Sunset Boulevard in Karlstad, Sweden

Sixteen years after its world premiere in London, my favourite musical finally had its Scandinavian premiere. Not in one of the capital cities, but in the middle of Sweden, at the Värmland Opera House in the city of Karlstad. To be honest, I didn't quite know what to expect. A professional production, or something reminiscent of a less-than-stellar regional performance?

What I got was indeed professional. But, with a musical like Sunset Boulevard, that has had so many different productions throughout the world, how do you add something fresh and new? It's not easy. Yet, they gave it their best, and some it was successful, and some of it was a horrible failure.

The opening scene is one of the best and scariest I've ever seen. On stage, we are introduced to THREE views of the infamous swimming pool. The first is a stage-wide side-view of the swimming pool edge, with blue tiles and lights. The second is a 2 x 3 meter birds eye view of the swimming pool, that doubles as a screen. The third is the tiniest swimming pool ever, that is part of a miniature model of Norma's mansion and property. The tiny swimming pool is visible because Joe Gillis is on stage during the overture, filming the tiny mansion, and this is being displayed in black-and-white on the big «swimming pool screen». It turns out that it's not a live feed, but still, we can see some incredible details: the swimming pool, the mansion itself, the garage WITH the Isotta Fraschini, and as a final and horrifying treat is a close-up of a window in the mansion's first floor. In the lit window we can barely make out the silhouette of a woman... This gave me the creeps, and I'm pretty sure that I'll have nightmares for years to come. Granted, they must have been inspired by Psycho and countless other horror movies, but the effect was so chilling.

Tthe use of miniatures throughout the performance really added to the feeling that the musical is indeed set in the world of movies. Close-ups of them, projected onto the previously mentioned screen are widely used, especially in the first act. And in the second act, during Norma's trip to Paramount, a cut-out of a blown-up photo of a toy car is visible as her Isotta Fraschini. It looked stunning, until it almost fell over, and a stage hand had to grab it to prevent further embarassment.

Further, the car chase in the first act was the most inventive I've seen since the original one. A miniature landscape, complete with palm trees, was wheeled onstage, and Joe took out a matchbox car to represent his own vehicle. The two «thugs» then took out a matchbox car of their own, and the entire car chase took place with these miniatures! The action was displayed on the «pool screen», and at the end of the chase, Joe's car could be seen driving into Norma's garage (part of the the model from the overture). I loved this, although it might have been a bit confusing to those who weren't familiar with the story.

Now, over to the part that I didn't really care for. The portrayal of Norma Desmond was, unfortunately, not one that left me thrilled. Maria Lundqvist went a little over the top, as she laughed tauntingly at almost everything and everyone. She didn't exactly play the role for laughs, but she didn't seem to be quite in touch with Norma's history either, and what kind of a person she once was. And, I was not convinced by her singing voice. Her way of speak-singing through Norma's big numbers was almost painful to listen to. Luckily, she did get to leave everyone with a final impression that will stay with me. Namely her mad scene, which was brilliant, and nobody in the audience could have doubted that for a second. Her Norma was one crazy woman.

Now, to me, the highlight of Sunset Boulevard is Norma's return to Paramount studios. In this staging though, it became laughable. While singing «As if we never said goodbye», Norma was joined onstage by the ensemble, all wearing white tuxedos and matching top hats and white FEATHER FANS. That's right. For a second, it looked like the various musical dimensions were not only destabilizing, but crossing into one another as well. Science fiction could have been the only explanation, as it looked like a scene from Chicago the Musical was interrupting Norma's big moment. I'm not afraid to say that this was unexpected, bizarre and wrong, and I would like to insert an annoyed grunt right here, in my review: [annoyed grunt]. There.
Now, to round my review off with something positive, I must say that most of the translations from English to Swedish were beautifully done by Rikard Bergqvist, and really captured the essence of the original lyrics, while making them accessible to the audience.

I'm glad I made the journey to Karlstad to experience this Swedish version of my favourite musical, even though I probably would have made a few different choices had I been staging it myself.

Sunset Boulevard at the Watermill Theatre in England

I'm one of those crazed Sunset fans who flies around the world to catch the various productions. How does this one hold up? All in all, very well. I mean, I still miss the hovering mansion, but we'll never see that again - ever. So I won't go on about it.

This production is all about claustrophobia, and the tiny theatre and the small stage certainly add to it. But especially during the second act, you can almost feel the tension filling the air, the desperate characters getting themselves further and further into a situation which they know will end with tragedy. And that's what I thought this production did very well - focusing on the characters' feelings and emotions. For instance in "Too Much in Love to Care", where Joe and Betty confess their love for each other. Instead of this being the straight forward love song it used to be, it is now tragic and heart wrenching. Joe and Betty are so desperate, so angry at their own feelings, and how they just don't fit into their lives at this moment. Excellent stuff.
Also, I loved how in "As If We Never Said Goodbye", the actors and the crew at the Paramount lot keep filming the scene they are working on, while Norma pours her heart out. It's all in her mind, and the Paramount people don't really care about her, so why should they stand around her and applauding her, like they did in previous productions?

The whole actor-musician thing was a bit strange at first, but after a while I stopped noticing it. I did, of course, miss some of the fullness and "umph" in some numbers, especially the overture, but other than that it worked very well. The only person on stage who didn't play an instrument though, was Kathryn Evans.

Now, Kathryn Evans' performance did disappoint me a little bit. I'm not sure how I should interpret her performance. It seemed to me that she didn't really do that much acting. She relied too much on her eyes and her singing voice. There was nothing wrong with the latter, by the way. Pure gold, and plenty of it. Evans actually looked a lot like Gloria Swanson, when I think of it. The face, the hair, the dresses. Very interesting - although maybe not intentional?

To me, the best part of the whole show was the New Years party scene. As you may or may not know, this was done as a "split screen" in some of the earlier productions. The lower half of the stage showed the action in Artie Green's flat, and the uper half showed what was going on in Norma's mansion. At the Watermill, this was done superbly: after about one third of the scene at Artie's, the music comes to a halt, and the overture starts playing as Norma walks slowly across the stage. Her eyes look dead, yet she is very determined in the way she moves. Norma disappears, and the scene and the "festive" music continues. About a minute later the same thing happens as Norma once again appears, this time together with Max, who pours her a drink. These moments on stage are very difficult to describe, but they sent several chills down my spine.

I could actually go on forever, but I'll spare you. The production was very good, although I didn't quite like Kathryn Evans's portrayal of Norma Desmond. The production delved boldly into the darker sides of the story, but I'm sure they could have made it even darker and grittier.

Sunset Boulevard in Melbourne, Australia

The show was staged by the Production Company, and was what I would call a semi-staged concert version, and I just "happened" to catch all five performances. Some of them with a few newfound friends :-)


There were a few set pieces (like a staircase) and quite a few props. The orchestra was on stage during the entire performance, as were most of the cast members. All cast members wore body mics, so they could move around freely. Various images were projected onto a screen behind the orchestra, like a pool, the Paramount gates, Norma's mansion etc.

Norma Desmond was played by Judi Connelli. Her voice is powerful and extremely rich, and she has a very good stage presence. Her performance actually changed a bit during the week, from more comedic to a bit more serious. I preferred her last performances to her first ones. Joe Gillis was played by David Campbell, whom I knew virtually nothing of before I went to see the show. His Joe was very good, down-to-earth, and a more realistic Joe than others I have seen in the role. Oh, and a great singer too! Max von Mayerling was played by Roger Howell, who did a wonderful job. But in my opinion the star of the show was in fact Chelsea Plumley who played Betty Schaeffer. She turned what is basically a thankless role to play into a three-dimensional character that evolved throughout the show. In fact, there were little touches added to the relationship between Joe and Betty that made it more believable than in the original production.

Especially nice touches to this production were the humorous car chase scene (wonderfully choreographed - done with around 12 actors each with their own miniature car!) and the final scene where pages from Norma's Salome script blows onto the stage during a storm. 'The Lady's Paying' and 'Eternal Youth Is Worth A Little Suffering' were staged almost as in the original.

The rather short rehearsal period was visible from time to time, as a few cues were missed, and some lines were flubbed. But it was nothing big, only something that fans would notice.

After the final performance, I was invited to the cast party along with a couple of fellow Sunset Boulevard fans. Thanks to the wonderful Jeanne Pratt, chairman of the Production Company for inviting us! We met all the leads, and they were just wonderful. David Campbell was a laidback, cool guy. Chelsea Plumley was just the cutest and most charming person ever. Roger Howell was wonderful and really funny. Judi Connelli was incredibly sweet, but understandably a bit tired after the performance. I had my picture taken with the stars, and they also autographed my programme. We also spoke with some of the other cast members, and they were all great people. One of them had even noticed us sitting in the front row for more than one performance!

All in all, this was a wonderful experience. Oh, and a special thanks to Max and Tim for making my visit to Melbourne even better and sharing the experience with me.