Ria Jones-Led SUNSET BOULEVARD Tour to Visit Birmingham Hippodrome

Birmingham Hippodrome will welcome Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning (Best Musical, Best Original Score & Best Book of a Musical) masterpiece Sunset Boulevard, directed by Leicester Curve Artistic Director Nikolai Foster and starring Ria Jones as Norma Desmond, from Mon 13- Sat 18 Nov 2017.

One of the all-time great musicals, Sunset Boulevard is a compelling story of romance and obsession, based on Billy Wilder's legendary film, with Don Black and Christopher Hampton's wonderful book and lyrics. The original West End production opened at the Adelphi Theatre in 1993. A complex study of unrequited love, loneliness and searing ambition, Sunset Boulevard pays homage to the golden age of Hollywood.

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.

Internationally acclaimed musical theatre star Ria Jones, who received standing ovations every night when performing the role at the London Coliseum as understudy to Glenn Close, will play Norma Desmond.

With book and lyrics by Academy Award winners Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sunset Boulevard features songs such as With One Look, The Perfect Year, The Greatest Star Of All and the title song, Sunset Boulevard. Performed by a 16 piece orchestra, this "majestic, mesmerizing and teasingly seductive!" (The Evening Standard) production promises to be a spectacular event.

Sunset Boulevard will visit Birmingham Hippodrome from Mon 13 - Sat 18 November 2017. Visit birminghamhippodrome.com for more information.

Birmingham Hippodrome is an independent, not-for-profit, registered charity welcoming an average 500,000 visits annually making it the most popular single auditorium in the UK. Birmingham Royal Ballet and DanceXchange are resident partners; the theatre presents all of Welsh National Opera's repertoire, co-produces the award-winning International Dance Festival and welcomes the best in international dance, major touring dramas, and West End musicals. Home to the world's biggest Pantomime it also houses the 200-seat Patrick Centre, with extensive events facilities, and its own restaurant.

As a charity with no public revenue funding, Birmingham Hippodrome receives generous support from the business community through sponsorship and other partnerships; from individuals through donations and memberships; and from grant-making Trusts for special programming and infrastructure projects. It is a major employer and plays a leading role in the Southside Business Improvement District.

Through Hippodrome CREATIVE we deliver successful projects in education and the wider community. With numerous supportive partners we have recently co-produced and produced new events including Minimum Monument, The Voyage, Summer in Southside, About Town, Blitz, the 4 Squares Weekender and Birmingham Weekender (celebrating the opening of New Street and Grand Central alongside the Rugby World Cup).

Recent Hippodrome CREATIVE projects Furious Folly in Sutton Park, a co-commission with 14-18 NOW, the UK's arts programme for the First World War centenary, the launch of Birmingham's first, annual B-Side Hip-Hop Festival, a three day celebration of all things Hip-Hop produced in partnership with The Old Rep, Break Mission, Dance Nuvo, Juice Aleem and Mickael 'Marso' Riviere and X-Ray: The Unknown Quantity - an innovative new digital dance film and sonic soundscape marking the 120th anniversary of the first medical X-Ray.

To post a comment, you must register and login.