"Also, by the time it opened on Broadway the era of the big sung through musical had come to an end."
Shame, that.
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ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."
I thought Debra Byrne was fantastic. Yeah, she was a train wreck BEHIND the scenes and missed many shows, but I think it's because the role of Norma resonated too much with her then-current situation. It made her performance fantastic, but in the end caused a complete mental breakdown. Also, Maria Mercedes was her "alternate," not understudy. And she was fantastic as well.
"But your despicable class is dead! Look who they are calling for now!"
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 . 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. . 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.
Glenn Close acted the hell out of the role in LA but she couldn't sing it at all. I had been listening to the Patti version for months and was sadly disappointed at how Glenn seemed to speak/sing her way through the role.
And then by the time she was on the Tony Awards, her makeup had become almost cartoon like.
"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>>
“I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>>
-whatever2
I enjoyed the over the top sets and performance. I am a Webber fan and actually do enjoy the CD on occasion - probably the specific well know songs but I let it play.
I know I saw Glenn but (truth be told) forget who I saw when I went the second time. Not caring to open my Playbill binder to research it - LOL. What I am more disappointed about (on the second trip) was that I did not take advantage of the BCEFA donation to go backstage to tour the mansion after the performance. I was with people who didn't want to do it.
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.)
I haven't wanted to listen to any of the cast recordings for years, but I do seem to recall that the lyrics were not very good...sadly the case for most of Lloyd-Webber's shows after Tim Rice.
I think the show is way too faithful to the movie without capturing any of its mystery, eeriness, and emotional impact. There are some good songs, yes, but there are many unforgettable moments. Really, the idea of making the show an opera was terrible (I think Billy Wilder himself wanted it to be an opera back when Sondheim approached him about it, right?). As Besty said, the operatic elements should be saved for the mansion, whereas the Betty/Joe scenes should have a different tone. I do love "With One Look" and "As If We Never Said Goodbye" though.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
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.
"Petula Clark found humor in the role I hadn't thought was there. "
Not this again. Petula Clark was HORRIBLE as Norma. She is the WORST Norma out of the original productions. She played her like some sort of a second rate Sophia Petrillo knock-off. She was an embarrassment and completely un-watchable. And the things her voice did to Norma's arias should be counted as a sexual assault and battery.
"But your despicable class is dead! Look who they are calling for now!"
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.
My biggest pet peeve right now is when people pronounce it "Marry-us" and not "Mah-ree-us".
"Not this again. Petula Clark was HORRIBLE as Norma. She is the WORST Norma out of the original productions. She played her like some sort of a second rate Sophia Petrillo knock-off. She was an embarrassment and completely un-watchable. And the things her voice did to Norma's arias should be counted as a sexual assault and battery."
It's called having an opinion. But knowing you, I guess that concept is lost on you.
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
--Cartman: South Park
ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."
I don't what you're talking about. The show wasn't a failure. It ran for several years. If you base your judgement of fail in comparison to even longer runs like Phantom - you shouldn't do that because that is not really a reflection of a shows value. Does the show really get done around the country less than other Bway shows which ran for a couple years on Bway? I saw it from the back of the full house with Elaine Page & thought the show was terrific! I do remember lots of issues with the set not working predictably & understudy Karen Mason going on lots. I don't understand an earlier comment about Glen Closes makeup evolving to a cartoon look by TONY time. I'm a lover of makeup & don't see a clean bold makeup as a bad thing at all. More of like a strong, defined through process thing.
I was never a big fan of her performance to be honest. Always found it a bit too campy. Granted, the only frame of reference I have is the album but that's another story.
I saw Close twice in LA and you are exactly right, Mattbrain: her Desmond was only slightly less campy than her Cruella DeVille. The ADVANTAGE of her interpretation is that it covered up many of the flaws in the book, the greatest flaw being that the creators merely followed the screenplay, almost page by page, with no thought for how SUNSET BOULEVARD should work on stage.
Compare to the LuPone recording from London. No, I am not one of the LuPonistas, but she sings Norma Desmond straight from the heart. And in the process, she lays bare how thin the material really is.
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.
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
--Cartman: South Park
ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."