Seems to be a "professional" recording...? Her "gasping" is a bit much...is it her being mic'd to the camera? Certainly audiences wouldn't hear that...? She seems to "mug" toward the audience, too. Her acting is wonderful. Wish the Salome headdress was more pronounced as in London. Wish she would hold the last note longer, but all video clips show her ending in the same place. I think her voice is more intriguing than most expected. I just don't "see" why Patti Lupone was ever Norma Desmond.
I think Glenn did a much better job than expected. Her acting was probably the best out of all the Normas, but you can't top Betty Buckely's killer voice. Vocally, her versions are probably definitive.
I still don't get why people seem to hate Glenn's voice so much. She's on pitch, right? She's hitting the freakin' notes and acting the hell out of the role at the time. It seems like so often, most performers just pick one of the other.
Thank you!!! I love how more and more professional cuts from the Really Useful Group owned press reels keep making their way to us via YouTube! I've never seen the final scene this crystal clear before and for those of us who only got to see that awful Petula Clark tour in the late 90's- I thank you again!
Glenn was always my favorite overall Norma and always will be, I do however agree that you can't touch Buckley's vocals!
Actually for this particular role I prefer Glenn's vocals over Betty's. I own both recordings and every time I listen to Betty it somehow seems boring and I can't tell anything about her character. Glenn on the other hand is always exciting to hear, and you can feel her emotions through her voice.
Having seen. LuPone, Close, Buckley and Paige all live in the role I am probably in the minority but I was not a fan of Close. My least favorite of the four I saw.
Buckley had it all in the role. The voice, the mannerisms and such. It was the only performance where I felt that Joe could have felt her vulnerability and one of the reasons he stayed with her.
Buckley was actually my least favorite in the role - I felt like her performance was rather inaccessible, lacked any soul connection with the character's history and her vocals, though powerful, lacked a sort of variety (Buckley is one of those artists who insists on 'singing' every single note).
Of all the women on Broadway, none could really compare with Close's innate star quality and grand guignol presence. It may have been a divisive performance in terms of her vocals (which I think arguably fit the fabric of the character quite effectively) but Close's Norma was really the only one that fully caught the essence of the silent film star. In the moments where Norma recalls her youth, you actually saw Close become the intangible movement and energy of Swanson, Gish, Theda Bara -- it was chilling.
Outside of Close, probably the best overall Norma was Elaine Paige who was thrilling vocally and also managed to capture something of the unique spirit of the silent film legends.
Wow! Thank you for posting this - I had only listened to the Lupone recording - I thought Close was magnificent in that clip. Does anyone know if the London production ended with "I'm ready for my close up" - like the recording, or did it also have the With One Look lyrics? I always found that last line and end to the show so haunting, the added With One Look bit reminded me of a "Don't Forget Me" moment from Smash.
Thank you so much for sharing! Glenn Close is an extraordinary performer. One of the greatest to ever grace the silver screen and Broadway stage. Such a shame that Sunset Boulevard wasn't properly preserved and she'll never get the chance to play Norma on the big screen.
I went in expecting to be impressed with her acting and unimpressed with her voice, and the exact opposite happened.
Glenn sang it much better than I thought she could, and her acting was ... not very good. The reason? She started out nuttier than a fruitcake and had nowhere to go with the role. She ran the gamut of emotions from Y to Z.
This clip alone is impressive because it's the end of the show, and her full-blown crazy Norma had arrived. But she started the show out just a brief stroll to the funny farm away from this, so by the time this scene arrived it didn't have the impact it should have or could have had.
Glenn isn't a singer but a song interpreter. Sadly, many don't know the difference and assume and expect everything needs to be sung with no emotion and in perfect diction, pitch, and stylings -- even if the character is being murdered while singing their 11 o'clock number.
She is the best. I saw Buckley, I heard LuPone, no one gets close to the magic that Glenn Close is. She is Norma Desmond. Perfection. Her voice is flawless.
The London version didn't put "I'm ready for my close-up" to the end of the speech & incorporate the last line of "With One Look" until either close to the end or right after the show opened, which is why the CD recorded early in the run does not have those things.
I completely agree that Glenn was the only Norma on Broadway to truly capture the essence of Norma- a former silent screen goddess
"The London version didn't put "I'm ready for my close-up" to the end of the speech & incorporate the last line of "With One Look" until either close to the end or right after the show opened, which is why the CD recorded early in the run does not have those things."
Maybe I'm misinterpreting what you mean, but Patti definitely says "I'm ready for my close up" at the end of the London recording, and that is the last line in that version.
There were a lot of changes made to the show between the London opening and the first American production in Los Angeles. I believe that those changes were incorporated into the London production after Patti left the show.
In terms of which recording I listen to most it's now a toss-up, as I've created my own playlist through the magic of itunes and Garage Band that uses Glenn Close for all of the Norma stuff, but reverts back to the London recording for all of the non-Norma scenes. Something about Alan Campbell and Judy Kuhn on that recording really just doesn't sit well with me and I very much prefer Kevin Anderson and Meredith Braun.
I remember a fun thing to do at the time was to collect all the singles that were available with the different Norma's. I think I finally got them all. I do hope this show comes back some day
Glenn's performance was unbelievable which is why she won and so richly deserved that Tony. The stamina and energy required to deliver that performance is off the charts. In order for the show to work, Norma has to be off the deep end. This is live theatre. Glenn's Norma was larger than life out of the gate-she was chaos, wounds, and trouble from her entrance. She created tension. Glenn went "there." So many other actresses playing Norma are concerned with their vanity and play her as a jealous school girl. That doesn't work. Glenn and Buckley were the best Normas going full tilt crazy.
Also, the Close recording is like listening to a radio play. Well acted, deeply emoted and completely satisfying as a stand alone. You feel like you are at the show.
^I completely agree with that. Glenn's recording is the most fun to listen to because even just listening to it it's nearly impossible not to imagine in your head the types of things she must have been doing on stage. It's an extremely "visual" audio performance if there is such a thing.
Agree 100%. Close may not have the perfect singing voice (although it's not a bad one by any means), but who cares when one can act the role like this. Her recording is one of the best I've ever listen to. The radio play comparison is spot on.
Sadly they never recorded Maria Mercedes who was the understudy Norma in the Australian production. She acted and sang the role wonderfully, unlike the train wreck that was Debbie Byrne.
I hope more of thos clips of Close keeping popping up on you tube.
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joined:8/12/04
Posted: 1/19/13 at 01:33am