Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash-hit musical tale of romance and obsession, Sunset Boulevard, arrives at the London Coliseum, with Glenn Close making her West End debut in reprising her Tony-Award winning role as Norma Desmond.
The second in the collaboration between English National Opera and the GradeLinnit company (following the monumental success of 2015’s Sweeney Todd), Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Close stars as Desmond, a faded silent movie star watching days pass her by and wallowing in former glories in a decaying mansion on the eponymous Los Angeles street, desperate to reclaim her place in the spotlight.
Based on the classic 1950 Billy Wilder film, the entrance of an impoverished screen writer, Joe Gillis, into her life, heralds the chance to rise again to the top.
He, in turn, finds himself seduced by her and her luxurious – but ultimately suffocating – lifestyle, with dramatic and tragic consequences in store when another woman comes into the picture.
Directed by Sweeney’s Lonny Price, and with celebrated book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, alongside Lloyd Webber’s much-loved score (including Sunset Boulevard, With One Look and The Perfect Year), this semi-staged production has a strictly limited run of 43 performances at the London Coliseum, and promises an unforgettable evening.
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