John Napier's Brilliant Set Designs for the original SUNSET BOULEVARD

[morosco]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 3:54pm

Watch the video linked below. It is video captured from the infrared stage manager's camera located on the balcony rail. It allows us to "see in the dark". Napier's designs were truly mind blowing. He fit a huge amount of scenery onto that stage! This video is from a preview performance in London. LuPone stars.

 
SUNSET BOULEVARD - West End (July, 1993)

Updated On: 4/10/24 at 03:54 PM

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 6:30pm

The "split screen" of "This Time Next Year" is one of the best pieces of staging I've ever seen, if not the best.

Updated On: 4/10/24 at 06:30 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 6:55pm

I went to the opening of the US Tour in Denver. If I remember correctly they had installed the new hydraulics for the tour and, I think, Broadway (?).  That "split screen" was pretty impressive. We were sitting 3rd row center. The mansion set "swung" in and out. We could literally feel the breeze from it. When it just lifted for that scene we were like "Oh my God"! I remember sitting there thinking I would be a bit nervous performing knowing that gigantic set was sitting right above me!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 7:23pm

The hydraulics were installed in each city the tour played so only select theatres were physically capable of housing the tour production, which was a carbon-copy of the Broadway production (the mansion set scale was only a few feet smaller than its Broadway counterpart). It took 10 days to construct the set and its tracks once it arrived at each city so the production cast and crew had a long break between cities so many got to spend time at home until their first performance. Each tour stop ran about 2-3 months so it was a semi sit down production in each city. It only played 7 theatres in the U.S. during its 1 year run: June 1996 to June 1997. 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 7:37pm

Thanks, Morosco, for posting that footage. I saw the original set in '93 at the Shubert in LA with Glen Close pre-Broadway.  I'm certain Norma's touring car was added to the production I remember.

Also, until watching this video, I had no idea the mansion set piece tracked downstage and upstage as well as flying up and down. Does anyone know where it stored when out of sight? Was it all the way upstage in its raised position behind the last drop? Or did it fly all the way out overhead? (Seems impossible, given all the other flying sets in the show.) 

Napier's design here is the epitome of mammoth spectacle that sadly seems like a Bway luxury we'll never get again.

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 7:42pm

By far my favorite set design of all time (obviously). 

[thirtythirtyninety]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 7:50pm

I really wish that we had pro-shots of the original sets/staging for Napier’s 4 massive achievements:

Cats, Les Mis, Sunset and even Starlight Express; if only to immortalize those remarkable designs.

The set in the CATS recording pales in comparison to Napier’s original 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 7:55pm

The mansion was stored upstage on stage level between performances. During performances it was housed up in the flies. Norma’s Isotta Fraschini car was stored up in the flies when not in use in the show. 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 7:56pm

Greatest ever set design by the best designer in theatre history. 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 8:01pm

For your viewing pleasure, here’s the pro shot press reel which is a full hour of the original 1994 Broadway production with Glenn Close, Alan Campbell, George Hearn, and Alice Ripley:

 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 8:52pm

"The mansion was stored upstage on stage level between performances. During performances it was housed up in the flies."

Thanks for that, Brody! It seems astonishing that all the flying in the show could still work, never mind the lighting banks, with that monstrosity sharing the flyspace. Wow. (Now I remember-- I'd heard that the floor of the mansion contained banks of lighting units for use while in its out position.)

I actually worked for John Napier for several months drafting the US version of STARLIGHT EXPRESS, and then a couple years later on SIEGFRIED & ROY at the MIRAGE. In his prime, there was no designer more brilliant as a sculptor of shapes in motion than he. Was he a peach of a person? Anyone who remembers his grouchy Tony acceptance speech will know the answer to that. But I felt like I had hit the jackpot for the months spent in his studio.

 

Updated On: 4/10/24 at 08:52 PM

[jagman106]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 9:29pm

Am I correct in remembering that the mansion set was so massive and complex that special construction/building permits were necessary, that the set had to meet prevailing building codes, and it was subject to periodic building inspections? I seem to remember a lot of discussion about this before the show opened in New York, raising anticipation of a truly spectacular set. I saw the show in London before it opened in New York, so I knew what to expect, but I was still impressed when I saw the Broadway production shortly after opening.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 10:23pm

The pre-Broadway Los Angeles production was spruced up from its original 1993 London World Premiere production. Norma’s Isotta Fraschini car wasn’t seen in London when the show made it debut. After the Los Angeles production opened, the London production was paused for a few weeks to implement the new changes added from Los Angeles, including the addition of Norma’s car as well as the new Kabuki style Norma make-up design created by Glenn Close.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 11:12pm

I think the most recent set design that made me gasp - much like this set/transition - was the Angels Revival. At the end of Act 1 when the entire stage deck was moved back to make way for another stage deck for Act 2, I was astonished. Just gorgeously designed. 

Updated On: 4/10/24 at 11:12 PM

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 11:22pm

Funny enough, for as much as I loved the Angels revival, that set looked RICKETY at times. Conceptually great, execution? Was rough each time I saw it. 

[FANtomFollies]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 11:23pm

Napier's designs remain in a league all their own.

I have to say, even though the new Sunset coming to Broadway is super minimalist there are moments and visuals that made my jaw drop when I saw the show in London. I think most of the people complaining of it being scaled down have not seen it. 

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/10/24 at 11:57pm

I watched this early in its run in London. The set was crazy, super impressive. I kinda hated Patti in the role but luckily got to watch it again on Broadway with Betty Buckley and loved it. A flawed musical for sure, but still impressive.

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 4/11/24 at 1:13am

There was plenty to critique about the extravagances back in the day but man do I miss the era of insanely big sets and little to no projections

[TBFL]

Posted: 4/11/24 at 2:42am

TaffyDavenport said: "The "split screen" of "This Time Next Year" is one of the best pieces of staging I've ever seen, if not the best."

The Jamie Lloyd production heading to NYC has a nice little homage to that staging. When they light the scene, the light only goes up to about the height That the house raised to in the original. Not sure if it was intentional, seems too similar for it not to be.

As great as that set design is, it's cost was also it's downfall.

Updated On: 4/11/24 at 02:42 AM

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 4/11/24 at 12:00pm

Still astonished that they toured with a pretty faithful recreation of the brilliant set. And with a relative unknown in the lead no less! Linda Balgord was the only Norma I'm aware of who sang "With One Look" without that atrocious key change at the end they added for Close. Even Buckley sang the Close keys :(

Would have been thrilling to see this on tour, but sadly I think the first tour flopped. They toured a second production with Petula Clark, but nothing near as extravagant. I think they made it a "concept" tour where the entire show was taking place on a movie set. Really an excuse to cut costs. Sad.

 

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 4/11/24 at 1:44pm

Wasn't there a touring set for SUNSET BLVD that featured blueprint draftings as a graphic replacement for the built spaces? Boy, would I have been disappointed after seeing the original...

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/11/24 at 2:22pm

Here’s footage of the scaled-down 2nd U.S. National Tour led by Petula Clark. I will say this, the lavish reveal of the mansion staircase is quite fabulous.

 

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/11/24 at 2:30pm

The scaled down tour set with the staircase and the curtains looks like Phantom.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 4/11/24 at 2:35pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "Here’s footage of the scaled-down 2nd U.S. National Tour led by Petula Clark. I will say this, the lavish reveal of the mansion staircase is quite fabulous.

The video description is just... IJBOL:

 

"The obscenely bad 2nd US tour with Petula Clark hagging it up as Norma. Rushed and done on the cheap, it was the final attempt to make any money off of the show after all the major productions shut down. This is bad, trust me. For "Sunset Boulevard" completists only.

 

I see what Susan Schulman was going for with this; she wanted to do a surreal take on the show, making it look like a fantasy set entirely on a sound stage with simulated dollies and close-ups, etc. However, she did not have the time, money, resources or talent to pull this off. Shame. Note that by this time, the Isotta Fraschini has been reduced to a magnified cardboard cut-out and the set was just a staircase that looked like a rejected set piece from Maury Yeston's "Titanic." Lewis Cleale phones it in as Joe and Allen Fitzpatrick is horribly miscast as Max. Seriously, what's up with the beard and emaciated facial features? He looks like Skeletor with facial hair!

 

I also just LOVE the implication here that Norma had an affair with Rudolph Valentino; it has all the subtlety of getting run over by a mac truck. I don't know what Petula Clark is doing with that last note, but something tells me I don't want to know...

 

Remember, showering ANY kind of praise on this makes Baby Jesus cry. There, I said it."

Updated On: 4/11/24 at 02:35 PM

[Dolly80]

Posted: 4/12/24 at 2:58am

TBFL said: "TaffyDavenport said: "The "split screen" of "This Time Next Year" is one of the best pieces of staging I've ever seen, if not the best."

The Jamie Lloyd production heading to NYC has a nice little homage to that staging. When they light the scene, the light only goes up to about the height That the house raised to in the original. Not sure if it was intentional, seems too similar for it not to be.

As great as that set design is, it's cost was also it's downfall."

That ‘homage’ comment is quite the reach🤣