Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Parsley
Featured Actor Joined: 1/7/06
#1Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/15/14 at 11:37am
Missed her live on Broadway all those decades ago (!) and caught her understudy when she did it in London but was going through my show dvds and watched this yesterday. Quite AMAZING. And I have never seen a post-number reception from the audience as she got after With One Look where, in character, she tries to get the audience to stop. .spinetingling stuff.
IMO one of ALW's greatest scores
Updated On: 3/15/14 at 11:37 AM
#2Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/15/14 at 11:48amIt was only 2 decades ago lol. And yes, she was remarkable.
bryan2
Broadway Star Joined: 12/19/06
#2Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/15/14 at 12:20pm
I saw pretty much every major Norma and Betty was hands down the best..
Saw her in London and 3x in NYC because I couldn't get enough of the performance. Glenn was crazy from the jump..loved her but vocally just average...Elaine Paige sang it beautiful but her being so small was strangely distracting...Karen Mason was amazing considering they booed when it was announce Glenn Close was out (she had just come back from 2 weeks vaca and was out the first Saturday..not happy) Betty was sad/pathetic/slowly descending into her mental hell...and vocally the roof shook...the ovation after WITH ONE LOOK is something I will never forget...my entire body had goosebumps lol......
bryan2
Broadway Star Joined: 12/19/06
#3Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/15/14 at 12:20pm
I saw pretty much every major Norma and Betty was hands down the best..
Saw her in London and 3x in NYC because I couldn't get enough of the performance. Glenn was crazy from the jump..loved her but vocally just average...Elaine Paige sang it beautiful but her being so small was strangely distracting...Karen Mason was amazing considering they booed when it was announce Glenn Close was out (she had just come back from 2 weeks vaca and was out the first Saturday..not happy) Betty was sad/pathetic/slowly descending into her mental hell...and vocally the roof shook...the ovation after WITH ONE LOOK is something I will never forget...my entire body had goosebumps lol......
bryan2
Broadway Star Joined: 12/19/06
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#5Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/15/14 at 12:40pmBetty is the only Norma I saw. Loved her.
Sthunderrocker
Swing Joined: 3/5/14
#7Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/17/14 at 8:34amI couldn't agree more. Betty Buckley's performance in that show was mesmerizing and memorable. One of the best performances I've seen in the last 30 years.
#8Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/17/14 at 8:56amShe was remarkable and truly elevated the show.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#9Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/17/14 at 9:55am
One of the my favorite performances ever. I saw her a couple of weeks into her Broadway run as a wee young thing, not knowing at all who she was, sitting fifth row and being blown away. How she could sing like that - did she ever stop for breath?! - and still act the hell out of the role, it's always been one of a couple of standard bearers for me. And how she moved those hands? Wow.
Aside from that weird forced one in The Boy of Oz, it was the first and last time I ever experienced and in-show standing ovation, and I never forgot it.
My favorite With One Look of hers, that I could find, is the one she did at the Oliviers...I also happen to be obsesses with that 37 second long push into close-up!
SUNSET BLVD: Betty Buckley at The Oliviers
"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008
mamaleh
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/04
#10Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/17/14 at 10:15amLike Henrikegerman, Betty B. was the only Norma I ever saw. I was also fortunate to see John Barrowman as her Joe Gillis on Broadway when he was filling in for a vacationing Alan Campbell. Both were so very good that I kept wondering why the theater wasn't packed.
#11Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/17/14 at 10:59amBetty was easily the best Norma. She understood the heartbreak so exquisitely and she sang the hell out of that score almost effortlessly.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
dreaming
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/24/09
#12Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/17/14 at 12:20pmI saw Betty Buckley as Norma and couldn't understand why she didn't originate the role-she'd have deserved the Tony for it. She was amazing-a fine balance between the craziness and the heartbreak of the character. And, oh, those pipes. I'd never seen an audience quite explode the way they did after she sang "With One Look" (I loved that song-still do). She stopped the show for a bit. It was amazing-a true tour de force performance.
morosco
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
#13Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/17/14 at 12:45pm
I've come hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooome at last!
If you don't watch the entire clip at least jump ahead to the 8 minute mark. Stunning performance.
As If We Never Said Goodbye
Buscee
Featured Actor Joined: 7/9/05
#14Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/17/14 at 4:54pmAs wonderful as Betty was in the role. Betty would have never sold the tickets the way Glenn Close did. It's business. Glenn Close is a major movie star at the time, and every sit was sold when she was in the show. Once she left no actress was able to fill that theatre. It's basically the same reason Patti didn't play it in New York. Patti wouldn't have been able to fill the Minskoff theatre. Purely a business move. I saw Glenn, Betty, Elaine and Petula all were interesting in their own way. Glenn was amazing. Betty Heart-breaking/ and a powerhouse voice. Elaine was incredible, very Gloria Swanson, and Petula was a real character/ humorous.
#15Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/17/14 at 6:26pmBetty Buckley to me, is the best Broadway singer of al time.. No one else gives me goose bumps when she belts. Corny as it is, I go into another world when she sings Memory.
<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES
#16Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/17/14 at 8:02pm
I was 2 when Betty started in the show. I did not get to see anyone live, but have the boots and pro-shot footage of Betty, Glenn, Elaine, Patti, Petula. Betty’s vocals are easily the best! Petula was horrible- don’t know what she was doing, but I did not like it. Glenn's acting MORE then made up for her vocals.
Darreyl with an L!
Updated On: 3/17/14 at 08:02 PM
Steve721
Stand-by Joined: 2/21/14
#17Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/17/14 at 8:41pmThe other thing you have to remember about Close is the reviews she got. Many critics didn't care that much for the show, but almost all of them went completely gaga for Close. There was also great word of mouth about her--this was a performance you just had to see. And it was a riveting, unforgettable spectacle. IMHO, that's mainly why she filled the theater night after night, despite the inadequacies of her singing.
Sthunderrocker
Swing Joined: 3/5/14
#18Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/18/14 at 4:44am
I never understood that. I'm probably in the minority, but I honestly feel Sunset Blvd may well have been ALW's finest work. The set was incredible as well. And meeting George Hearn at the stage door was a dream come true...
S
frafinley
Swing Joined: 3/11/14
#19Betty Buckley as Norma Desmond
Posted: 3/18/14 at 12:30pmNeed to find more clips of this elsewhere online. WOW. Uncanny. Crazy good.
