Angela Lansbury in Sunset Boulevard

[MisterRussell]

HATE Sunset Blvd. the musical. HATED LuPone in the role, HATED Close in the role. HATED that every song sounds like another ALW song from another show. Sold my birthday gift double CD after one listening.

LOVE As If We Never Said Goodbye and With One Look - but only when sung by Betty Buckley.

HATEHATEHATE hearing somebody sing "SUNset Boooooooooooluhvard!"

[sondheimgeek]

"I really don't think Sondheim would have done a very good job with it, and I think it really needed the big orchestrations that Lloyd Webber for the most part delivered upon."

Well if you're incinuating that Sondheim can't do big orchestrations, you're very wrong. And that's really a collaboration between the orchestrator and the composer. Listen to Follies and then tell me he can't write grand compositions.

I still think Sunset Boulevard written by Jerry Herman would have been sensational.

[EponineAmneris]

"Unfortunately, we got... what we got when Lloyd Webber obtained the rights." --- ray-andallthatjazz86

Couldn't have said it better myself!

The only thing I like about Webber's SB is Michael Ball singing SUNSET BOULEVARD.

[Mr Roxy]

Mister Russell

Did you not like it? Please clarify your statements

[Barnaby151]

Wow it's pretty ridiculous how negative everyone is towards anything Andrew Lloyd Webber and how everything Sondheim touches is praised. Sure, Webber's music sounds similar to each other, but Sondheim's all sounds even more similar

[philly03]

Thankyou "Barnaby151"! In all honesty, I don't get why so many posters dislike Andrew Lloyd Webber? Is it because he is extremely success in a field where no one can really be a multi-millionaire? Does Sondheim even like musical theatre that much? No! And I actually don't mind Lloyd Webber ripping off from his own music..there great songs and they sold before and they'll sell again.

[LadyRosecoe]

Sondheim can declare that he hates musical theatre and that he hates me and every fan he's ever had. I'd still not care so much if he were to continue giving us spectacular art. Talk about separating the man from the music.

And when is success a measure of greatness? Maybe in one respect, but not factually so in others.

[frontrowcentre2]

My problem with ALW is that he doesn't have a clue as to how a musical should be structured. He writes gorgeous melodies but he hasn't any idea how to spot them effectively in a story. The two big numbers from SUNSET simply recap what has just been covered in the text without adding anything more. I know about "savoring the moment" but instead of drawing us into Norma's private world, it bores us with repetition. We learn nothing new. Music (and lyrics) must enrich the show, not merely be a bottle of chocolate fudge sauce poured all over everything to make it “sweeter.”