"The score, by Andrew Lloyd Webber is lush and gorgeous for the most part...The orchestra’s work is both glorious and rich, like an old-fashioned musical should sound. The downside is that at times the orchestra placement distracts from the very personal story that is being told on stage...When the show is attached to Close and her Norma, 'Sunset Boulevard' works, but without that star power, it shrivels down to a very pedestrian tale that doesn’t have the power to intoxicate."
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"'Sunset Boulevard' is ersatz opera of the outsized and mostly overwrought kind that Broadway audiences have been eating up, on and off, since the 1980s. It’s noteworthy, then, that this production cast Glenn Close, whose voice is, to put it politely, far from operatic. Her power resides in her acting; her Norma manages, at its best, to be both steely and vulnerable, sinking into herself and dominating everything and everyone. Most of the other cast members hardly register by comparison."
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"Price's staging, in a fatal mistake, fails to capture the darkness, being surprisingly upbeat, and with only scattered moments of the needed gothic anxiety demanded by the story...Close's...pitchy singing voice is not Broadway's best, but her acting is strong enough, even within the deliberately broad, almost grotesque, theatricality she adopts to jerk tears when she launches into 'With One Look.' But the emphasis on her exaggerations takes the show too far from its deeper implications."
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"Vocal challenges notwithstanding, there is not a moment Close is on stage that is not pure gold. And when she's off, all you can do is await her return. It's a good thing, too, because as a musical, 'Sunset Boulevard' has little reason to exist. This is not one of Mr. Lloyd Webber's stronger scores, lacking the cohesiveness of 'Evita,' say...Lonny Price directs the enterprise the way Norma would want to be directed by Cecil B. DeMille, with her at the center of the universe."
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"Close is sensational in the role on many counts and deserves every bit of the prolonged ovations she is getting...Lonny Price as director knows exactly how to showcase her...The strong, pulsating score adds intensity, but I have to say that I find the sing-song rhythm and tonality of dialogue in various recitative passages annoying. But that is a quibble. This is a hugely entertaining musical and a chance to enjoy the artistry of Glenn Close at the height of her stage power."
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“While it’s lovely to hear and see such a grand orchestra, the audience is constantly looking around to find where the actors are, and the orchestrations and arrangements are so mundane that a smaller band might have sufficed…Close is fine as Norma but sometimes gets caught between playing it serious and camping it up…The ghost of the classic film hovers over the proceedings onstage, hoping the musical will get better, but except for too few shining moments, it never does.”
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"The staging by Lonny Price is sensational...Price and his team insured that the brilliant orchestra was a centerpiece of this production...Close gives a master class in performance as the maddened fading star. Mystifying is an understatement...It's easy to get lost with everything that this production brings but Michael Xavier was an incredible leading man...Between Glenn Close and the breathtaking orchestra, you'll never want to say goodbye to this perfect production."
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"The material, it turns out, is pretty sturdy. And with a more seasoned Glenn Close bringing new nuance to her interpretation of Norma, it offers ample spectacle of a different kind: the spectacle of unhinged megalomania and vanity. Better yet, it offers the biggest orchestra on Broadway...Lloyd Webber really did himself proud with this one...Close plays these big moments, and all of Norma’s many others, with an intelligence and imagination rare among divas."
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