Glenn Close To Star in 'SUNSET BOULEVARD' Musical Film!

This thing will flop, also it will be necessary to give her voice the full studio treatment to make it sound passable, age hasn't been kind to hers.

No one asked for this.

r2 Are you kidding? Glenn was thrown off every casting couch until Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to give her a pity film.

This fell apart after she lost the Oscar. Paramount has not confirmed anything. This show is over say goodbye.

She's doing that hillbilly show with Amy Adams. It sounds like a DataLounger put these two losers in a project made for parody.

Saw her in Sunset Boulevard in LA at the Schubert. Miss that theatre.

Sad.

Omg, are they doing this fucking movie or not? Just make up your minds already.

r4 Need proof of which you speak. Only green light confirmations on the internet.

I will not be content until the theatrical musical version of the original non-musical film has been made into a film version of the theatrical musical.

After that, there should be a live TV broadcast of a "theatrical" remake of the film version of the original theatrical musical, which will be completely recast 36 prior to broadcast due to a sudden measles outbreak.

A couple years later, there must be a "reimagined' theatrical version of the original film without any music whatsoever, acted out by oversized state-of-the-art shadow puppets. Simultaneously, Gus Van Sant should release a frame-by-frame "non-reimagined" remake of the original film.

There is no official confirmation from Paramount. These are fake PR announcements by ALW and probably poor Glenn.

As long as a real singer dubs her singing the word ME instead of MAY, audiences will come in droves.

I fear if by some miracle the film gets made and Glennie doesn't get Oscar love she might.....

I don't want to think about it. I don't think she can stand anymore Humiliation ...

You’ve come home at last.

Give it up! It was done once and the mold was broken.

How the mighty have fallen.

The press that it was being made only came out after the Oscars.

It would only be a box office hot if Glenn decides to do some sex scenes/nudity. My understanding is that's what helped make Fatal Attraction such a huge hit, people kept coming back to see her over and over.

I just fear adding such prurient content might put off some Oscar voters.

Even in that HR story it says Paramount had no comment. Shade. Not happening.

[quote] Perhaps Liza, Meryl, Barbra or Patti LuPone would be better.

Seriously? Glenn MADE Fatal Attraction. Babi Gurl knows a thing or two about scenery chewing roles, m’thinks.

Glenn lives in a fantasy world of delusion.

[quote]. It would only be a box office hot if Glenn decides to do some sex scenes/nudity.

She's 70! Eewwww.

Glenn dear...find out in what film Hilary Swank will be appearing the same year Sunset Boulevard comes out.

Norma Desmond was in her 50s, not 90s.

I loved Forbidden Broadway making fun of Glenn's voice.

[twittering little voice] I don't know why I'm frigh- [voice drops an octave and bellows] tened.

Hilary actually made a good last year that no one noticied .Something about putting Blythe Danner in Shady Pines....

Thanks for thinking of me, but, unlike some people, I know when I don’t have the vocal chops for a demanding singing role.

She’ll be great but I thought the musical was just okay, no memorable songs

Still no green light from Paramount? It’s May.

[quote] It would only be a box office hot if Glenn decides to do some sex scenes/nudity.

We would not allow any harm to come to the monkey.

The only actress even remotely right for this would be Jessica Lange

The perfect Oscar vehicle. Do it, Glenn!

r25 Link please.

Just let de Havilland star and have done with it.

'SUNSET BOULEVARD' is a gawdawful musical. It has about three songs and a bunch of really hard to listen to crap as a score.

The whole tragedy of Norma Desmond is that with the advent of the sound era she was abandoned in her prime, a relic well before such a thing might be expected. The perfectly cast Gloria Swanson was a vibrant forty-nine years old during filming. Upon subsequent viewings it is surprising to notice how youthful and often pretty Norma remains, even though the character is more and more deranged as the film proceeds. Glenn Close is pushing seventy. It is impossible to see that injustice the same compelling way.

Still no green light. Poor Glenn. Back to TV.

I’m surprised Ryan Murphy isn’t proposing it as one of his Netflix programs.

Was it just some kind of publicity stunt?

This isn't going to do big box office. It's a prestige creative project (jn theory.) I can't imagine Paramount giving it approval with 70 year old Glen Close "singing" the lead. It's kind of pathetic she's clinging to it. And I'm not Meryl.

Netflix should do it, in a partnership with PBS or something. I just can't see it as a conventional movie and doing any box office.

Wouldn't cost much, would win Glenn her Oscar, and could work on the level of "Sweeney Todd" if not "Chicago". "Evita" if they want to put up the bucks and make it epic but it's not that kind of show. Come on, I already have to live without my Woody Allen movie this past year, at least give me "Sunset Blvd: The Movie"!

R35 is absolutely correct.

Norma Desmond is 50.

Get Michelle Pfeiffer.

It only took the assholes 30 years to get that done. Hollywood and Washington are much the same.

I don't think it would win Glenn her Oscar. She's a talented actress, but she never wins. So there's something getting in her way and it can't always be bad luck and other actors with better parts. I can't see Hollywood giving it to her when she can't sing, she's twenty years past the role and there's no shortages of actresses twenty years younger who'd resent the hell out of Glenn hoggingg the part when she's already had a great career and she camped it up better than Patti LuPone thirty years ago. Politics would kill her nomination.

She'll get an honorary some day for the body of work or she'll play some magnificent old woman when she's in her eighties... she should option the fuck out of any story about some old woman did something noble during the second world war...

Or maybe she should remake Golden Pond and do a skinny dipping scene where she shows off a magnificent ass for her age.

Of course, Helen Mirren would probably steal that role

[quote] Or maybe she should remake Golden Pond and do a skinny dipping scene where she shows off a magnificent ass for her age.

Magnificent? At best it would be a ‘brave’ moment, like Kathy Bates in “About Schmidt”.

[quote]I know when I don’t have the vocal chops for a demanding singing role.

You're "singing" in that ABBA movie shows otherwise.

M: Why do you always have to be such a cunt about G ? Three snarky posts already. Just stop.

Usually I can take Glenn out in one post, but this Sunset fixation plainly requires a sustained intervention.

Glenn won't wind up being a twenty seven time Oscar loser.

In fairness, 50 then is like 70 now.

"Hilary actually made a good last year that no one noticed"

No one notices most of them.

If you've seen her do this on stage then you already know that Glenn Close is the right actor for the role.

The real question is, can Rob Ashford, a competent Broadway director, deliver a decent film version of this ? He has limited experience directing films. Odd choice.

Chris Pine would be great as Joe Gillis. So would Aaron Tveit but he's not a movie star yet.

Ready for her close up

[quote]In fairness, 50 then is like 70 now.

No, seventy is seventy. Liver spots are liver spots. The hands don't lie. Etc. etc. etc.

They need to find a male Gaga who sings great and can be "discovered" with this role so it isn't all an Oscar bait for Glenn thing. Who is the male version of Gaga in terms of vocal talent but a "hip" fanbase?

No thank you

I’d be embarrassed to admit I was even offered such an embarrassing property. Shame on you, Glenn.

Thank you for all the support, M. My dream is to sound as good as you did in Into The Woods (only without Donna Murphy's assistance).

The way Swanson played her, Norma came across as about 70. Mildewed, dusty, daffy, pale... wearing faded finery and old-lady parfum.

I think of her like Baby Jane Hudson.

Paramount and Andrew originally offered the part to me. But I had no desire to play a has been. So I suggested someone who needs the money and dear Glennie came to mind right away.

Donna Murphy did not sing for Streep. That is a myth perpetuated by a crazy DataLounger.

This movie will never happen with Glenn. She is box office poison and Paramount has abandoned it.

That's why we need Glenn Close and Harry Styles in "Sunset Blvd" and for him to be amazing. The Gaga model.

My first choice is Faye Dunaway.

If not her, Carol Burnett.

Can Eva sing?

50 was old when Sunset Boulevard was made and Swanson looks like a 50 year old rich woman would have looked. She is also playing a delusional caricature

'None of us floozies was that nuts.'

Actually, I’d love to see a Tim Burton film of Sunset Blvd. provided it was cast properly.

^ What's that going to get you other than Hurricane Bonham Carter in a turban?

We not be seeing this. Would rather watch paint dry. Glenn Close is boring as shit.

This is a role for Lisa Kudrow!

With one look, I'll be... mah!

The studio wants Streep and Chris Pine with a whole new score.

R71, I think you are right but I heard nothing about the score being replaced.

They always want Meryl. They don't always get her. I turned down the Broadway version decades ago. That is how this whole Lupone/Close thing started.

Ha. I was joking about second part. Glenn has that Amy Adams thing but I have literally nothing about this movie happening. Glenn had the movie rights written into her contract but she can’t get a green light. I am sure that’s endlessly amusing to Patti LuPone.

nothing is endlessly amusing to Patti Lupone

Patti will always be Norma to me!

Patti will never be a Movie Star to me.

I like the idea of this movie happening only if it results in a redux of Glenn (this time for "Sunset") vs. Gaga ("Wicked" maybe?) at the 2022 Oscars where definitely neither of them win, again.

You have heard about my Gypsy greenlight then, I wouldn’t wonder. Well, blimey!

There is only one choice. Me.

M darling didn’t you attend ALW’s Sydmonton Festival Festival all those years ago when Sunset was premiered with Patti in the lead?

Yes.

With M in the lead it'll be the LucyMAME of the 21st century.

Did ALW really cut her from the Cats movie too? Yikes. Rough times to be G.

It's a good part. Won't do much box office but it's a good part. Glenn should hold it hostage in exchange for a Best Actress Oscar. Her and Meryl in a Whales of August remake. Or maybe Baby Jane.

I saw her do this on stage TWICE and I'm over it. NO. Not that she wasn't good, but I'd rather see someone else.

The show isn’t even that GOOD. It just employed a lot of overage actresses.

(Or in Dunaway’s case, [italic]almost[/italic] employed.)

Trevor Nunn didn't want to close the show in Los Angeles.....so Faye must have been ok. ALW didn't want to lose the money the show would lose after Close left so he "capriciously" closed it.

Yes. Dunaway would have been fine. Supposedly ticket sales dropped when the cast change was announced, but that doesn’t mean her performance was in trouble.

Ya! Eva sings goot. She is vonderbar!

Gloria as Norma looked good and dressed very well Bette as Baby Jane not so much..

HBC hasn't been in Burton films since they broke up (Maybe AIW). Now its Eva Green even though she's good there hasn't been much success...

It’s just more evidence that Glenn will always smell like a number two.

If singing doesn't count, give it Gillian Anderson. She's the right age, she's thin and she's got bone structure for days.

I just love this pic and strong emotions I get from it. I can’t stand Glenn as Norma, couldn’t sing it and overacted it from the start. Norma goes mad in the end but as mad as her opening scene is she acts with great sense of self dignity. Patti made it work Glenn didn’t. Sorry but camp Patti from the start.

Whether Glenn hammed it up or played it like a gorgon, the show didn't click until she started chewing the scenery. I too, though, preferred LuPone's vocals but how can you not? Love or loathe Patti LuPone, she's got a hell of a set of pipes.

I saw the show when it first opened in LA, and on closing night in LA. Early in the run, it was a drama. At the end, bit had turned into a slapstick comedy. Close was milking EVERY laugh, and mugging up a storm. I really couldn't believe they allowed her to do that.

I've always wondered if, once it got to New York, they made her stop the laugh milking.

Glenn could do another TV show but her headlining a movie is a waste of money. She’s not bankable.

Glenn said in her interview this week they hope to start shooting next summer! It's still on..

Will they use the new de-aging technology on Glennie?

They should make it present-tense, and have Norma be 115.

Andrew, if there was ever a time to indulge your desire to fire....

He's Lucy, the part is his football and the publicity will be good for the movie.

Who will be her sexy leading man?

An 80 year old Norma Desmond makes more sense than a 50 year old Norma Desmond.

Aisha Tyler and Bridget Moynahan are 50. Most 30 year old failed writers would jump at the chance of fucking someone like that if they could get a screenplay into production.

An 80 year old Norma Desmond will be the cement shoes on the dead body of this bad idea for a film.

Who the fuck is 80?!

Make the film with Gaga as Norma. I love Glenn but she’s too old. Norma isn’t supposed to be ancient. There should still be something sexual and appealing about her.

Something appealing? And you choose Gaga?

R94, that Guardian article is all kinds of awesome.

Oh no, another flop for Glenn in development.

[quote] Perhaps Liza, Meryl, Barbra or Patti LuPone would be better.

I AM BIG! IT'SH THE PICSHURESH THAT GOT SHMALL!

Wiiiiisch one wook, then everthingsh shaz if, we never shed goodbye...

Oh, shorry... did I mixsch thosch numbersch up again?

Well, the lascht time I made a movie I had all my own bonesch!

"There's nothing tragic about being 75. Not unless you're trying to be, uh, 50."

There’s a bootleg of the recent broadway revival starring Glenn. The quality is so good they could air it on Great Performances. Glenn looks ancient. It doesn’t work.

yay !!!! saw her in it twice....she awesome !!!! who be her co star?

This....and let's not forget "West Side Story." An embarrassment of riches. And I do mean embarrassment.

I am not - M or channelling - M but at her age and with her voice, this has embarrassing end to a respectable body of work written all over it. I feel sorry for her if it happens. It will bomb, she won't be very good, she will be mocked for being too old and linked with/as Norma Desmond the character, not Norma Desmond the performance.

And she still won't win a damn Oscar.

Why does it need to bomb if it goes to Netflix or some other streamer? They just need to release it in a few cinemas for awards attention.

For anyone who saw Glenn in the 90s and again 3 years ago, she said she played the character very differently (after 20 years of life experience). Did you notice any difference or improvement?

No one wants to see musicals films anymore.

I notice that the show is still terrible -Overblown and completely boring. I saw LuPone in the original in London. Marvelous as she is, she was wrong for the role and obviously much too young. Elaine Paige was absolutely spot-on perfect, which proved that the show itself is a dog, because even she couldn't save it.

I'm told I probably could say I am happy for her. I had to turn it down, of course.

And maybe lightning will strike.... once.

Patti didn't even win the Olivier award for her Norma in the original. She lost out to the old lady who went on to play Miss Marple in a revival of "Sweeney Todd".

Will Patti sing it? Glenn has lost whatever thin voice she once had.

SB’s score has two great songs. The rest is trash. They should have kept in running by bringing in a new Norma every 3-6 mos. Betty and Elaine were fabulous but they don’t sell tickets. Pet Clark was in talks to takeover on broadway but they pulled the plug instead.

The problem with the show is that every scene and song that doesn't involve Norma is boring as hell. They should cut out all the other crap surrounding it and only let the material "sing" when Joe's with Norma. Is anyone really that invested in the Joe/Betty relationship?

I adore Glenn and she was right for the role 20/30 years ago, but I have a feeling this is going to end up being really sad and depressing to watch. Maybe not Lucy/Mame level bad, but not as great as it could have been with a younger actress. If she gets this made, they might as well finally let Barbra Streisand do Gypsy before she has to do "Rose's Turn" with a walker.

If she's still saying it's been greenlit, there must be a script by this point. The only way I can see this being bankable is as a Netflix movie. Guess we'll see how The Prom does next month.

Who is directing this POS? Will Ben Platt costar?

I saw Close on Broadway in her second run of Sunset. Too old then and certain way past the sell-by date now. And she wasn't up to the role vocally.

Cher!

OP's article is almost 2 years old. Despite Glenn saying now they hope to start shooting "next summer", it ain't happening. Not with Glen Close anyway.

R127 I love Cher but no. Did you hear her Abba songs? She ain’t no Agnetha Fältskog.

Could live without musical adaptation on film; what I want is for someone to do Sunset Blvd as a drama film again.

If they cast it wth Close they'd have to change the line to I'm ready for my wide shot.

[quote]Glenn said in her interview this week they hope to start shooting next summer! It's still on. Will they use the new de-aging technology on Glennie?

IF she STILL thinks this movie is going to happen, what they should use on her is an anti-psychotic drug.

[quote]SB’s score has two great songs. The rest is trash.

And one of those two great songs doesn't really fit the character. Norma is not the type to express vulnerability the way she does in "As If We Never Said Goodbye."

By the way, IF the movie happens -- and I highly doubt it will -- I bet they'll use Glenn's vocals from the Broadway cast recording, which according to some rumors is what was done for at least some of her performance in that limited run revival a few years back.

What's the second great song?

Does Norma get the famous quotes from the movie: movies that got small; ready for my close up?

Norma must be black!

[quote]Norma must be black!

Crenshaw BULLevard!

r134, Diahann Carroll played the Canadian premiere of the original production, first in Toronto and then moving to Vancouver. She got excellent reviews. There is a highlights recording.

I always imagined Norma about 75. She's supposed to smell like old lady parfum and have tons of powder on her face and still dress in 1920s clothes. Why would a 50 year old be doing that? Today's 50s can look 30s with some effort.

They have to make her pushing 80 or it just won't work.

R137, where did you get any of those ideas?

The story is set in 1950. Swanson was early fifties when she played the part. Gillis says in script: Norma, grow up. You’re a woman of fifty. There’s nothing tragic about being fifty - not unless you try to be twenty -five.

Remember that when Sunset Boulevard was filmed in 1950, it referred to only 20 years in the past. The first hit sound film was The Jazz Singer in 1927 but it took several years for theaters to get rewired for sound. It didn't happen overnight.

(And note I said the first HIT sound film. The first sound film dates to 1894, with two men dancing. The Dickson Sound Film. Google it, it's fun.)

patti dont like glenn, so i dont either...'can i join the kool crowd' as she trys to pry jon hamm off patti. NO just NO

The Dickson Experimental Sound film, 1894 or 95. It is indeed fun. And there were many sound films, some experimental, some commercial, between then and The Jazz Singer.

^ G is good in that. Not Oscar worthy, but then she never is.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Glenn "Close to Shit" Nobbs?

Are they going to change the fucking part to Norman Desmond?

MY pipes are still connected and work just fine. And they only get one chance or Disney is going to turn the mess into "Sunrise Street" and stick Fantasia Barrino in it.

I will probably be turning this down. I don't do old people movies.

I'm updating it to the present. And Norma is now Norm, a Grunge singer similar to Kurt Cobain, who has been secluded in his Seattle mansion for 25 years. And Billie Eilish plays Josie Gillis, who crashes her scooter on the sidewalk.

My point about the end of the silent era being only 20 years before the original film of Sunset Boulevard is that Norma is supposed to be a stylish older woman but not ancient.

When does Streisand's "Gypsy" begin production?

When the cities lay waste and desolate, r148.

Let's just be honest, after my triumph as Norma, [italic]I'll[/italic] be Mama Rose.

[bold]MY.TIME.IS.NOW![/BOLD]

(wheeze) I'VE COME HOOOOOOOOME (crack!) at (mega breath) LAAAAAAAAAAAAST!

Wouldn’t someone like Michelle pfeiffer, CZJ or even Vanessa Williams work better for this? All have a good set of pipes and all are beautiful.

R148 Oh yes, 77-year-old belting it is finally her time.

Anyone who doesn't look like an older woman by current standards, which Close does. Meryl does for that matter. I actually think if they are going to do it, CZJ is the one. She's got the pipes. She's got the presence. She kinda is Norma Desmond.

The Vaseline lens must pass.

CZJ would be perfect. She was a lovely Desiree about 10 years ago. She’s also the only one I can think of who can pull off Mame.

Ok DL inhabitants, a Thanksgiving game.

Financing is in place, everything is ready to go but now comes hard part; casting 2021 remake of Sunset Blvd as original drama film, not a musical.

Let's hear some casting choices...

Joe Gillis

Norma Desmond

Max von Mayerling

Betty Schaefer

Sheldrake, film producer

Morino, Joe's agent

Artie Green

Plus assorted "old Hollywood) film actors and one great director to round out cast: Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper, Sidney Skolsky, Buster Keaton, Jonesy (older guard at Paramount gate), etc.. those roles..

G losing the Oscar to that British wench, Cats flopping so miserably and Rona were the final nails in this project's coffin. I feel sorry for Glennie if she's so delusional that she still thinks this is happening.

As Joe should read much younger than Glenn’s Norma, I’d nominate John Cullum.

Considering recent trend of "inclusion" and "diversity" in Hollywood atm, one shudders to think what any casting of Sunset Blvd musical film might look like. More so now that Oscars have put out that mandate...

Why doesn't Glenn just co-produce it? Put her money where her mouth is..

Oh and R154 this is an old lady look?

Actually Meryl in the pic at R160 would be a decent Norma. Old but still glam

Younger than Springtime. She never looked lovelier.

Joe Gillis - Ryan Gosling, Eddie Redmayne, Chris Pine, Patrick Wilson (he may be edging too old.)

Norma Desmond - CJZ, maybe Kate Winslett - she's 45 and apparently she can sing, but you'd want a much younger Joe

Max von Mayerling - some Brit who can sing and act

Betty Schaefer - no one cares past this point

Sheldrake, film producer

Morino, Joe's agent

Artie Green

Winslet in 2018... without make up... no idea the strength of the pipes, but if Glenn was good enough once... LuPone and Close created their roles at ages 46 and 47.

Who wants to see arse-kisser Kate Winslet as Norma? She'd probably demand a topless scene to get her udders out again, then drone on about it being a body-positive feminist statement in her Please-Give-Me-Another-Oscar press blitz..

Jeremy Irons for Max

Kate Winslet singing.

Not sure if someone in their 40s works any more. Times have changed so much that Norma feels more like she should be 70.

winslet’s voice is nice though not sure if right for Norma.

Billy Wilder's original Norma Desmond starts off normal at the beginning and goes insane in the last 15 minutes.

Unfortunately, Glenn (with her unfortunate face) looks insane right from the beginning.

[quote] Michelle Pfeiffer, Catherine Zeta Jones

These actresses may be 50 years old but we can accept them as mature celebrities.

The original Norma may have been 50 years she was not accepted or acceptable because she belonged to The Silent Era. She was like those immigrants from a foreign country who refuses to learn the language, retreats into their private shell and goes insane.

She is a worse singer than Madonna. I saw her in the Broadway revival a few years back and she was great, as an actress. She really did a great job and I'm not someone is a fan - I'm whatever about her. But her singing was HORRIBLE. And she's too old.

With all of the great, talented actresses in their late 40s to late 50s, why not give them the work? Glenn? No. Just no.

Maybe Gwyneth should pursue it, just to fuck with Glenn.

^ That's an old photo. She's looking like a leathery-faced Pioneer Woman now.

She should chivalrously let Fernanda Montenegro take the role and get that Oscar.

Sho why ishn't anyone ashking me??

josh o'connor or callum turner for william holden part....

never czj or meryl god dammit !!

This thing should be a Netflix movie... it might recoup over time. It is not a film.

Or a Great Performances thing on PBS. I don't know why PBS won't get into the business of preserving the great musicals and plays in an archive people can access on demand.

Does anybody know what the ballpark cost would be to produce a made for streaming version of a typical musical? Something more than just shoving four cameras on stage but less than a Tom Hooper Les Mis. More like a Rob Ashford Chicago (which wasn't cheap either.)

James Corden would make a fab Norma Desmond.

The original film is perfect. This musical deserves no better. Give it to Corden.

It needs to be someone who was a huge star in the 70's or 80's, who hasn't been heard from since then, i.e., a recognizable has-been from a past era.

Irene Cara!

[quote]It needs to be someone who was a huge star in the 70's or 80's, who hasn't been heard from since then....

Good thinkin'. That will sell tickets. Guaranteed.

R181, the male lead can be a current star to sell tickets. R180 actual has the right type.

So this will just become Albert Noobs with some songs?

Shelley Duvall was born for this. And she's done film musicals.

But she's had better material in the past. Much better than this ALW shit.

Can Patti Lupone be cast as the dead monkey or whatever pet it was that gets buried in the garden?

"Considering recent trend of "inclusion" and "diversity" in Hollywood atm, one shudders to think what any casting of Sunset Blvd musical film might look like. More so now that Oscars have put out that mandate..."

As R180 said, "IRENE CARA!"

Irene is American by birth with a father who is Puerto Rican of African descent and a mother who is Cuban American. She ticks every box but Asian. And Joe Gillis can obviously be hired to tick that box.

Go, Irene. This one is for you!

KIM CARNES!!!!

[quote]Can Patti Lupone be cast as the dead monkey or whatever pet it was that gets buried in the garden?

If you change it to an Eastern Gorilla.

Annie Lennox looks too old now... a slimmer Glennn... but she could have done it and could probably still sing the hell out of it on stage.

Obviously the movie now needs to be woke. Norma will be a trans woman of color who triumphs at the end.

Joe Gillis can be F2M.

Irene Cara for Norma, Chaz Bono for Joe!

And to tick the Asian box, Max will now be "Maxine" and brought to life by songbird Wing!

Wing!

Wait, wait, wait. Who says Cara can't play Asian?

No Cecil B De Mille in this woke version. The legendary director will be Ava Du Vernay.

This really could not be a worse idea. Remaking the greatest film noir of all time? It's automatically vastly inferior to the original. It's gonna look ridiculous in color, for starters.

I can’t see this being made unless it was a tragic Hulu adaptation. Glenn is not box office and no male would go near it, unless it was a thirsty theater queen. She always seems to make up stories that it’s happening.

HEY WE IS WOKE....so gotta be viola davis...if not, u is unwoke!

So on Youtube there's a full version of Glenn's revival Sunset sung through.

It's kind of sad. It's kind of... like Norma got to actually make her Salmone. Close is just too old. I don't even think she was trying to camp it up but there's no pathos... all Norma's big lines just get laughs - I would argue because she's too old to be taken seriously (and if you thought she couldn't hold a note at forty-six, you should watch the moment come and go at 70.)

If they were to do this, and I doubt they will, it has to be somebody else. Someone should have a quiet word because if Close plays this part.... well, there'll be no escaping Patti LuPone's reaction. Even if you could withstand the peeling flesh, she'll make a fool of herself. I can't believe she was reasonably well received. Must have been pity. She's past it.

This performance of "As If We Never Said Goodbye" was for Andrew Lloyd Webber's 50th birthday celebration in 1998. Glenn was about 51 at the time, which is about the age of the character in the musical.

She's 73 now.

She was so honest about Gwyneth and people applauded her for it. So now it’s time to issue a statement admitting “No, it’s time to let it go. It was lovely to do on stage but I’m too fucking old to play it now on film”.

If Gwyneth wanted to be a real bitch, she’d point out she’s the age Glenn was when she first played the role 25 years ago.

.[quote]It's kind of... like Norma got to actually make her Salmone.

It's most unchivalrous to point out how she smells.

"During filming, considerable publicity was given to health-conscious Gloria Swanson's youthful appearance, which made her look the same age as Holden. Wilder insisted that the age difference between the characters be delineated, and instructed makeup supervisor Wally Westmore to make Swanson look older. Swanson argued that a woman of Norma Desmond's age, with her considerable wealth and devotion to self, would not necessarily look old, and suggested Holden be made up to appear younger. Wilder agreed, and Westmore was assigned this task, which allowed Swanson to portray Norma Desmond as more glamorous a figure than Wilder had originally imagined."

I actually saw the revival on Broadway and thought she did a pretty good job. What sucked were the set and staging compared to the original version.

Battle of "As If We Never Said Goodbye"

Betty Buckley....

Elaine Page....

Patti LuPone

Patti again, this time just recording from final performance at Adelphi Theatre 1994

Battle of "With One Look"

First up Glenn Close...

Betty Buckley...

Elaine Page.....

Last but not least, Patti LuPone....

For my money Betty Buckley blows other dames out of the water........

I prefer this version from Sydmonton.

I avoided the revival even though I absolutely love the show. Glenn is too old, the rest of the cast was not exciting to me and I have no desire to pay Broadway prices for a concert (especially one with wildly inappropriate choreography shoe-horned in). After watching the video linked above I am stunned. The orchestra sounds amazing but everything else is horrible to gob-smacking in its badness. While the Joe has a nice body, encouraging applause for it just comes off as thirsty. Maybe it’s a character choice, but it’s wrongheaded. I get people literally gasping at Sebastian Stan’s body in the Picnic revival... this guy, not so much. I also couldn’t believe how poor Glenn’s voice is... I actually winced (Mary!) when she cracked on the big last note at the end. Ouch.

Anyway, I love the idea of Chris Pine, Ryan Gosling or Billy Magnussen as Joe and definitely CZJ as Norma. AnnE or any of the Emmas are fine as boring Betty.

Poor old Glenn’s gotta move on. Yikes.

My choice has always been either Buckley or LuPone. I felt like Buckley always got the underlying mental disarray and longing better than Patti did... although Patti sang the mad scene really well. On the other hand Buckley's voice... I can't quite describe the quality... I always feel like she's purposely overplaying the vibrato, but still, she's captivating. I do like how she plays the last speech in the mad scene quite softly. LuPone has a rich, full voice and I feel like she's having the time of her life piloting the plane... but she never really connected with the part... she just showed how she could sing it and she could sing the hell out of it.

Norma's a tricky part to play, balancing the bombast with the desperation and increasing loss she feels but cannot admit. Swanson is indelible but easy to parody and hard to evoke... it's not a big leap from Swanson to Carol Burnett.

Like I say, it's kind of painful in the revival link on Youtube to watch Close get so many laughs. I don't think she's trying to.

What am I? Burnt champagne?

What are you, Diahann? DEAD! That's what you are.

Don't be looking for Miss Carroll to be starring in any more pictures, fellas. She's dead!

As dead as Glenn Close's looks!

I saw Carroll in Toronto. It was fine. She didn't distinguish herself in her acting or singing. Perfectly acceptable B team performance after the A team belters who could really sing the part.

I know it’s easier to sing but I’m not a fan of the “I’ll beh meh” ending to “With One Look”. Looking at you, Betty & Elaine. Glennie actually sings “be” and mixes into the “me” nicely. Patti goes for broke with “be” and “me” - no surprise there.

Mason was so good.

R216, the one thing I thought was vaguely inventive in the concert was the very brief appearance of young Norma during the dancing on New Year's Eve. It just surprised me, being so simple.

People, let's face facts: SUNSET BLVD. is basically a lousy musical adaptation of a great movie, with AT MOST two or three good songs. And, as I've already pointed out, one of those songs ("As If We Never Said Goodbye") is only good out of context, because it doesn't even fit the character of Norma Desmond. So, in short, there is no reason for a movie version of this musical, no matter who might star in it. I agree that, if anything, they should have made a filmed version of the stage production with Close around the time of the original run, maybe right after the show closed or right after the tour ended.

^I disagree.

There's still potential for this project based on producers' feedback of the latest audience tape from an up-and-coming ingénue.

The make-up alone is impressive; so in character.

I wish they'd release the movie, rescored with an adaptation from the Lloyd Webber music. It was lush - burlesque in parts - but still I'd like to see the film married up with ALW, just to see if it works. I never liked the score to the original... it felt even more overwrought than Norma... I know it was noir and that I am spitting on the flag here but I like a lot of the original movie but I don't quite call it a masterpiece... it all felt overwrought and there was such a powerful story underneath it... it didn't need quite that level of corny, affected fifties noir to it? I was going to say Swanson never stopped Norma being Norma, but she did... the scene where he leaves her she is just someone being left... it was Holden who could have been pulled back a bit and that screechy score. Unforgettable film, must be preserved film but I don't call it perfect.

Madonna is Betty Schaeffer!

R227, that is one of the very worst ideas I have ever seen posted on Data Lounge. And some of what goes on here is absolutely tragic.

I'm sorry, R229. You're not right.

[quote]I wish they'd release the movie, re-scored with an adaptation from the Lloyd Webber music.

There are bad ideas, and terrible ideas, and horrendously appalling ideas, and then there's this one.

Well, you've proven your spectrum position but failed to indicate exactly why you're rocking back and forth.

R207 - No contest. It was Betty Buckley. She got a standing ovation in the middle of that song every night. Quite a feat. The others don't touch her.

If Betty got her standing ovation in the middle of the number her timing was all off and she needed to work more with her director.

BTW, forgive an aging eldergay. My memory is fading. Was she a Broadway replacement? Did she do the role at Papermill? Where was she supposed to have blown the stagehands while waiting to go on?

She replaced LuPone in London after the firing/retooling closure and then she took over in New York at some point... maybe after close? I thought Paige closed it.

Why should when she gets a standing ovation her fault? She can't control the reaction of an audience, esp. one likely to be filled with more caftans than on the stage.

I read and then heard from people who saw her that Patti improved tremendously in London as the run went on. That her mixed reviews came from the opening and that if the critics had seen her later, her reviews would have been very different. Were they just Patti fans or was there something to that?

It was a nasty and bitter bit of business....

Betty Buckley did indeed replace LuPone in London, but there is so much drama you need a score pad to keep track.

More:

Did Patty Lapone fuck Kevin Anderson when she did Sunset in London? I've heard she fucks all the men she acts with. I assume she also bumped uglies with Mandy Che Patinkin when she did Evita.

r239 I've seen on these boards somewhere that Kevin Anderson is/was gay?? That he was one of John Mahoney's boys? If so, this would be interesting news. I was very infatuated with him in the 90s when he almost became a mid-list star.....he was really really cute.

[quote]Patti LuPone's comment the other day about Andrew Lloyd Webber was terse and scathing: "I have nothing nice to say about the man, so I choose to say nothing at all.".

This must have been the first and last time in her life that she followed that guideline. And, of course, it didn't last long in regard to her commenting about ALW :-)

As much as I love her, Glenn is too old for the film at this point, but she has right of refusal in her contract from almost 30 years ago. If a movie's getting made, she's doing it unless she gets smart and lets it go. Someone like Catherine Zeta Jones would really be excellent in this role. She's the right age and type and could probably sing is as well as many of the others who have played it. Once again, she's not a box office name anymore, but neither is Glenn.

Chris Pine seems ideal for Joe.

This role was made for Lucie Arnaz.

...in dinner theatre maybe.

[quote]As much as I love her, Glenn is too old for the film at this point, but she has right of refusal in her contract from almost 30 years ago. If a movie's getting made, she's doing it unless she gets smart and lets it go.

Would it be remotely possible for her to have something like that in her "contract?" A film would be an entirely different project from the stage production, with presumably at least some new producers involved. Also, even if there were some clause to that effect (which doesn't sound right to me), there would obviously have to be some time limitation on it.

They can always update the movie to be about a blogger and a 70's jiggle comedy star and--voila!--Suzanne Somers gets an Oscar!

When Merman signed to do Gypsy onstage, she thought there was clause included that guaranteed her first refusal to do the film. She hadn't read the contract carefully and was wrong. Read everything very carefully, don't skim, before you sign your name.

1962's Gypsy would've been better with Merman.

" I don't think she can stand anymore Humiliation ...

—m"

Darling, is Humiliation the fragrance you created after your daughters started acting?

[Quote] When Merman signed to do Gypsy onstage, she thought there was clause included that guaranteed her first refusal to do the film. She hadn't read the contract carefully and was wrong. Read everything very carefully, don't skim, before you sign your name.

I don't believe that for a second. She knew Hollywood has little use for her. She likely hoped that the show would be such a success that she'd get the movie but she didn't demand a clause to that effect.

I’m not sure, G, but at least they appear in movies where I am not the star.

[quote]When Merman signed to do Gypsy onstage, she thought there was clause included that guaranteed her first refusal to do the film. She hadn't read the contract carefully and was wrong. Read everything very carefully, don't skim, before you sign your name.

I don't believe such a clause would be possible. There would be too many things working against the possibility, including the fact that they had no idea when (or if) a film version would be made.

Test. Screen test.

I didn't understand exactly why she would make the movie now since it's 25 years since her first performance in this role.

But maybe here's why. In 2017, just three years ago, she played the role again and the New York Times said this at the time (2-9-17):

[quote] Miss Desmond is embodied by Glenn Close, the much-celebrated movie actress who won a Tony in the same part 22 years ago. And what was one of the great stage performances of the 20th century has been reinvented, in terms both larger and more intimate, that may well guarantee its status as one of the great stage performances of this century, too.

[quote] Ms. Close is even better than when I first saw her — more fragile and more frightening, more seriously comic and tragic. Part of this presumably involves the insights an artist accumulates over the decades. It is also to Ms. Close’s advantage that she is no longer required to compete with an elephantine, star-eating set.

[quote] The audacity of this performance is matched by its veracity. This is grand-gesture acting of a singularly sophisticated and disciplined order, one of those rare instances in which more is truly more.

[quote] Her singing voice is reedy and at times off-key. But her delivery, her stance, her very presence are operatic in the richest sense of the word. I won’t even try to describe the brilliant spiderlike dance — superhuman and pathetically human — with which Ms. Close concludes the show. You have to (and I mean have to) see it in person.

I saw an actress too old for the part, overacting. Close wasn't competing with the set because she'd chewed it up.

R254, that was written by Ben Brantley. He ROUTINELY queens out when old divas trot their wares out onto the stage. Pay no never mind to him.

I, too, thought she was excellent in the revival. She'd seemed to have been working on making the big money notes sound better. She was no longer singing "may" instead of "me" and she made the most of those moments, vocally. Her final note of the show was especially impressive (although, I've seen a bootleg where she completely botches it, so you can toss out the rumor that she pre-recorded the big money notes). I found her hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure and it was one of the best performances I've ever seen on stage. How it would translate to film, I'm not sure, but on stage, it was excellent.

CRENSHAW BLVD. starring...

[quote]Her final note of the show was especially impressive (although, I've seen a bootleg where she completely botches it, so you can toss out the rumor that she pre-recorded the big money notes).

I don't think that means we should necessarily "toss out" that rumor. Maybe she used the pre-record for some performances and decided to try to sing live at others.

Glenn’s transformation into Frank Perdue is well underway.

R258, that is a fabulous idea. but I think it's Barack Obama Blvd. now.

Sarah Brightman was alleged to have told the stage manager of Phantom before each performance which numbers she would sing live and for which to use her prerecorded tapes. But that may an urban legend based on the fact that all Christines have certain passages pre-recorded because of the difficulty of combining live singing with the stage action.

And that story may be related to the stories that Streisand would tell her Funny Girl stage managers to inform the conductor which second act songs she would skip at that performance. Which is actually true.

There is no way producers of a theatrical show (Broadway or whatever) could force any possible purchaser of film rights to take on any member of original cast. It could be negotiated as has happened many many times when film rights were purchased for a book and decisions must be made about casting.

Suppose one of the more famous instances would be Angela Landsbury being subbed for film version of Mame, with honors (if you could call it that) going to Lucille Ball. This even though Bea Arthur, Robert Preston and Jane Connell did make the cut.

It's a well-established fact.

Glenn has right of first refusal if it's to be adapted.

Fin.

R263, you are highly misinformed in more ways than one. For one, Preston was never in the stage version. And Connell was a very last minute emergency replacement for Madeline Kahn during rehearsals but that's a different long story. You know nothing about contract law.

A star can have it in his/her contract that the producers will not sell film rights without the film rights guaranteeing the star's right of first refusal. It's easy and settled law. Merman thought she had it in her Gypsy contract but she didn't.. Read before you sign.

If Merman did Gypsy 'Together Wherever We Go' wouldn't have been cut.

[quote]There is no way producers of a theatrical show (Broadway or whatever) could force any possible purchaser of film rights to take on any member of original cast.

Of course there is. The seller of the rights negotiates what they want. You don't want A or B or C you don't get the film rights. It's a question of who has the rights to sell. In this instance it is the musical that is being adapted and ownership of the property is held by Really Useful so that could say and you won't shoot on any Tuesday in November and if somebody wanted the rights they would or wouldn't suck it up.

Anyway, Lloyd-Webber is usually a producer on film versions of his shows: Phantom, the dreaded, anusless Cats, the upcoming Joseph and this debacle.

Close is listed as Norma on IMDB... which means nothing, of course. I can't believe she'd want to embarrass herself like this. She is not up to the job in any respect except the acting, depending how much scenery you want chewed.

She should either stand down on her own or, more likely, ALW will break the contract and write a swimming pool sized cheque.

[quote]She should either stand down on her own or, more likely, ALW will break the contract and write a swimming pool sized cheque.

I don't know. Glenn might see this as her chance at FINALLY winning.

Parties to a contract can include anything they want to include. Up front, it might make good business sense to agree to give Close the right of first refusal on an eventual film production, if the producers want her really badly and are willing to encumber their property this way just to get her.

When the stage producers sell film rights, part of the package would be the agreement with Close. The film producers might want her, so this would be irrelevant to them. Or, they might not want her and they would buy the film rights knowing they had this agreement to deal with. And they would, of course, reduce the price of their offer accordingly. That's why it's so unlikely the stage producers would EVER get involved with such an agreement. (Especially not someone as savvy as David Merrick. But whatever. As for this story about Ethel, was that agreement only for the first film version? What about subsequent film versions? Only for theatrical release, or what about television? And on and on.)

The film producers could wait to make their film until Close was dead. (The wait might be long. The rights might have to be renewed. The property could grow cold, dull, and uncommercial.) Or, they could pull out all the stops to make the deal unattractive to her so she would refuse, as in tell her that everyone is being paid union minimum, or that her big power ballads are being cut, or... anything. Once she declines to go along with it... she's out and the producers are rid of her. But look at Ruth Etting and "Whoopee!," as well as Harold Lang and "Kiss Me Kate" for instruction on how this tactic sometimes fails to work.

This right of first refusal for a Broadway star for any future film productions really makes no sense. It is too easily avoidable. But there's no legal reason that unsophisticated performers can't ask for it or unsophisticated producers can't agree to it.

[quote]Glenn might see this as her chance at FINALLY winning.

Glenn Close [italic][bold]IS [/italic][/bold] Norma Desmond!

In that case, more than just a rave review.

I don't think Glenn can ever win [italic]the[/italic] Oscar. She wants it too badly and everybody knows it. That's got yucky attached to it.

She's really just the Jan Brady of our gang.

Those bitches in Hollywood will wait until Glennie has a stroke and then humiliate her with a non-competitive Lifetime Achievement Oscar. And Close will want it so badly, she will let them wheel her out there to accept the Oscar and wave a bit with her one good hand.

Presented by Gwenyth, on the night Meryl wins her umpteenth best actress.

Didn't Glenn present the honorary Oscar back in the day to Deborah Kerr, who, like G, had been nominated many times and never won?

Glenn and Meryl. Meryl and Glenn.

There's Ryan Murphy's next FEUD.

Except with Glenn's luck, Meryl would play Glenn... and win the Emmy.

A tribute to Glenn Close... featuring all the actresses she lost to.

[quote]A star can have it in his/her contract that the producers will not sell film rights without the film rights guaranteeing the star's right of first refusal.

I suppose it's conceivable that a clause like that could be put into a big star's contract for a Broadway show, but it seems to me that "first refusal" would have to be considered nothing more than a formality, with no real force to the clause. There are so many reasons why such a clause would be borderline insane, including the fact that, sometimes, the movie versions of Broadway shows aren't made until many years after the original run -- as, indeed, is the case with SUNSET BLVD. So it would be greatly appreciated if you could explain to all of us how exactly you think this would work.

On that note, if a SUNSET movie doesn't wind up being made until 20 years from now, are you arguing that Glenn would STILL have right of first refusal? I hope not, because she would probably still try to secure the role even then....

You're boring everywhere.

Whether you believe it or not, G DOES have right of first refusal.

I will not be ignored... again!

R278, it's all just contract terms. Parties can agree to anything, even things that don't make sense. That's what's absurd about this discussion. Legally, NOTHING prohibits the parties from signing anything they want to sign.

If it's not legally valid, it won't be enforced by a court.

If it makes no business sense, then parties at this level in the industry probably won't agree to it.

In any event, no court would stop production of GYPSY with Roz Russell, even if Ethel Merman really did have it in her Broadway contract that she had first refusal on the film. If Ethel sued for not being given the opportunity to exercise that right, the producer would, at worst, be held in breach and ordered to pay money damages. But it would be up to Ethel to prove what that amount should be.

This entire discussion is naive and, ultimately, pointless.

Catherine Zeta Jones would make a good Norma, but she seems to have retired from acting these days.

Chrissy Metz is a little too young for the role, but I think she could make it work.

Catherine Zeta Jones is the only person who comes to mind who could do justice to this role. Maybe Toni Collette? I'd say Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer, but their singing voices are too whispery and wispy to carry off most of the songs.

[quote]You're boring everywhere. Whether you believe it or not, G DOES have right of first refusal.

Yet you STILL won't explain how that could possibly work. As someone above suggested, it's possible that there might be some crazy clause like that in the contract that GC signed when she did SUNSET on stage. But what you don't seem to understand is that any such clause, even if it does exist, would be completely ridiculous and unenforceable, for the reasons I mentioned above. And since it is completely ridiculous and unenforceable, only a fool like you would harp on it.

[quote] Catherine Zeta Jones is the only person who comes to mind who could do justice to this role

OK, but are you imagining Zeta Jones playing Norma Desmond in the year 1950? Or are you imagining Zeta Jones playing Norma now?

[quote]OK, but are you imagining Zeta Jones playing Norma Desmond in the year 1950? Or are you imagining Zeta Jones playing Norma now?

I don't understand this question. Does anyone?

[quote] OK, but are you imagining Zeta Jones playing Norma Desmond in the year 1950? Or are you imagining Zeta Jones playing Norma now?

Are you imagining a new movie starring Zeta Jones playing Norma Desmond set in the year 1950?

Or are you imagining a new movie starring Zeta Jones playing a Norma Desmond set in the year 2021?

R288, thanks for clarifying -- but the idea of the SUNSET BLVD. musical reset in the present day would make zero sense without so much rewriting that the property would no longer resemble the stage musical.

P.S. There was a 1978 Broadway musical loosely based on SUNSET BLVD. the movie and updated to the then-present day. It was called PLATINUM, and it was later reworked as an Off-Broadway musical called SUNSET. I'll leave you to do further research if you're interested.

[quote] the SUNSET BLVD. musical reset in the present day would make zero sense

I agree, R289. Nowdays we can accept the idea of a 51-year-old actress getting a lead role in a Hollywood film.

But 51-year-old Norma couldn't get a lead role in a 1950 Hollywood film because she belonged to The Silent Era.

She was like those immigrants from a foreign country who refuses to learn the language, retreats into their private shell and goes insane.

[quote] And since it is completely ridiculous and unenforceable, only a fool like you would harp on it.

You’re harping on. It’s easily enforceable.

[quote]R282 Catherine Zeta Jones would make a good Norma, but she seems to have retired from acting these days.

Many of my days are currently taken up at an acting school for urban youth.

By the time cameras roll, and with my instructors’ help, I may at last be mature enough to tackle the role of young Betty, script girl and romantic interest.

[quote]You’re harping on. It’s easily enforceable.

In what way is this purported 'right of first refusal' for a future film deal enforceable, R291? And to what degree?

Isn't it enforceable?

If you own an asset - in this case the rights to intellectual property (the musical adaptation of the work) and you have contracted encumbrances to that asset (right of first refusal of the role should the musical be adapted for film) and someone buys the rights to produce your intellectual property as a film and contracts to do so know with full knowledge of your contracted encumbrance - how on earth would that not be enforceable?

It's like selling land with a right of way attached to it - the right of way doesn't go away just because ownership has changed.

R132 and R259, I saw Glenn in the revival twice. Both times, my seats were so close to the stage that I could tell that the final money note was not in synch with Glenn's lips. I did not ¨catch¨ any other instances of lip synching, but at least that final note I am certain was not sung live the times I was there. It did sound like it was pre-recorded recently, not as in the OBC album, but who knows.

I don't know if maybe it was just used some times and she sang it live most other times, or what the deal is. Anyway, I think the voice issue could be easily resolved by making a new soundtrack recording, enhancing what needs to be enhanced and then if possible and needed, insert voice tracks from the OBC album, as you have suggested. Yes, she looks a little old, but since Norma always wears tons of makeup, a good makeup artist and lighting designer can take care of that. My point is, plenty of safety nets available for Glenn.

The main problem for me is the choice of director. This may prove to be the trickiest part. Adapting stage musicals for the screen has always been difficult, even for experienced filmmakers with entire studios backing them. . . and Rob Ashford is no Vincente Minnelli. Maybe it would have better to make a professional capture of the revival and sell it through Netflix, Broadway HD and select movie screenings, like the brits did with 42nd St, Gypsy and Funny Girl, or Disney did with Newsies.

[quote]My point is, plenty of safety nets available for Glenn.

To what end? In all the land, there isn't an actress around fifty who couldn't carry the part without plenty of safety nets? Christ.

What are you saying, R296? Your inverted question and, I assume, sarcasm clouds your point.

R297, the fact is, I think the part, like most parts, is best handed to someone who doesn't need plenty of safety nets to play it and, I'm guessing, there are talents enough that they don't have to let Glenn Close wheeze her way through it for old time's sake.

Glenn, let's be honest, is best known for her failure to win anything. She is a much better actress than most, but she never closes the deal. And that's before she opens her mouth to make the sound of central vac with a kitten stuck in it somewhere.

Glenn, with her mostly adequate voice, got really lucky, about twenty-five years ago. She is not up to truly singing the part, which some admirers of the musical theatre think is always a really important part of the musical theatre, and she is by no means, after twenty-five years and with less of voice than she started with, entitled to the part, particularly given the extent of her musical talents.

It isn't her fault. Thirty odd years ago, Andrew Lloyd Webber made the curious decision to adapt a grim four hander to the stage, in the process weighing the material down even further under special effects and mega sets that some credit with destroying (finally) the musical so mega that the music stopped mattering much. Faced with a less than Oklahoma! or even Les Mis appeal, huge running costs, and the usual ALW critic shit kicking, he turned from a voice that could deliver the songs to a film actress that could pack 'em in by virtue of being a film actress and unreluctant to grind down her molars chewing all that scenery. And the thing lumbered on for a few years, closing, in the end, at a loss.

So now someone's got the idea to potentially throw good money after bad and make a film out of the mega show that didn't break even. OK. Optimism is always an endearing quality. But what entitles Glenn Close to the part other than a clause they could afford to throw into her contract back in the day, because like Evita, everybody thought it was going to take 75 years to get the fucking thing made and by then even Glenn would have come to her senses, if, indeed, she was still alive. (Whether or not they should make a movie, whether or not anybody's going to be making movies after COVID, is a question unto itself. It seems an even higher risk proposition to have aging Glenn Close do her asthmatic accordion imitation, convincing though it may be, through all the big numbers.)

I honestly quite liked the show, but Glenn Close was never an artistic solution, she was an economic solution and for that she should be remembered because she was an adequate pacemaker for an ailing idea. But that's where it ends. She should have the self respect, if not the self awareness, to warm her hands by the embers, rather than setting her turban on fire. If she makes this thing she will embarrass herself. If the thing is made, it will probably flop anyway - the track record isn't screaming hit. They should do a nice proper version capturing the thing for perpetuity and for streaming, with actual talented singers. Whatever they do, Glenn Close and her safety nets don't really sound like a triumph of film making.

Thank you, R298

[quote]It's like selling land with a right of way attached to it - the right of way doesn't go away just because ownership has changed.

Not a good analogy. Land is unique. There's only one Earth and every point on it is unique from any other point on it. The law has scores of special considerations for the scores of unique issues involving land. Actresses are not unique. There are many, many, actresses. They leave roles and are replaced by other actresses. This is how the business operates and has operated for 100 years or more.

Saying this idea of a right of first refusal, as described above, is not enforceable is too broadly stated. If the actress is not offered the role she had on stage when the property is filmed and it goes to someone else, that actress can sue the other parties to her contract who she believed breached. But all she can get is money damages. As in, 'I was to be offered that part. I was not offered that part. That's a breach of the agreement we made and my career was harmed as a result of that breach.' Then she gets to present evidence about the degree of harm and how much the award should be. That kind of enforcement is absolutely available to the actress. This was essentially what happened with Patti Lupone and Sunset Boulevard. She got paid a bundle, but she did not stop Glenn Close from opening the show on Broadway.

And if some other actress is finally cast in this film, Glenn Close will not be able to halt production of the film and cast herself in her old role. That is not available in court. But if she really has such a clause in her contract, she can collect a cash award, to the degree she proves she was harmed.

I always think the measure of success in the role is the degree to which the actress can carry off the cliche lines without generating a laugh. Glenn managed to pull a laugh even with 'I'm ready for my close up.' Not really the moment to go broad.

As if G’s year couldn’t get any worse, Sunset Blvd will be streamed later this month, the first professionally filmed production. Plus, a super hot actor playing Joe, to boot...

^

That does NOT look like a movie star!

But, she can sing the part...

But can she convince us why Norma was lauded one decade and shunned the next?

ALW allowing this streaming version suddenly does not bode well for G, in any event.

Glenn doesn't need to lose any sleep over Ria Jones.

Some footage of Miss Jones in character and Joe Gillis in boxers.

At least there will be something besides Follies to debate every day after December 22...

I've seen the bootleg of this "Sunset" production, captured in Germany during the UK tour with Ria Jones and Danny Mac. Ria is a pretty ordinary Norma, and neither the voice nor the acting is particularly distinctive.

But at least we already know Danny Mac dresses to the left.

It's funny during the London run Glenn conked out for some reason and Jones went on... to boos and catcalls and then to acclaim. Don't see the special in the tape above..

She played Norma in Sydmonton year before Patti did. Sunset wasn’t fully performed back then.

Reaction at the curtain on a night she subbed for Glenn... she certainly wasn't a worse singer.

Although that's a low bar.

[quote]And if some other actress is finally cast in this film, Glenn Close will not be able to halt production of the film and cast herself in her old role. That is not available in court. But if she really has such a clause in her contract, she can collect a cash award, to the degree she proves she was harmed.

My point is, it's very hard to believe that ALW and the Really Useful Theatre Company would ever have agreed to a clause in Glenn Close's contract that she would have right of first refusal for the film version of SUNSET BLVD. It's hard to believe for several reasons, but mostly because (1) they would have no idea when such a film would be made, unless they planned to produce one themselves rather soon, which of course did not happen; and (2) even if ALW and his production company had it in mind to produce the movie themselves, there was always the possibility that some other producer could have offered them enough money to change their minds, and then that new producer would be saddled with the Close clause.

I had no interest in ALW or his dreary "Sunset Boulevard," but I did have an interest in seeing Elaine Paige on stage. For her, only, I ponied up for a reduced price ticket during a promotional sale.

On the night of the performance, there's a big sign in the lobby, "At this performance the role of Norma Desmond will be played by Maureen Moore." I have nothing against Maureen Moore or her considerable abilities, but she is not why I was there. I went to box office and asked if Miss Paige was ill, because when I bought the ticket there was no indication that she would be on vacation and I would be getting a stand-by. The guy in the box office was pretty funny. "Miss Paige ill? Oh, no. No, no, noooooo. Miss Paige decided she would rather attend the Grammy presentation than come here and do her job. So, if you want to see Miss Elaine Paige tonight, you're going to have go to Madison Square Garden for the Grammy broadcast, because she's not showing up tonight to do this show."

I just left. $40 (or whatever) down the drain, but it only would have been made worse if I had to hear that music. I confess that this experience has reduced my estimation of Elaine Paige.

R302 It will be a very minor thing. I allow it. For the movie they need a real movie star, who is beautiful adored can both act and sing it. That’s me. My beauty has always been my curse. Jealous women in Hollywood have blocked me from getting awards. I am the real star of Sunset and it will be a higlight of my career.

I'm sorry that picture at R302 looks like Nathan Lane, in drag, smelling somebody else's fart.

r316

is that before you could get a refund if the star was out?