BWW Reviews: SUNSET BOULEVARD Casts a Beautiful Shadow Over Short North Stage's Season Opener

If "Every Movie's a Circus," as a song midway through the first act proclaims, the Short North Stage's season opening production of SUNSET BOULEVARD must be a very grand carnival. The theater group pulls out all the stops as far as color schemes and movie clips go but it is rock solid performances of stars Gina Handy and Chris Shea that brings the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical to life.

SUNSET won seven Tony Awards in 1995 yet is often overlooked when discussing Webber's best works. The Short North production, which runs until Oct. 19 at the Garden Theatre (1187 North High Street in downtown Columbus), reminds audiences just how good the crisply written musical is.

Handy makes the role of Norma Desmond her own. Glenn Close and Betty Buckley played the hysterical ranting of Desmond, a fading silent movie star who is desperately hanging past fame as she longs for a comeback, for laughs. Handy makes the actress's demands and emotional outbursts believable. Her acting is complemented by her fine voice that adds an emotional arch to songs like "As If We Never Said Goodbye," "With One Look" and "Surrender."

Shea carries off the role of the underemployed writer Joe Gillis with a casualness that pairs perfectly with Desmond's hysteria. Shea is perfectly cast as a "taker being took" as Gillis exploits the apparent generosity of the faded star until he realizes he's trapped into a relationship with Desmond. His voice casts off the needed world weariness in songs like "Girl Meets Boy," but maintains a sense of hope for his own happy ending in "Too Much In Love To Care."

Like any good show, it's the supporting cast that kicked up the level of the performance. Cassie Rae as the starry eyed optimist who falls for Joe, and Christopher Moore Griffin as Max Von Mayerling, Desmond's long suffering butler, add their unique voices to the mix. As Cecil B. DeMille, Doug Joseph nails the reprise of "Surrender," Ryan Stem continues to play an assortment of quirky characters as Sheldrake, Manfred and Myron and Edward Carignan makes the most of a chance to show off his voice as Artie Green. Nick Hardin, Brooke Walters (Mary), Nick Lingnofski (Sammy), Vera Ryan Cremeans (Joanna), Jeff Fouch (Morino), Peter Thoma (Hog-eye) and Linda Kinnison Roth (Heather) and a 10-piece orchestra directed by P. Tim Valentine rounded out a fantastic cast.

The set and wardrobe also plays an important role in telling the story of SUNSET. Size of the Garden Theatre stage was one of the many obstacles for director Scott Hunt. When the national tour of SUNSET rolled into Columbus in December, 1998, it had sets of a mansion, movie soundstage and even brought an Isotta-Fraschini automobile onstage. The Short North Stage had to be creative to make up for a lack of big budget props.

The obstacle proves to be more of an asset than a liability. Set designer Michael Brewer built a lavish inside set to bring the 10086 Sunset Boulevard to life and and Carignan used film projection to bring some of the portraits inside the mansion to life.

Costume designer Joshua Burns' wardrobe also helps tell the story with all the characters inside the mansion wearing black and white and all the ones outside of it wearing colorful hues of blues and reds. Interestingly enough when Giles accepts a new wardrobe from Desmond, it was all in white and black. Thus the writer becomes more of a part of Desmond's world and fits in less in the world outside of the mansion.

Mix all the ingredients and you have another Short North Stage production that is teaching Columbus audiences "new ways to dream."

SUNSET BOULEVARD will be performed 8 p.m. Oct. 9-11, and Oct. 16-18 with 3 p.m. matinees on Oct. 12, and 19.

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