Sunset Boulevard in Concert – Curve Leicester

Ria Jones and Danny Mac in Sunset Boulevard in Concert at Curve Leicester. Picture: Marc Brenner

Sunset Boulevard in Concert at Home is streaming from Curve Leicester until 9 January 2021.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Talk about making the very best of a bad job, Leicester Curve has dazzlingly turned the body-blow of having its planned Sunset Boulevard in Concert live-audience season scuppered by the new Tier rules into a thrilling streamed ‘at home’ triumph.

Don’t be put off by the word ‘concert’. This is not a case of socially-distanced actors getting up in front of a mic, belting out Lloyd Webber’s famed score, then sitting down again.

Far from that, director Nikolai Foster and his team have left no nook or cranny unexplored in their quest for action and dramatic effect.

The seating at the back of the stalls has been removed to make room for the 16-piece orchestra, performers turn up in the Circle and the gods, high-up scaffolding represents the “bedroom over the garage” in Norma Desmond’s mansion, and even the steel girders supporting the stage become a hidey-hole for Joe and Betty’s romancing.

Even the opening scene-setter by Danny Mac as Joe is delivered from a mid-stalls seat in an empty auditorium. The rushed re-imagining must have been a whole new learning experience for cast and creatives but what a great theatrical fist and feast they make of it.

It is the same cast in the six main roles that went on tour in 2017-18. And what a show it is, one of the noble lord’s best with at least three great numbers, ‘With One Look’, ‘As If I’d Never Said Goodbye’ and ‘New Ways to Dream’.

Backing them up are several very good ones, not least Max’s teary eulogy ‘The Greatest Star of All’, Joe and Betty’s duet ‘Too Much in Love to Care’, Norma and Joe’s ironic ‘The Perfect Year’ and the light relief of ‘The Lady’s Paying’ in that witty scene in the men’s outfitters.

Over the years the collaborations of Lloyd Webber and lyricist Don Black (here sharing the credit with Christopher Hampton) have been rich in song quality. This 1993 show was one of six they worked on together, starting with Tell Me On A Sunday 14 years earlier.

With Sunset Boulevard they already had a brilliant story to work from, the 1950 Billy Wilder film noir deliberately shot in black and white starring the terrifying Gloria Swanson and Bill Holden.

Here Ria Jones, transformed into fading silent-screen star Desmond, demented and delusional, makes the role her own; Danny Mac is trapped in Norma’s web as out-of-work scriptwriter Joe Gillis; Adam Pearce is as menacing as ever as Max, one-time husband now Norma’s butler/protector; and Molly Lynch is delightful as Joe’s love interest Betty Schaefer.

Also reprising their sketchily-written roles are Dougie Carter as Betty’s loser boyfriend Art and Carl Sanderson as a rather underpowered Cecil B DeMille.

The legendary movie-maker’s scene with Desmond at Paramount where Norma had been his main money-maker 20 years earlier but now goes unrecognised by many of the staff is a painful reminder of the thin line between fame and the scrap-heap.

Musical supervisor Stephen Brooker and MD Chris Mundy are in charge of the lush score and a word too for the imaginative work of video designer Douglas O’Connell.

Norma’s great lines “I AM big, it’s the PICTURES that got small” (in response to Joe’s “You used to be big”), “I’m ready for my close-up” and “With one look, I’ll be me!” are all still there in this magnificent re-creation. And for £20 it’s yours until 9 January.

Jeremy Chapman