white that echo the movie’s film noir style feature the Hollywood sign, Joe’s body floating in a pool and 1950s cars driving towards us.
This production of Sunset Boulevard is a patchy production that is, unfortunately, let down by Brightman as the lead.
by Kate Herbert
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