When Glenn Close sang “As If We Never Said Goodbye” in the revival of “Sunset Boulevard” at the London Coliseum last April, it was as if 21 years had been a mere ellipsis in her career. After all, she was returning to Norma Desmond, the role of the aging silent-film diva for which she’d won a Tony Award in 1995, one of seven won that year by the Andrew Lloyd musical based on the 1950 Billy Wilder classic.Now, as surmised in ARTINFO last April, there is serious chatter that Close will be returning to Broadway in the English National Opera’s revival, which won raves during its four-week run in London. According to the New York Post, producers Paul Blake and Mike Bosner (“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”) plan to bring the production, directed by Lonny Price, to the Palace Theatre for five months beginning in January 2017. That is, if they can make they can make economic sense of the proposition.“Glenn wants to do it, Andrew wants to do it, and we want to do it. It’s like the old Judy Garland movie — we have a barn and we want to put on a show,” Blake told Michael Riedel of the Post. “But the chapter missing in the Judy Garland movie is how to make the numbers work.”Crunching those numbers is shadowed by a dismal commercial history for the musical. While “Sunset Boulevard” has long been considered one of Lloyd Webber’s best scores, it has not been a commercial success. It may have recouped in the West End, having run there for four years in the early ’90s, but even after a three-year run on Broadway, it earned back less than 80 percent of its $13 million-plus investment. Moreover, productions in Los Angeles, Toronto, and Australia fared poorly, as did an international tour. Despite its acclaimed source material, a show about a delusional film goddess and her boy toy both hoping for comebacks didn’t make the must-see list. What the producers are counting on, however, is that Close will make it the event of the new season. Her ripened age — she is 69 — has added more nuance and depth to a performance which was described by the London critics as “majestic,” “ferocious,” and “rapturous.” Even the imperfections of her voice cleaved to character. Patrick Marmion in The Daily Mail wrote, “The odd crack or warble only affirms her wrist to wrist to forehead pathos… Otherwise Close shows the range we’ve seen in ‘Fatal Attraction,’ and ‘Dangerous Liaisons.’ But for all the manipulative diva there’s real vulnerability and outright madness to come….”What is also in the show’s favor is the presentation, which has been described as “semi-staged.” Gone are the bloated mega-musical effects of the original — including Norma Desmond’s vast levitating mansion — and in its place tables, chairs, and black metallic stairways making room for an onstage orchestra of 50 musicians. It’s a wise gambit to allow the songs, including “With One Look,” “The Perfect Year,” and “New Ways to Dream,” to soar on the bittersweet sentiments expressed in the lyrics of Don Black and Christopher Hampton.If all goes well, “Sunset Boulevard” will kick off the new year with a five-month limited engagement at the Palace Theatre. Indeed, 2017 is shaping up to be “the perfect year” for Lloyd Webber. He recently ended a prolonged dry spell with his first Broadway hit in nearly 30 years with “School of Rock,” and if “Sunset” lands on Broadway, he will be one of the few hit-makers to have four shows running concurrently, if you add in the recent revival of “Cats” and the phenomenon known as “Phantom of the Opera.”Having four shows running simultaneously is not unprecedented. In 1966, Neil Simon had a quartet of comedies running: “Barefoot in the Park,” “The Odd Couple,” “Sweet Charity,” and “The Star-Spangled Girl.” But given the cost of musicals versus plays — a consideration that is now being weighed regarding the Broadway prospects for this revival of “Sunset” — Lloyd Webber’s achievement is all that more impressive.
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