Review Roundup: SUNSET BOULEVARD, Starring Glenn Close, Opens in London

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 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 in this semi-staged production.

SUNSET BOULEVARD is the second production in the partnership between ENO and the GradeLinnit Company. With music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and book and lyrics by Don Blackand Christopher Hampton, Sunset Boulevard 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.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Michael Billington, The Guardian: For a start, it has none of the epic scale of the original London production. Norma Desmond's baroque palazzo, where she lives as a recluse, is evoked through nothing more than intertwined gantries lit from within...The consequence is that the book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, which remain commendably faithful to the movie, make their mark -- and the story, which is basically about the entrapment of a weak-willed writer in an ageing star's dreams, retains its darkness. But the chief pleasure of Lonny Price's production lies in watching Close...Her big achievement is to treat the character not as a grotesque harpy but as a real woman who lives in a remembered past...Close also delivers the big lines not with a camp flourish but as if they were sincerely felt...It is also a pleasure to hear the Lloyd Webber score...played by the 48-strong onstage orchestra under the baton of Michael Reed: it's the most sumptuous sound I've heard in a musical since the Halle Orchestra accompanied Bernstein's Wonderful Town.

Holly Williams, WhatsOnStage: Close gives a performance that shades and shimmers like one of sequined gowns: grandly majestic, her mouth set in a ferocious resolute little line, then giddy with girlish, gleeful, grotesque excitement. But when the fear takes hold, she's suddenly needy and manipulative; pulling Xavier down towards her for a kiss, nails almost visibly digging into his back even through her long gloves, there's no doubt that's he's in the grip of a fatal attraction... But while there's a wild-eyed creepiness here, it would also be impossible to be remained unmoved by the tragedy of her grand delusions. Close is unafraid to be vulnerable; that carries, even in such a large venue. The voice? It quavers away on the high notes in the first half, but hey, that works with the character; her lower register, powering over the sumptuous, sweeping strings of an excellent ENO orchestra - visible onstage throughout, conducted by Michael Reed - is mightily affecting.

Mark Shenton, The Stage: It's probably safe to say that, with a luxurious orchestra under the baton of regular Lloyd Webber musical director Michael Reed, this enveloping score has never sounded richer...[Close's] vocal instrument may not be as sharp as it once was, nor she could ever compete with LuPone in the coloratura stakes, even in 1994, but she brings an utterly ferocious intensity to the part and the songs. She is sensationally paired here with Michael Xavier...who, in a second-act curtain-raiser, emerges out of a pool in just swimming trunks to prove that he still has the youthful appeal that he once brought to Sky in Mamma Mia!...Director Lonny Price's production, on simple series of interconnecting metal stairways, gives it momentum and drama. Don Black and Christopher Hampton's book lacks humour, but their lyrics occasionally come to the rescue.

Patrick Marmion, The Daily Mail: Just over Trafalgar Square and up The Mall, Her Majesty the Queen could be forgiven a twinge of envy. Hollywood royalty has taken up residence at the Coliseum theatre until May 7 in the shape of Glenn Close...She almost gets a standing ovation just for floating on with white cheekbones, flame red hair, glittering kimono and fingers dripping with diamonds...And then it's time to sing her opening aria, Just One Look, an occasion to which she rises imperiously. The odd crack or warble only affirms her wrist to forehead pathos...Otherwise Close shows the range we've seen in Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons. But for all the manipulative diva there's real vulnerability and outright madness to come...the gothic melodrama of Lloyd Webber's music is all the scenery that's needed, laying on oodles of romantic violin and plenty of festive Cuban brass.

Rod McPhee, The Mirror: Fortunately Close, 69, has already taken the lead in the Broadway run of Sunset Boulevard. And, boy, does it show. Though it's been 21 years she last played Norma, she effortlessly inhabits the character and reminds us why she's been nominated for six Oscars. And we may know her as an acclaimed actress, but Glenn's singing is just as stunning. She masterfully belts out the show's biggest numbers, and earned rapturous applause as a result...Her first musical in London's west end proves that she's far from a fading star.

Douglas Mayo, BritishTheatre.com: Glenn Close is mesmerising as Norma Desmond, she has Norma teetering between Machiavellian manipulation and madness. It's a balancing act that makes this version of Sunset Boulevard compelling. When Joe Gillis makes his way to 10086 Sunset Blvd for the first time, Close is abrupt and dismissive, it is not until he mentions his writing credentials that you see Desmond's mind start to whir into action. The faded star moves straight into performance mode and like the spider in the middle of the web she starts to draw in the prey that is Joe Gillis...Close delivers the blockbuster songs from Lloyd Webber's score with ease. This is 1000-watt star-power and it makes for an intoxicating evening of theatre...Lonny Price seems to have cemented his place as the go to guy for direction of the concert musical...Price keeps the pace lively, visually interesting and manages to keep the drama building, so that Norma's collapse becomes all the more poignant.

David Nice, TheArtsDesk: That Close can go from tender to psychotic in a second we know from another of the great screen creations...The difference, of course, is that this Norma Desmond has to sing, a lot. That's not to suggest that over 20 years on from her Tony Award-winning Broadway triumph...Close has lost any of the powerful chest voice needed for the role. It's just that her first two signature numbers are simple-banal...Again you can't fault Close; her final mad scene, in which she looks not so much like Salome as Joan Sutherland dolled up for the role of Massenet's Princess Esclarmonde, is a bit anticlimatic. "Rose's Turn" it isn't; though Close has different qualities to put her up there with Imelda Staunton - expect her to take the same Olivier award Staunton has just walked off with this time next year - Sunset Boulevard has nothing like the characterising skills which make Gypsy a great musical. So it's an efficient evening rather than an involving one; but Lloyd Webber enthusiasts should be well satisfied.

Bill Hagerty, The Sun: Glenn Close used to be big. Last night she proved she still is -- it must be the shows that got small. It's more than 20 years since she won a Tony playing crazed ex-silent movie star Norma Desmond. In this concert-like revival of arguably Andrew Lloyd Webber's finest musical, she again delivers a powerhouse performance...And Close wrings every ounce of pathos from the role...And she sings splendidly, diminishing the vast auditorium to intimate proportions. Like Norma, Ms Close is always ready for her close-up.

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Photo Credit: Richard Hubert Smith