Norma's home at last! West End and Broadway director Jamie Lloyd (Cyrano de Bergerac, A Doll's House) reimagines one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s best-loved musicals – based on the Billy Wilder film - for a whole new generation.
Famed movie star Norma Desmond has been cast out of the Hollywood limelight. Living in a suffocating world of dreams, memories and regrets, a chance encounter with screenwriter Joe Gillis may be her only hope — unless their volatile affair destroys them both
Before it was a musical, Sunset Boulevard was a 1950 film noir directed and co-written by Billy Wilder. The film is led by Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a former silent-film star who draws him into her deranged fantasy world, where she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen.
The movie was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won three. In 1989 it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry and in 1998, it was ranked number 12 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American films of the 20th century.
A musical version of the beloved story was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton. The original 1993 West End production, directed by Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Bob Avian, featured Patti LuPone as Norma Desmond, Kevin Anderson as Joe Gillis, Meredith Braun as Betty Schaefer, and Daniel Benzali as Norma's ex-husband, Max.
Soon after, it had its American premiere in Los Angeles, this time starring Glenn Close as Norma, Alan Campbell as Joe, George Hearn as Max, and Judy Kuhn as Betty. In 1994 it moved to Broadway, where it opened at the Minskoff Theatre on November 17. It was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won in seven categories, including Best Musical and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a musical for Close.
Since then, the musical has toured extensively, and enjoyed international productions in Canada, Germany, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, South Africa and many more countries across the world.
In 2017, Glenn Close reprised her performance as Norma Desmond in a revival on Broadway at the Palace Theatre. Featuring a 40-piece onstage orchestra and a relatively minimalist set, it was directed by Lonny Price.
In early 2023, it was announced that Nicole Scherzinger would lead an all-new production at London's Savoy Theatre, directed by Lloyd. When it began performances in September, it immediately grabbed the attention of theatergoers worldwide as an extraordinary reimagination of Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical.
The Broadway cast is led again by Scherzinger, with her acclaimed London co-stars: Tom Francis as ‘Joe Gillis’, Grace Hodgett-Young as ‘Betty Schaefer,’ and Olivier Award winner David Thaxton as ‘Max Von Mayerling.’ Mandy Gonzalez is the Norma Alternate at certain performances.
Drenched in champagne and cynicism, Sunset Boulevard scrutinizes the ambitions and frustrations of its characters and their intoxicating need for fame and adoration.
Lloyd flips those weaknesses into strengths: The songs that previously seemed like filler material are bulked out with angular, crisp dancing and now register as cris de coeur about the cruel vicissitudes of Hollywood. And the small circle of characters feels more dimensional than ever, with strong supporting turns by David Thaxton as Norma’s devoted, threatening butler and Grace Hodgett Young as the winsomely ambitious studio employee Betty Schaefer. It’s among the most remarkable aspects of Scherzinger’s performance that she creates space for Tom Francis, the appealing and gifted actor playing doomed writer Joe Gillis. (Like his three main castmates, Francis reprises the role after appearing in the West End production.) It’s through Joe’s eyes that we see Norma; he’s a broke and unemployed scribe who finds in Norma an easy mark. Together, they’re working on her comeback vehicle, one that Joe knows will go nowhere even as he gladly takes Norma’s money. As written, there’s a touch too much film-noir chill to the exchange: That Norma and Joe are mutually using one another is apparent, and somewhat thin gruel for an evening of theater.
All that madness in Gloria Swanson’s eyes at the end of Billy Wilder’s 1950 masterpiece Sunset Boulevard is amplified to breathtaking lengths in Jamie Lloyd‘s commanding and gorgeous renovation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1993 musical Sunset Blvd. With a career-expanding performance that redefines the one-time Dancing With The Stars competitor Nicole Scherzinger as thoroughly as Lloyd’s staging does Lloyd Webber’s musical, the revival opening tonight at Broadway‘s St. James Theatre is a stunner, stark always, funny sometimes and ultimately terrifying.
1993 | West End |
Original London Production West End |
1993 | Regional (US) |
Los Angeles Production Regional (US) |
1994 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
1995 | Canada |
Toronto Production Canada |
1996 | US Tour |
1st National Tour US Tour |
1998 | US Tour |
2nd National Tour US Tour |
2004 | London Fringe |
London Concert Revival London Fringe |
2016 | West End |
English National Opera West End Revival West End |
2017 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
2023 | West End |
West End |
2024 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
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