I went into Sunset Boulevard cold. My husband saw it in the West End 30 years ago with Patty LuPone. I didn’t know the story, and I only knew a little of the music. While he was eager to tell me about the differences between the shows at intermission (and after), he didn’t need to tell me much. The staging, which I knew ahead of time was different, was totally obvious.
Should you see Sunset Boulevard with kids? I’ll share more at the end.
Read on only if you don’t mind spoilers.
Sunset Boulevard did not really have a set. On a few occasions, there were simple chairs. Otherwise, it was a plain stage and a large screen that went up and down on occasion. Like a movie screen.
The costumes were all black and white – simple. The ensemble’s costumes were basically hip hop wear – not reminiscent of the 1950s at all. Norma’s wore a black slip dress – no shoes at all during the performance. The only color came from one red screen late in the show. It didn’t take a film studies student to realize it was mirroring a black and white film, as Norma Desmond had been a silent film star.
We saw the show with Nicole Scherzinger. She is not in all the performances, and you’ll know when buying the ticket if she is performing in that show. There’s a lot of controversy about whether she’s a good fit for the role. Her voice was awesome. I thought her acting was good, but others disagree with me.
The Sunset Boulevard plot: Aging silent film star who can’t cut it in the ‘talkies’ because of her voice becomes reclusive. Young male script writer down on his luck gets taken in as a kept man by Norma and chaos ensues. There’s an unconvincing love triangle.
An oddity: There was a line in the show about Norma being 40 and I said out loud “she’s only 40?” Because her kept man was probably 25-28 – an age difference, yes. But not out of the realm. And for a woman to be so washed up “and about a million years old” according to someone on Cecil B. DeMille’s set, that’s not 40. Why not just leave her in her 50s? Also, there’s something ironic about a fading silent film star with a spectacular singing voice.
The filming: That screen that comes down throughout the show is for close-ups and different views of the actors, taken by another actor holding a camera on stage. The merging of film and theater. Totally different than anything I’d seen before. You can argue whether it was effective – reasonable minds will differ. It is certainly distracting to have the camera on stage but it was interesting to see the angles and they used the staging and the facial close-ups to great effect.
When we got into the theater, the ushers made a very big deal about us staying in our seats and not letting people in once the show started. Now, I’ve seen A LOT of Broadway shows and this seemed excessive. It stood out to me. And after intermission I knew why. (Also the program doesn’t list the numbers – another oddity we thought about)
The screen came down at the end of intermission and the camera was backstage following Tom (boy toy) as he made his way from the theater’s 7th floor, down 7 flights of stairs, past Norma, past a cardboard cutout of Andrew Lloyd Webber, past other cast members and past a bunch of Easter eggs. And we’re waiting for him to come out onto the stage.
But no! He goes into the lobby and out the door. Onto 44th Street. Where he’s singing and walking – during the show! He meets up with the ensemble (and the monkey) and then the theater’s side door opens – right where we were sitting – and he comes in and walks onto the stage.
Again, many will argue about the effectiveness of this scene. I was blown away. It’s a scene where he’s pondering what his life has become and he just needs to walk and think. My husband thought it would have been better to just stand on the stage like in the original show.
Leaving aside whether it was a good or bad idea, it was well executed. I spoke with a friend who used to work in TV production who hated the show. But she was blown away by how they were able to do this with the sound and the cords – and make it work so well from a technical point of view. I did a deep dive after the show into how it worked – there was a good New York Times story on it going through the 6 minutes and 62 people involved in carrying this off.
Also, some have filmed parts of it as they’re outside the theater (on purpose or just walking by) and see it happening. How fun would that be?
Should you see Sunset Boulevard with kids?
It depends on their age. It is not a show that would appeal to young kids. The plot isn’t interesting for kids: Aging woman who is going crazy and takes up with a boy toy who has financial troubles? Not exactly a typical kid pic. Kids might like the camera aspect, including some silly close-ups with Norma making faces. But you don’t need Broadway for that. And (SPOILER ALERT) there is a scene at the end with some dramatic lighting (black and then burst of light) and a bunch of blood. So maybe take your high school kids if they’re interested, or middle school if they are theater nerds and really want to see it. But leave the young ones at home or go see something else.
I found Sunset Boulevard to be an interesting show and I’m glad I went. It was a unique experience and I appreciated that it was something different. At the end, the credits ran on the screen, just like in a movie. Again, it went with the theme.