All the tweaking and tightening paid off, it seems. Each change is a major improvement, and the score - and show - that premiered in Los Angeles in 1995 starring Glenn Close is far superior to the one seen by London audiences almost two years earlier. The American Premiere Recording benefits from those improvements, and boasts heightened production values that deliver all the necessary panache of a Broadway cast recording without ever descending to the silliness or slickness of pop opera. Sunset Boulevard remains musical theater in every sense of the word.

So, if the American recording is so vastly improved over this one, why even bother with it? Perhaps the answer lies in the freshness and naivety of a new score - the thrill of the gamble: will this show become the stuff of Broadway legend, or a soon-to-be-forgotten flop? There's only one chance at this kind of excitement; once the singers know they're recording a hit, the fragile bubble is burst. There may be subsequent recordings that far outshine the original, but there's still only ONE original. This World Premiere Recording of Sunset Boulevard suffers from a score that still needed work, a horrid supporting cast, muddled sound mixing in many places, and lack of completeness. But it is STILL the original, and the later recordings have benefited from the 20/20 of hindsight.

Only Patti LuPone shines as the twisted, tragic Norma Desmond, a monster of an ex-movie queen, obsessively trying to recapture a hey-day as irrelevant and irretrievable as the primitive technology upon which it depended. LuPone's was a performance dominated by her big voice, a magnificent instrument capable of lovingly caressing a melody with an eiderdown shudder, or blasting to the second balcony with equal dexterity. As pure ear candy, the Patti LuPone cuts on this recording stand as definitive.

But, in the theater, a good voice - even a phenomenal voice like Miss LuPone's - does not guarantee a proper fit between character and actress. The singing voice is part of the performance, and, thus, must fit the character. It is in this respect that Patti LuPone was miscast, and no matter how glorious her vocalization, there is no escaping the fact that she was clearly wrong for the role.

As interpreted by LuPone, Norma Desmond was anything but a has-been. After all, anyone who could sell a song that well could certainly sell the studio executives on the idea of resurrecting the long-forgotten genre of silent films, and Cecille B. DeMille on directing it. That the story line dooms Norma to failure in her venture is at odds with LuPone's interpretation of the role: this Norma simply would not fail. After all, with that voice, how could she?

Other than her vocal prowess, major hindrances to LuPone's believability were her age and beauty at the time of production - right around 44, and a vibrantly attractive woman, obviously very much in her prime. Perhaps the blueprint for portraying Norma Desmond should be Gloria Swanson's creation of the role in the 1950 film. Although herself a handsome woman, Swanson chose to show Norma as a grotesque creature, exaggerating the make-up and screen queen mannerisms so that she resembled a cross between a debauched transvestite and a hideous medusa. No man in his right mind would take up with such a revolting woman - unless substantial compensation was involved. Hence William Holden's "selling out" was made perfectly clear. He was in it for the money. Swanson also made Norma's eventual descent into homicidal madness all the more captivating; not only was she a walking sideshow, she was nuts, to boot.

Patti LuPone's Norma was no grotesque creature. This is obvious, not only from the production photos included in the CD booklet, but in her lusty renditions of several songs - most notably "The Lady's Paying." In this number, Norma, the quintessential control freak, hires an exclusive men's clothier to remodel Joe into her vision of the well-dressed man. Her almost lascivious reading of several lines ("I love flannel on a man" is rife with double entendre.) makes it clear to all but the pre-pubescent that Norma is hard at work turning Joe into her personal boy-toy. While this adds a comic dimension to an otherwise infuriatingly manipulative woman, it robs the upcoming New Year's Eve scene of its dramatic punch. It's at THAT point we're supposed to find out that Norma's a horny old broad with indecent designs on the youngster. But Patti's already given that away in the previous scene. And, given her sensuous portrayal up to that point, why would Joe bother to refuse?

Being unceremoniously dropped from the upcoming Broadway premiere was, undoubtedly, heart-breaking to Miss LuPone. And, Webber, undoubtedly, was pulled down a peg or two in the eyes of the theater community. Still, there's no denying he made the right choice. Perhaps, had Miss LuPone the benefit of the revised score and script, her performance might have clicked. We'll never know. What we have, instead, is a recording that preserves the work of one of the greatest female vocalists the stage has ever known, and a show - in its infancy - on its way to being the solidly consistent work that premiered in America two years later. As a souvenir of a work in progress, this World Premiere Recording stands unparalleled.


THE BEST RECORDING OF ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER'S MASTERPIECE   January 5, 2005
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This is the first and in my opinion the best SB release regarding the cast and overall performance. The only problem is that this two disc recording is not complete, since some of the dialogue has been cut out, unlike in the American recording. However, everything else is just perfect. If one would compare both recordings, it's obvious that the London cast really sings throughout the entire musical numbers, whereas in the American version featuring Glenn Close and Alan Campbell, the cast sings badly and they overact the dialogue altogether.

The musical is based on the 1950 classic movie by Billy Wilder starring Gloria Swanson, William Holden and Erich Von Stroheim. The plot concerns Norma Desmond, once a big silent movie star, who, after 20 years of being out of the picture business, still believes to be "the greatest star of all". She accidentally meets a 20 years younger unemployed writer Joe Gillis, who grabs the opportunity to edit the script she wrote for her big comeback to the screen, even though he knows it will never happen. That fact is also evident to Norma's butler, Max, but none of them has the heart to tell her the truth. Eventually Joe becomes Norma's lover and uses all the benefits that a life with an elderly and a rich woman has to offer. In the end, when Norma finds out that Paramount won't shoot her script and that Joe is in love with a young girl, she shoots him. When the police arrive at her house on Sunset Blvd, she is in a world of her own, completely unaware of who or where she is, thinking that she is in the studio making her comeback movie and says to all that she is "ready for her close-up". The plot itself is very beautiful and original, showing what can become of a human being when one can't deal with the rejection or acceptance of the present.

When it became known that Andrew Lloyd Webber is going to make the musical based on this classical film, almost every woman in show business wanted the role of Norma, from Angela Lansbury to Meryl Streep or Liza Minnelli. However, the honor went to Patti LuPone, who became well-known in the musical theatre after she played the lead in the Broadway production of Evita in 1979. She delivered a stunning performance at Webber's Sydmonton festival in 1992, refusing to use the book on the stage, which, together with her amazing vocal abilities, secured her the role. The contract was signed stipulating that LuPone will play Norma in London as well as on Broadway.

The show opened in July 1993 in London. The American premiere was in December that year in LA with Glenn Close playing the lead. Since the Paramount, who co-produced the show, was strongly in favor of Close, they put a squeeze on Webber to use her on Broadway instead of LuPone, to which he eventually yielded. LuPone's contract was cancelled; she sued Webber and won a hefty out of court settlement. Replacement of LuPone was a lousy call on Webber's behalf, since Glenn Close's vocal abilities were very limited, which certainly didn't help the American premiere. It was probably one of the main reasons why the show didn't last too long on Broadway.

Ms. LuPone's performance in this recording is stunning. This was my first time I heard her sing and it was enough to convince me that her portrayal of Norma Desmond can be considered definite. Her deliverance of `With one look' blows me away every time I hear it. It just goes to show that Glenn Close was terribly miscast for the role of Norma, because she really doesn't have the voice for the musical numbers and she overacts the dialogue sequences, making her Norma very unconvincing and truly grotesque. Patti's interpretation of the dialogue on this version is very bitchy and strong, but in a more subtle and persuasive way than Glenn's; so Patti gives the impression she IS Norma, and Ms. Close sounds like she is acting it BADLY.

Kevin Anderson was also a wise choice for the role of Joe Gillis. He has very smooth, pleasant and soft voice that works equally well not only in his big numbers, such as Sunset Boulevard, but also in the dialogue, where his nonchalance seems very appropriate for his character's actions.

Daniel Benzali's Max is dark and he seems to have a right touch of a foreign accent. He is superb during his big number The greatest star of all. Meredith Braun plays Betty Schaefer, and although Judy Kuhn does a fine job in the American version, she sounds a bit too mature for a 22 year-old Betty, while Meredith Braun's voice is much gentler, but it also shows its value during her duet with Kevin Anderson in Too much in love to care.

As far as the score, I think it's among Andrew Lloyd Webber's best, even though the melodies repeat themselves, but they form a nice whole and in the end you don't mind it much. The melodies are jazzy, lush and vibrant in the finest Lloyd Webber way. The opening theme will stay in your head long after you've heard it for the first time.

I strongly recommend this recording to anyone who wants to experience SB for all its grandeur. Except for the wonderful score, you'll hear the first class cast in all this, and Patti's Norma will certainly move you. The CD booklet provides the musical numbers and the dialogue. Only after you hear this original, you may consider buying the American version if you are a SB fan like me, but you'll only find yourself disappointed after hearing Patti and the others on this CD. Buy the London version today and you'll find yourself returning to it over and over again.



This sun has set but let's remember the music. It's some of Webber's best.   January 7, 2006
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

The film this Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is based on is considered by many as one of the greatest film's ever made. The character of Norma Desmond is as legendary as the woman who portrayed her, Gloria Swanson. Andrew Lloyd Webber took a big chance in taking this classic material and turning it into a musical. For many, it was a colossal failure but for others, it was an astounding success.


The story centres around the tragic figure of Joseph Gillis (Kevin Anderson). A starving Hollywood writer who accidently stumbles upon Norma Desmond (Patti Lupone), a forgotten silent screen star who for years has been planning a "come-back". Norma Desmond then falls madly in love with Joe and she convinces him to help her write an epic motion-picture that she is to star in to cement her super-stardom once again. She is completely oblivious to the fact that cinema has changed and there is no room for an aging silent screen "has-been" in the Hollywood the "talkies" gave birth to.

Other colourful characters are Norma Desmond's bleak but likable Butler Max, Joe's best buddy Artie and his gal-pal Betty Schaeffer. Anyone who has ever seen the film knows that it ends tragically.

This is a great story and I think Andrew Lloyd Webber did a fantastic job musically in capturing the essence of Hollywood in the 1950's. The music is glamorous, tragic and deeply moving and it spawned 2 huge musical theatre numbers- the haunting "With One Look" and "As If We Never Said Good-bye". But these two songs are far from being the only good songs in the bunch.

The musical opens with the clumsy "Let's Have Lunch". Despite the repetitive lyrics the song features energetic performances and an infectious melody. The mood is brought down to a depressing level when Norman Desmond is introduced. Singing an emotional lullaby called "Surrender" to her dead chimp, we're immediately struck by her forceful personality and deeply moved by her vulnerability. "Surrender" is almost immediately followed by the epic "With One Look" where Lupone shows off her big voice.

Another musical highlight is the simple but intensely moving "New Ways To Dream". The song features gorgeous orchestrations and another heart-felt performance by Lupone.

There are still huge debates as to who is better, Patti Lupone or Glen Close (the U.S Norma Desmond). Dramatically speaking, I like both women because they both give strong, solid performances but vocally, I prefer Lupone. Her voice has changed a bit since she originated the role of Eva Peron in the U.S production of EVITA back in 1979 but it is still quite strong and it's still able to achieve moments of great beauty.
Glen Close's voice is an acquired taste. Her tone is rather harsh and unconventional. It's all a matter of opinion.

Kevin Anderson is also given a few moments to shine. The memorable title tune sung by Joe opens the second act and the lovely duet between Joe and Betty Schaeffer, "Too Much In Love To Care" is another gem.

Like Webber's previous works, the orchestrations in SUNSET BLVD are lush and if you're one of his many fans, they're extremely pleasing to the ear. Although SUNSET BLVD is not my personal favourite Webber score (PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and EVITA take the crown) it's still a compelling and well-executed piece. Combining a classic character with some stylish and harmonious songs, this morality tale set to music should not disappoint.

Highly recommended.

NOTE:

This 1993 version is not the complete recording of the stage play. Some changes to the score and book were made when the musical transferred to the U.S in 1994. If you would like a more complete and updated edition, then I recommend getting the American Premiere Recording with Glen Close. However, keep in mind that there are differences in the way Close and Lupone sing and act their parts. Like I mentioned earlier, I prefer Lupone's voice and interpretation.