Sunset Boulevard review – Nicole Scherzinger dazzles in Jamie Lloyd’s radical rework

Savoy theatre, London
Lloyd brings hipster edginess, style and unpredictability to this revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical – though it’s more surface-level than penetrating closeup

We have come to expect the unexpected from Jamie Lloyd. The director’s 2019 revival of Evita gave Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical a hipster-ish edginess, and it is the same for this production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1993 musical, to which he brings ferocious unpredictability.

Based on Billy Wilder’s film about struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis and his relationship of convenience with faded Hollywood starlet Norma Desmond, it speaks to that original medium. A black and white film is being made on stage and projected on to a gigantic back-screen. Credits roll at the beginning and end. Cameras follow characters, capturing their faces in magnified proportions so it’s clear that all here are ever-ready for their closeups, not just Norma.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/T1cBXfg