New York Next for Glenn Close, Back in SUNSET BOULEVARD?

Andrew Lloyd Webber's SUNSET BOULEVARD, with Glenn Close reprising her role as 'Norma Desmond', opened to all-around favorable reviews this week at the London Coliseum.

With all of the hype surrounding the English National Opera's stripped-down production, lyricist Don Black told the New York Post: "But of course there is talk of doing it somewhere else. I think there is a very good chance of it going to New York."

Commenting on the ENO's semi-staged production, Black added, "I've always said that songs sound better in my kitchen than they do in the theater. People expected spectacle back then, but times have changed. We don't have a staircase, and nobody misses it. We have a car, but it's small one, sort of a car-lite. I'm please to say that people are moved by the story and the songs. They are hanging on every comma."

If the show does move to Broadway, Close will be reprising her Tony-winning role from the original 1994 production, which drummed up quite a bit of drama (with a disgruntled Patti LuPone, among other controversies) during its time on the Great White Way. Close last starred in New York opposite John Lithgow in A DELICATE BALANCE and has also appeared onstage in THE PLAY WHAT I WROTE, DEATH AND THE MAIDEN, BENEFACTORS, THE REAL THING, BARNUM and more.

Glenn Close (Norma Desmond), Michael Xavier (Joe Gillis), Siobhan Dillon (Betty Shaefer) and Fred Johanson (Max Von Mayerling) star in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. Lonny Price directs the strictly limited run of 43 performances at English National Opera's London Coliseum, which runs now until 7 May 2016.

Also in the cast are Anna Woodside as Hedda Hopper, Emily Bull as Hedy Lamarr, Julian Forsyth as Cecil B DeMille, Mark Goldthorp as Sheldrake, Fenton Gray as Manfred, Haydn Oakley as Artie Green and James Patersonas Jonesy. The full ENO orchestra appears onstage alongside the cast.

SUNSET BOULEVARD features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton. It is produced by arrangement with The Really Useful Group Ltd and is based on the original Paramount film by Billy Wilder.

In her mansion on Sunset Boulevard, faded, silent-screen goddess, Norma Desmond, lives in a fantasy world. Impoverished screen writer, Joe Gillis, on the run from debt collectors, stumbles into her reclusive world. Persuaded to work on Norma's 'masterpiece', a film script that she believes will put her back in front of the cameras, he is seduced by her and her luxurious life-style. Joe becomes entrapped in a claustrophobic world until his love for another woman leads him to try and break free with dramatic consequences.

Photo Credit: Richard Hubert Smith