If there’s one thing better than enjoying the score of a classic musical it’s hearing it played live by a big orchestra. Throw a major star into the mix and the combination is irresistible.
That’s what happened last year when Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel dazzled London in a semi-staged production of Sondheim’s SWEENEY TODD for English National Opera (ENO) at the London Coliseum on St Martin’s Lane.
The venture was a collaboration between the renowned company and the GradeLinnit Company, who’s avowed aim is to bring musical theatre productions to this formidable opera house.
It’s just been announced that next up in the series will be a chance to see movie star Glenn Close as Norma Desmond in SUNSET BOULEVARD, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, based on the original Paramount film by Billy Wilder.
I’ve seen Close on stage before, giving a mesmerising performance as southern belle, Blanche Dubois in A STREET CAR NAMED DESIRE at the National Theatre. Unlike some film actors she really is as great live as as she is on the screen.
The production will be her West End debut and her first reprisal of the role since she first played it to great acclaim in America winning a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and a Dramalogue Award for the Broadway production directed by Trevor Nunn.
Close is a six-time Academy Award nominated actress and has appeared in more than 35 films including THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, THE BIG CHILL, THE NATURAL, FATAL ATTRACTION, DANGEROUS LIAISONS, and ALBERT NOBBS which she co-produced and for which she co-wrote the screenplay. On TV she notably starred in the series DAMAGES, which earned her a Golden Globe Award. Her upcoming films include WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY, WILDE WEDDING and SHE WHO BRINGS GIFTS.
Lloyd Webber’s SUNSET BOULEVARD originally premièred in London at the Adelphi Theatre in 1993, where it ran for almost four years and played to nearly two million people. It went on to open on Broadway in 1994 to what was then, the biggest advance in Broadway history, $37.5million! The composer said today: “I am thrilled that London audiences will at last get a chance to see Glenn's performance in the role of Norma Desmond which was so hugely acclaimed in the USA."
The press release describes the plot as follows -
“In her mansion on Sunset Boulevard, faded, silent-screen goddess, Norma Desmond, lives in a fantasy world. Impoverished screen writer, Joe Gillis, on the run from debt collectors, stumbles into her reclusive world. Persuaded to work on Norma’s ‘masterpiece’, a film script that she believes will put her back in front of the cameras, he is seduced by her and her luxurious life-style. Joe becomes entrapped in a claustrophobic world until his love for another woman leads him to try and break free with dramatic consequences”
The strictly limited run of 43 performances begins on 1 April 2016 with press night on 4 April 2016 at 7.30pm and the final performance on 7 May 2016.
The full ENO orchestra will accompany the performers with further casting to be announced shortly.
Tickets are available from Tuesday 29 September 2015 but be warned if last year is anything to go by they’ll be snapped up pretty quickly.
A stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning film Brokeback Mountain has been given to go ahead by Annie Proulx, the writer of the original 1997 short story, and it looks as though we might be seeing the heart-breaking love story in the West End as early as next year.