SUNSET BOULEVARD to the 18th April 2009
SUNSET BOULEVARD
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Book and Lyrics Don Black and Christopher Hampton
Based on the Billy Wilder Film
Comedy Theatre, Panton St , London, SW1Y 4DN to the 18th April 2009
Monday – Saturday at 7:30pm, Matinee Wednesday and Saturday 2:30pm
Runs 2hrs 20mins. One interval
TICKETS: 0870 060 6637
www.theambassadors.com/comedy
Review: Geoff Ambler 16th December 2008.
This Watermill revival delivers a deliciously luscious spectacle, filled with more powerful music, love and tragedy than Hollywood ever managed
Director Craig Revel Horwood’s Sunset Boulevard, recently revived at the exceptional Watermill Theatre, waltzes into the Comedy Theatre, endowed with the simmering passions, soaring orchestrations and the black and white movie grandeur that would have raised Norma Desmond into a Gloria Swanson style big screen star.
Boulevard, now in its tighter format, is a rich, powerful production that envelops you, from the opening gunshot, in the drama as well as Lloyd Webbers plush music; music that is performed, like some of the Watermills previous productions, by most of the cast. The performers use of their instruments brings further depth to their characters, dancing around the stage singing, playing flutes, trombones and double bass’, all the time building on the layers of illusion that both musical theatre and Revel Horwood cast on their audience.
The book is one of love, unrequited, tragic and ardent; it’s an enthralling tale of a faded movie star, Norma Desmond, whose flames of self importance have been fuelled by her thoroughly enigmatic butler Max Von Mayerling. Desmond, played magnificently by Kathryn Evans who brings an over-dramatic, silent movie style to the fore, finds young and broke writer Joe Gillis, to assist her in her comeback screen play and while she desperately clings onto him, he finds a soul mate in Betty Schaefer and falls Too Much In Love To Care.
Ben Goddard’s brooding, almost louche, writer, Gillis, plays an engagingly charismatic opportunist whose flashes of heart and heated passion are riveting. With Laura Pitt-Pulfords ever effervescent Schaefer, their chemistry sparks and builds through the show, eventually erupting in a scorching passionate embrace, all set to one of Lloyd Webbers finest. The entire ensemble of actor/musicians are a thrill to watch and neat choreography compliments their performances which at times verge on a wonderfully chaotic mix of character and orchestra.
Diego Pitarch’s effective monochrome set, with a single spiral staircase set amid organ pipes and cobwebs, hints of sumptuous but jaded surroundings and resurrects flashes of a long lost silent movie era.
As the flamboyant but vulnerable aged star, in search of a lost life, Kathryn Evans delivers an exceptional and enchanting Norma Desmond. The Watermill seems to have found the perfect recipe for what was originally an unremarkable Webber musical and may the sun never set on this unalloyed musical delight.
Heather: Elisa Boyd
Artie Green: Tomm Coles
Sheldrake: Alexander Evans
Norma Desmond: Kathryn Evans
Mary: Kate Feldschreiber
Joe Gillis: Ben Goddard
Manfred: Sam Kenyon
Frank: Nick Lashbrook
Hog-Eye/Shadow MD: Tarek Merchant
Cecil B DeMille: Craig Pinder
Betty Schaefer: Laura Pitt-Pulford
Joanna: Helen Power
Max Von Meyerling: Dave Willetts
Director: Craig Revel Horwood
Arrangements & Musical Supervisor: Sarah Travis
Designer: Diego Pitarch
Lighting Designer: Richard G Jones
Sound Designer: Gary Dixon
Music: Andrew Lloyd-Webber
Book & Lyrics: Don Black and Christopher Hampton
2008-12-20 09:15:56