Sunset Boulevard, lethal boulevard

I met PY at 6:45pm outside The Savoy and we headed into the theatre. We were quite early, the show was not until 7:30pm and the auditorium doors were still 20 minutes from being opened. There’s not a lot of space around the Dress Circle and we ended up, glass of wine in hand, taking up a space near the merchandise counter.  After entering, our seats were at the far end on an aisle in row C which gave us a great view down to the stage.  We were here to see the new production of Sunset Boulevard. PY had bought me tickets for my birthday.

I love Sunset Boulevard and have seen it several times. But, those previous visits did not prepare me for Jamie Lloyd’s reimagining of the show. The Savoy Theatre itself is grand, and quite tall which means the music has to have a ‘big’ sound to fill the space and they certainly did. Nicole Scherzinger is the lead for most of the week but we had specifically booked Monday to see Rachel Tucker guest star as Norma Desmond. And she did not disappoint.

The production is very simply staged, with performers dressed in black a white. There’s almost no use of a traditional set - which marks it out as very different from the other productions that I we've seen. It only occurred to me afterwards that the B&W costumes hark back to the black and white movie era which is the setting for the story.

There’s also an incredible use of hand-held cameras that are brought onto the stage and screen the cast on a huge backdrop. There’s a couple of very innovative scenes which, appear be live ... but who knows with theatre magic? Obviously, they go in for the close-ups: “No words can tell, The stories my eyes tell, Watch me when I frown, You can't write that down, You know I'm right, It's there in black and white, When I look your way, You'll hear what I say.”

There was a small technical breakdown towards the end of Act One which paused the show for a couple of minutes.

The updates include the removal of a couple of songs but the story is powerful enough - and this is a powerful performance - that you won’t notice or care.  The final scenes will leave you shocked - in a good way. It’s quite a stunning production. I would be amazed if it did not go somewhere else after it completes 16 weeks at The Savoy.