VIDEO: On This Day, July 12- Patti LuPone Opens SUNSET BOULEVARD on the West End

On this day in 1993, Patti LuPone starred as Norma Desmond in the premiere production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. See Patti below singing the signature song, "With One Look" from the show's world premiere at the 1992 Sydmonton Festival!

Based on Billy Wilder's classic Academy Award-winning film, Sunset Boulevard features a celebrated book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton.)

In her mansion on Sunset Boulevard, faded, silent-screen goddess, Norma Desmond, lives in a fantasy world. Impoverished screen writer, Joe Gillis, on the run from debt collectors, stumbles into her reclusive world. Persuaded to work on Norma's 'masterpiece', a film script that she believes will put her back in front of the cameras, he is seduced by her and her luxurious life-style. Joe becomes entrapped in a claustrophobic world until his love for another woman leads him to try and break free with dramatic consequences.

SUNSET BOULEVARD ran for almost four years at the Adelphi Theatre and played to nearly two million people. The American premiere was at the Shubert Theatre in Century City, Los Angeles in December 1993 with Glenn Close as Norma. The musical was an instant success and played 369 performances before moving to Broadway in 1994 with, what was then, the biggest advance in Broadway history, at $37.5 million.