A Stripped-down "Sunset Blvd" Shines

DIRECTOR Jamie Lloyd's version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Blvd" breathes new life to the legendary 30-year-old musical by stripping it down to the basics.

Without lavish sets and costumes, the outstanding cast led by Nicole Scherzinger as the former and forgotten silent movie star Norma Desmond heavily relies on their sheer acting, singing, and dancing prowess sans the usual spectacle associated with this production.

Chairs, lights, and a video projection screen fill the stage and replace the floating mansion of the original staging. From start to end of the musical, the audience is treated to something akin to experimental theatre.

For those familiar with the movie or who have seen Patti LuPone on the West End staging or Glenn Close on Broadway, Lloyd's version is a total departure from them. No lavish sets, no vintage car on set — just a big, 23-foot LCD screen.

'Sunset Boulevard' tells the story of Joe Gillis (Tom Francis), a down-on-his-luck writer who finds a ticket out of his predicament as Desmond hires him to help write a script for her comeback movie. "This oldest story in the book," as Joe himself describes it, will not end well for everyone.
The musical takes a cinematic approach, from the first scene where Joe unzips himself out of the body bag to the opening credits (yes, there's that). The celluloid touch is apt considering that the story is about Hollywood and the rise and fall of one of its biggest stars; the musical is an adaptation of the 1950s movie hit starring Gloria Swanson and William Holden.

Lloyd tightened the storytelling and gave room to characterization. Cutting two numbers from the original ("The Lady's Paying," "Eternal Youth Is Worth A Little Suffering"), updating lyrics for the times, and slowing down some songs reveal more of the characters' motivations. Complementing this is the innovative use of live camera work projected on the screen, showing close-ups that get the audience into the characters' minds, letting them see the events through their eyes. This allows the audience to enter a world that has slowed down, where time has stopped, and which has left Desmond behind, plunging her character's descent into madness.

Only a capable actress can handle the demands of this role and Scherzinger slays. The prolonged notes, vocal dynamics, and the character's mood shifts effectively captured and projected onscreen elicited humor and pathos, bringing thunderous applause from the audience. Scherzinger's powerful performance, which earned her an Olivier for Best Actress in a Musical, has made her the Norma Desmond for this generation.

Francis fleshes Gillis' character as an ambitious, unscrupulous man who has cast aside his idealism yet is bogged down with his sense of desperation and cynicism. Despite making his cruel intentions clear, the audience is still tempted to feel sorry for him. No wonder he also won an Olivier for Best Actor in this musical.

The supporting characters are not cardboard cutouts either. Betty Schaefer (Grace Hodgett Young), the aspiring writer/assistant to a studio executive who falls for Gillis, becomes his moral compass, reminding him of how good a writer he was.

Past versions just say that Artie Green (performed by Diego Andres Rodriguez), Joe's best friend, loves Betty so much. In this rendition, the wide screen and close-up shots show the extent of his heartbreak as Joe and Betty fall for each other.

Max Von Mayerling (David Thaxton), Norma's first husband and one of the famed film directors of yesteryear along with Cecil DeMille and D.W. Griffith, carries a sense of dread and foreboding. Yet he protects her from the outside world, letting her live in the fantasy that she's still a star.

Noteworthy to mention is Desmond's younger version, played by Hannah Yun Chamberlain who dances interpretatively to echo her glory days. The seamless and astonishing dissolve onscreen of a closeup from Scherzinger to a young Chamberlain led to gasps from the audience.

Lloyd's stylized approach makes the ensemble, all clad in black, the centerpiece impeccably choreographed by Fabian Aloise, a two-time Olivier nominee. The lighting design by Jack Knowles (who won an Olivier for this musical) maneuvres the audience from the real to the unreal along with Norma's journey.

Brimming with energy throughout, the musical feels and looks young. Act 2's opening number, "Sunset Boulevard," sets the stage for the climax as the camera follows Francis, powerfully singing from the backstage then out on the streets and onto the stage. The superb technical logistics behind the seamless sound quality for this scene ensured that the bond between Francis and the audience was not disrupted.

Then there's the grandeur of the music filling the St. James Theater as performed by an 18-piece orchestra led by Alan Williams.

The new generation of theatregoers will love the camera work in this one. While this isn't the first play that uses handheld cameras, the inundation of extreme close-ups and facial expressions on the screen evokes the social media videos that influence daily life. This could have made the musical campy in the wrong hands. However, the message resonates clearly for today's generation: the need to be always on-screen to avoid being forgotten like Norma Desmond.

"Sunset Blvd" runs at St. James Theatre in New York, New York until July 2025. For details, visit sunsetblvdbroadway.com. More photos on my insta.

(First published in Manila Times' Sunday Times on 17th November 2024.)