Sunset Boulevard
New Ways To Dream: When Cinema and Theatre Meet
Context
Although every Broadway season audiences await for what’s new in the industry, revivals of ancient shows are another major cornerstone for the Great White Way. Revivals are productions of already existing shows. They can be a replica of the original production, or a totally reimagined staging of the same story. Jamie Lloyd’s Sunset Boulevard is a clear example of the latter. It reprised Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic and replaced Norma Desmond’s maximalist mansion with a minimalist studio set on stage. Sunset Boulevard is one of these musicals that provides an almost direct ticket to a Tony nomination for its actors. Norma Desmond, who once upon a time was “the greatest star of all”, has been portrayed by many Broadway legends, such as Patti LuPone or Glenn Close. And in 2024, it was the turn of Nicole Scherzinger, lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls and X Factor jury.
Before the show
When I was studying abroad in New York, I often went to see shows on Wednesdays, as many of them offered matinee sessions and I did not have class, so it was the perfect time to spend a day in the city. Although I planned to see & Juliet that day, I didn’t get rush tickets, so Sunset Boulevard became plan B for my Wednesday show. The ticket I got was in the mezzanine. Despite being a little bit far from the stage, this production had a big screen where you could see the actors’ faces through the use of cameras on stage, so at least I didn’t miss any acting choices. Director Jamie Lloyd is known for his minimalist aesthetic for his sets and costumes, but his choreographer, Fabian Aloise, makes excellent work with big ensemble choreographies that fill up the stage.
What is “Sunset Boulevard”?
Aspiring screenwriter Joe Gillis has spent weeks trying to sell his movie to producers in Los Angeles. While escaping from the finance men who are tracing down his car, he ends up hiding in an abandoned mansion on Sunset Boulevard. There he meets Norma Desmond, a former silent movie star who was forgotten during the transition to sound. Norma is planning her comeback —or return, as she says— after decades in the shadow. She asks Joe to revise the script she has been writing. In exchange, she invites him to live a luxurious life in her mansion.
Next-level theatre
I was really intrigued to see how cameras would be integrated into the stage, and, mostly, how actors would interact with them. At the end of the day, it’s not the same performing for an audience and for a camera. Of course, they performed for the people in the theatre, but cameras helped them to captivate and amplify their expressions, multiplying the emotion. As one of the characters, Betty, says, “pictures should at least try to say a little something”. In this case, cameras were not just Lloyd’s fantasy, but a tool to tell a story in another way. As all the main characters are related to the cinema industry (screenwriters, editors, directors, actresses), they even look comfortable being surrounded by cameras.
Cameras appeared usually when two characters interacted intimately, providing a deep focus on their facial expressions for the audience. But they also worked as a vehicle for spectacularity. “The Car Chase” was the first scene where the cameras turned on, with actor Tom Francis, holding it to zoom it on his face. In this scene, his character Joe Gillis is escaping from the finance men, leaving the Paramount studios with his car. Because of the lack of big sets, I focused on the orchestrations of the sequence. If Tom Francis’ close-up was already thrilling to see while he was driving his camera-car, seeing Nicole Scherzinger’s face appear druing the main musical leitmotiv of the show was “life-changing”.
How “The Car Chase” sequence comes to live on stage.
Still, as my first time seeing the show without knowing the plot, I didn’t get some minor aspects of the story. For instance, the deceased chimp that Norma is trying to bury when she mets Joe, as there was not a single prop that could showcase it a part from the dialogue. Other people criticized Lloyd’s minimalist vision of Sunset Boulevard, whose aesthetic contradicts the fact that Norma’s excentric personality is displayed through her maximalist luxurious mansion. But in my personal interpretation, I believe that this specific production tries to recreate Norma’s mind, where everything is still in black and white, as an old memory or even a movie flashbakc. Plus, the minimalism and lack of color gives a misterious and blurred look of a strange dream.
Norma Desmond: an overthrown diva
Even though Joe Gillis is the narrator—and the victim—the main character is obviously Norma Desmond. She was one of the main actresses of the silent movie era, but during the transition to sound, she was sidelined. A major change in this production is Norma’s age, while the original character is meant to be in her fifties, Nicole’s version is around forty, making the fleetingness of her stardom more cruel. Her mind is still on those years when she was “the greatest star of all”. Max, her ex-husband and now butler, feeds her fantasy by falsifying fan letters. However, he reality is very different: her only company was a chimp, and even Joe Gillis recognizes her as somebody “who used to be in pictures, [who] used to be big”. Still, she responds with her iconic line “I am big, it’s the pictures that got small”. She sees in Joe an opportunity to return to the big screen with a movie starring her as sixteen year old Salome and with Cecil B. DeMille as the director.
“With One Look”: Norma’s dream of coming back to the screen while she remembers how with only her face she could tell a whole story.
Between the past and the present
I don’t think it’s a secret that Jamie Lloyd directed the production with Nicole Scherzinger in mind. In fact, she won the Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical against legendary Audra McDonald. Critics talked about her “With One Look” and “As If We Never Said Goodbye”, her two main highlights of her character arc. But I found two underrated moments that were as impressive. Her entrance with “Surrender”, where she started talking in a low and undermotivated voice. First impressions can be tough, and for a moment, I thought she was just another stunt cast member on Broadway to sell tickets, but when she confronted Joe Gillis to introduce herself, Nicole left me speechless. Actually, she also experienced the Norma Desmond effect in her career: somebody who was meant to become a big star and experienced some ups and downs over the years. Although the Pussycat Dolls remain as icons in pop culture, as a soloist, she didn’t experience the success she was promised.
And if you want to know what vulnerability is, listen to her “New Ways To Dream”. Norma makes Joe watch her old films, while he tries to get used to her excentric personality and delicate mental health. In this scene, Hannah Yun Chamberlain plays a young version of Norma Desmond, appearing on the big screen as she dances on stage. Another camera appears to record Nicole’s face, capturing the old Norma watching her younger self. In the climax of the song, both faces superpose on the screen, as Norma sings “nothing has changed, we’ll give the world new ways to dream”. The point of no return comes after she tries to commit suicide, with Joe deciding to stay with her out of pity.
A special performance of the title song by Tom Francis, recreating his walk from the iconic sequence, for the Olivier Awards.
The sunset of a star
In the second act, Joe accepts his new life as Norma Desmond’s “sugar baby”, despite not matching his expectations of being a successful writer. Once they finish the “Salome” script, they are invited to Paramount Studios to talk with Cecil B. DeMille. The big screen on stage goes up, like a curtain, to reveal the filming set that Norma was dreaming of. She is reunited with her world, singing “As If We Never Said Goodbye” to a standing ovation every night in the theater. However, Joe learns that the real reason they called Norma was to use her car in a new film, ignoring her comeback petitions. Max asks Joe not to tell Norma, so her fantasy doesn’t break.
Joe has been working alongside Betty Schaefer (played by Grace Hodgett-Young), the fiancée of his best friend, Artie Green (played by Diego Andrés Rodríguez). Betty has been helping him with his own script, “Dark Windows”, and suddenly their relationship evolves to a romantic affair. Betty’s breakup with Artie is showcased with a close-up of him, shedding a tear while taking off his mic set. This is another of Jamie Lloyd’s signature marks: taking a mic set off means that the character has ended his arc and exits the plot. It happens a second time when Norma learns about Betty and calls her to the mansion to discover the truth. “The Car Chase” theme is repeated for Betty’s drive through Sunset Boulevard, this time more aggressive and culminating in all the characters freezing on stage as a big red light appears, showing how each one’s fate has been sealed from that moment. Eventually, when Joe pushes Betty away from him and his life, she takes off her mic set before even trying to know how or why.
Absolutely overwhelmed by Norma’s control, Joe tries to leave the mansion. He sentences his own end by revealing the truth to Norma: her fans have abandoned her, and she should stop acting like she was twenty when she is forty. I have doubts if Norma really believes it or not, but she shoots him. The stage turns dark, and only Norma’s voice can be heard. Many cars arrive to the mansion as a homicide has been reported. Max, seeing that he can’t keep playing with her fantasy, as a last act of love, makes her believe the journalist’s cameras are there to shoot her movie. Norma appears in the doorway of her mansion, all covered in Joe’s blood, thanking all the people who came to see her and anouncing that she is ready for her “close-up”. Right up on cue, the stage camera shows us on the screen the face who used to be “the greatest star of all” living her last fantasy.
Discover all the secrets behind Jamie lloyd’s Sunset Boulevard
The viral sequence shot
One of the many reasons that this production became one of the most successful of the 2024-2025 Broadway season was its opening for the second act. The audience could see on the live screen how Tom Francis walked through the backstage corridors and dressing rooms of the theater, waving at his castmates. The sharpest could even see some cameos from the show and other productions during the sequence. Then, he went out to walk on 44th Street and the Shubert Alley while singing the title song of the show. While this sequence was shown on the screen, people on the street could also see the outdoor performance. What really blew my mind was how the sound technicians managed to create such a high-performing isolating system, capable of leaving all the sounds of Manhattan out of the live singing. The other effect was that, from the street, it looked like Tom Francis was singing a cappella, but in reality he could hear the orchestra thanks to in-ear monitors, which were also very efficient as he walked many meters away from the music director.
