Fans of the original production might find themselves a little confused by The Jamie Lloyd Company’s revival of Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy Theatre. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s epic Hollywood tragedy has been given a modern reinvention by director, Jamie Lloyd, and it’s unlike anything you might have seen before. Norma Desmond is back, and she’s fierce.
The plot remains largely the same, with faded film star Norma Desmond, a casualty of the invention of ‘the talkies’, trying to revive her career by writing a film version of Salome with the help of impoverished writer Joe Gillis. Some bits of Don Black and Christopher Hampton’s book have been cut, though Andrew Lloyd Webbers sweeping score remains just as beautiful as ever, and with new orchestrations, succeeds in stirring the senses in all new ways.
It starts with a projection telling us it’s 1949, it really shouldn’t matter here because Lloyd’s production is not confined to any kind of fixed time period. Betty Schaefer finishes her script on a MacBook Pro, for example, and Norma Desmond feels more like a TikTok celebrity than a Hollywood icon.
The original production was renowned for lavish costumes and its huge heaving set that saw an entire mansion rise up to allow other sets to slide in underneath. This Sunset Boulevard has a set deigned by Soutra Gilmour and is stripped back to the point of being a virtually empty space.
The costume design, also by Gilmour, create a sense of old-world elegance while being thoroughly modern, Norma Desmond wears a simple black dress throughout, even for her return to the studio, and like everything else on stage are black and white.
It’s clear Lloyd has gone for a film noir look, and it is very cinematic, a large screen shows most of the action, as well as opening and end credits. It is of course a nod to both the themes of the musical, and its original incarnation as a black and white movie. It looks fantastic, although in the second act a little too much happens off stage leaving us with just the screen to follow what’s happening.
While it does seem to take some inspiration from Daniel Fish’s wildly successful reinvention of Oklahoma; think stripped back set, cameras on stage and the theatre plunged into darkness at key moments, we do get to see real innovation on display here.
The opening of the second act is probably an unnecessary indulgence, and it’s been done before (kind of) at the National, but…it’s strangely fabulous, possibly one of the most exciting parts of the show, and on press night achieved a well deserved standing ovation for Tom Francis.
And that is thing about this Sunset Boulevard, there are so many things that don’t make any sense at all, and maybe they don’t have to, because what has been created is an absolutely mesmerising feast for the senses.
The central performance from Nicole Scherzinger is breathtaking. Desmond’s descent into jealous madness is thrilling to watch in the hands of Miss Scherzinger, and that’s before we even get to the vocal performances. Anyone who has seen Patti Lu Pone or Glenn Close in the role will struggle to imagine how they could be bettered, yet here Nicole Scherzinger’s enthralling renditions of songs like ‘With One Look’ and ‘As If We Never Said Goodbye’ are so powerful it’s almost shocking. It’s a performance that has to be seen to be believed.
As is always the case with Sunset Boulevard, and especially when it’s a global star in the role, much of the attention will be heaped on the leading lady. Here, the leading man deserves just as much praise, Joe Gillis is the narrator and, as such is on stage (or in this case on screen) just as much, if not more, that Norma Desmond. Tom Francis is astounding as Gillis, capturing every nuance of the character and delivering exceptional vocal performances. Francis’s delivery of the title number (which is also the act two opener) is a masterpiece.
The focus here is on the two central characters, which is a shame for the rest of the company, Max Von Mayerling, played by David Thaxton, is quite far removed from the traditional portrayal so we do lose some sympathy for the character. The same goes for Betty Schaefer (Grace Hodgett Young) and Artie (Ahmed Hamad) who just don’t get the opportunity to shine as their characters are sidelined in favour of the principals.
All this means that this show is very different to any version that’s been produced before. A friend who loved it in previews (having never seen Sunset Boulevard before), told me ‘it did a good job of making me imagine what it should be like, but it also made me disappointed that’s not what I was seeing.’
Despite that there’s more than enough to make this a truly epic piece of theatre. A huge amount of that is undoubtedly down to Nicole Scherzinger and Tom Francis who carry the whole thing on their shoulders. Whether you love it, hate it, or a combination of the two, there’s no denying this Sunset Boulevard is a show that everyone will be talking about for a long time to come.
