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.
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