Alone in the dark, with little more than her celluloid memories, Norma Desmond remains what she has always been- the greatest star of all. Now, she has reclaimed the spotlight once more.
Glenn Close returns to Broadway in the tour de force performance that earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress- and a place in Broadway history- in Sunset Boulevard.
Featuring a 40-piece orchestra, the largest in Broadway history, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning masterwork of dreams and desire in the land called Hollywood comes to the Palace Theatre for 16 weeks only following a sold out run in London's West End.
The applause starts when the curtain rises, to reveal a forty-person orchestra onstage -- according to the producers, one of the largest in Broadway history. The mad clapping starts up again a few minutes later, when Glenn Close enters the proceedings, revisiting a role that twenty-two years ago won her the Tony. On the night I saw the show, even a single line of Close's dialogue -- the famous, 'I am big, it's the pictures that got small' zinger -- generated a new round of cheers. This isn't merely the fault of an overeager audience, though. Director Lonny Price and his lead actress seem determined to force you out of the moment, overloading the production with so many 'Major Theatrical Event' moments and signposts that it all starts to sag beneath the weight of its own self-importance.
Glenn Close first played Norma Desmond in the U.S. debut of Sunset Boulevard when it opened in December 1993 at the Shubert Theatre in Century City before bringing the show to Broadway a year later. She's returned in a version that's both stripped down - the scenery is closer in style to an Encores! concert at City Center than John Napier's over-the-top sets back then - and beefed-up, with a 40-piece onstage orchestra at the Palace Theatre that allows Andrew Lloyd Webber's music to take its place as Close's true co-star.
1993 | West End |
Original London Production West End |
1993 | Regional (US) |
Los Angeles Production Regional (US) |
1994 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
1995 | Canada |
Toronto Production Canada |
1996 | US Tour |
1st National Tour US Tour |
1998 | US Tour |
2nd National Tour US Tour |
2004 | London Fringe |
London Concert Revival London Fringe |
2016 | West End |
English National Opera West End Revival West End |
2017 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
2023 | West End |
West End |
2024 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical | Mark Henderson |
2017 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | Sunset Boulevard |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | Sunset Boulevard |
2017 | Theatre World Awards | John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater | Glenn Close |
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