I saw the original production of Sunset Boulevard with Glenn Close as Norma Desmond back in 1995. She won a Tony for the role and I remember thinking she did a fine job in a show I recall as being “just ok” with a couple of good songs and a really big set. So I had no special interest in reliving the experience until the reviews for Ms. Close came out when the show opened in February. The NY Times’ critic Ben Brantley’s highly dramatic “one of the great stage performances of this century” among other glowing reviews influenced my decision to go.
The verdict. The show remains “just ok” for me. Is it musical comedy or a darker musical noir? Who can say for sure but they both don’t coexist successfully for me. Glenn Close, on the other hand, completely killed. Not only was the character fully realized – scary, tragic, fragile and driven – but she knocked each of her big songs clear out of the park. I know Ms. Close couldn’t be nominated for a Tony in the same role again but she was clearly the best performance by an actress on Broadway this year. (Admittedly, to be 100% certain, I have a couple of performances still to see… but the chances of a bad call here are nil.)
The main reasons to see this show is Ms. Close and the orchestra which lushly performed the gorgeous melodies contained in the score. While I liked Fred Johanson as Max, I did not warm to either Michael Xavier (as screenwriter Joe Gillis) or Siobhan Dillon (Betty Schaeffer). I wanted significantly more noir shades from Joe and a lot less standard issue ingénue in the part of Betty. Perhaps lighting that made sense for this show might have helped them. I will say that they sang “Too Much in Love to Care” beautifully though.