Startling 'Sunset Boulevard' at the Watermill

From the moment the cast of twelve actor/musicians step out onto Diego Pitarch's atmospheric set, which draws its focus from a central black spiral staircase, and begin to play the strains of Andrew Lloyd Webber's haunting musical prologue for Sunset Boulevard, the audience at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury are drawn into a dark, yet richly evocative world that captivates the mind and thrills the senses throughout.

Based on Billy Wilder's classic film noir expose of the vintage years of Hollywood and adapted for the stage by Andrew Lloyd Webber,Christopher Hampton and Don Black, the show's story concerns down-and-out screenwriter Joe Gillis who stumbles upon the reclusive faded silent screen star Norma Desmond in her crumbling mansion on Sunset Boulevard. In a bid to wipe out his debts Gillis begins to work on a screenplay for Desmond's delusionally driven comeback and is drawn into a world that leads to his becoming a gigolo before events head towards a climactic debacle of madness and murder. Within this dark and cynical fabric, Lloyd Webber created what is one of his most hauntingly beautiful scores, including the vintage arias "With One Look" and "As If We Never Said Goodbye" - though it does suffer in parts from the kind of flawed, repetitive and musically banal "sung dialogue" that unfortunately burdens most of his scores.

In the Watermill production the music soars magnificently through the outstanding instrumental musicianship and wonderful vocal delivery of each member of an incredibly talented ensemble cast,  including Elisa Boyd, Tomm Coles, Alexander Evans, Kate Feldschreiber, Nick Lashbrook, Tarek Merchant, Laura Pitt Pulford, Helen Power, Jon Trenchard and Edward York and headed by Kathryn Evans as Norma and Ben Goddard as Joe. Goddard gives Gillis an enhanced credibility, balancing the dark and selfish traits of the anti-hero with a layer of fragility that allows the audience to actually care about him. And his rendition of the show's title song is a genuine tour de force. Miss Evans, meanwhile, totally inhabits the role of the deluded diva, moving seamlessly from presenting a "larger-than-life" bitchiness to suggesting heartbreaking pathos. She brings the house down with her stunning performance of "As If We Never Said Goodbye" and the way her character unravels during the final tragic denouement is totally mind-blowing.

Lloyd Webber's music has never sounded better than it does through Sarah Travis's brilliantlly conceived orchestral arrangements. Once again - as she did with her Tony award winning orchestrations for the "actor/muso" Sweeney Todd - she has stripped down the score to work with a small band of musicians and woven together a musical web that succeeds in sounding beautiful while also serving the dramatic needs of the piece and highlighting character in a totally apposite way.

Director Craig Revel Horwood, following on from his spellbinding production of Martin Guerre at the Watermill last summer, continues to demonstrate his mastery of musical theatre storytelling with actor-musicians. He finds ways for his actors to become as one with their instruments, almost making the instruments characters in themselves - and he continually fills the stage with delicate visual nuances. Also he has transformed the duet "Too Much In Love To Care" from clichéd love song to a compelling dramatic scene. In its original form the lushness of the vocals and music almost worked against the mood of the lyric and what was right for the characters. Now Ben Goddard and Laura Pitt Pulford (as Gillis's erstwhile girlfriend Betty Schaefer) deliver the song while laying their souls bare and create a scene that rings with truth. It is this air of truth and believability that pervades the entire atmosphere of the show, making Sunset Boulevard both Dreamland and nightmare in a way that not only remains true to Billy Wilder's original vision but also greatly enhances it.

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