To purchase the Original London Cast Recording of SUNSET BOULEVARD, click on the image above.

It’s Double Take December at Musical Cyberspace! Every musical pretty much has something one likes and something one doesn’t in it. This month I’ll be listing one of each for a range of musicals, a different one each day.

Sunset Boulevard

Something I Like: “As If We Never Said Goodbye” is a marvelous number that truly extends what is little more than a close-up of Norma’s face in the film. Close-ups being impossible in that way unless you’re using multimedia in the theatre, the song fills in the complexity of what Norma is feeling at that moment. Cinematic techniques give way to theatrical ones and a classic diva moment of the musical theatre is born.

Something I Don’t Like: I don’t like that people malign the show because it is such a straightforward adaptation of the piece. I don’t think there would be any point in adapting it any other way and I think it was a very valid choice on the part of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black, Christopher Hampton and Amy Powers (in what limited capacity she had in the final product). That said, I think the musical does have a very different feel to the film in spite of its narrative mimeticism and the emotional journey of each is different to the other.

Feel free to share your “double take” on Sunset Boulevard in the comment box!