Newbury’s Watermill Theatre Presents 'Sunset Boulevard'

Newbury's Watermill Theatre will present Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard." Kathryn Evans will star as silent film star Norma Desmond and Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood will direct. "Sunset Boulevard" will open tonight, July14th, and continues until 30 August at the West Berkshire playhouse.

"Sunset Boulevard" has music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton. The musical premiered at the West End's Adelphi Theatre in July 1993, with Patti LuPone starring as Norma Desmond. The following March, the musical closed in order to reopen five weeks later in a revised version which ran for another three years. It had its Broadway premiere in November 1994, with Glenn Close as Norma, and went on to win seven Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Craig Revel Horwood's West End credits include Spend, Spend, Spend and My One and Only, as well as the upcoming Flamenco Flamen'ka, which opens at the Lyric in September. His directing credits include Beautiful and Damned, South Pacific and, at the Watermill, the actor-musician productions of Hot Mikado and last summer's Martin Guerre.

Sarah Travis' previous Watermill credits include the actor-musician productions of Mack and Mabel, Gondoliers (both also in the West End), Fiddler on the Roof, Pinafore Swing and, with Revel Horwood, Hot Mikado and Martin Guerre. She became the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Orchestration (in 2006) for the Broadway transfer of the Watermill's actor-musician staging of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, which also ran in the West End where it won two Whatsonstage.com Awards.

A West End veteran, Kathryn Evans' many credits include Evita, Follies, Pal Joey and On Your Toes. In Sunset Boulevard, she stars opposite Ben Goddard as Joe Gillis. Completing the 12-strong company are: Elisa Boyd, Tomm Coles (Artie Green), Alexander Evans (Sheldrake), Kate Feldschreiber, Nick Lashbrook (Cecil B Demille), Tarek Merchant, Laura Pitt Pulford (Betty Schaefer), Helen Power, Jon Trenchard (Manfred) and Edward York (Max von Meyerling).

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