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Edward D. Webber...
...SHOWS HAVE ARRIVED ON Broadway hauling as much excess baggage as Sunset Boulevard, the Andrew Lloyd Webber megamusical based on the Billy Wilder film that opened last week. Having already conquered London and Los Angeles, Sunset has generated enormous expectations -- reflected in a record advance sale of $38 million. There's been backstage drama aplenty, as the mercurial composer sacked not one but two leading ladies, and snubbed New York by opening the $13 million American production in Los Angeles last year. No doubt, legions of Lloyd Webber haters would love to see the infuriatingly successful British interloper have another...
...show's a hit, thanks in large part to Glenn Close. The actress projects authentic glamour as Norma Desmond, the demented former silent-screen star who wins her final close-up on a police blotter. Close starred in the L.A. production and won the Broadway part after Lloyd Webber reneged on a contract with Patti LuPone, the creator of the role in London; it cost him $1 million to buy LuPone out. Faye Dunaway, meanwhile, was engaged as Close's successor in L.A., only to be fired when Lloyd Webber decided her voice was not up to the part...
...radiant Sunset may not be Lloyd Webber's best score, but it is his most seamlessly and artfully constructed. There is a resemblance between this show and The Phantom of the Opera -- reclusive mad protagonist conceives passion for young member of opposite sex -- but that is merely plot. Musically, Sunset's real forebear is Evita. The angular, chromatic recitatives for Norma explicitly recall Eva Peron's egocentric ravings. If the music of the new show lacks Aspects' delicious subtleties and Phantom's gothic flamboyance, it still offers two of Lloyd Webber's best songs in With One Look...
Sunset Boulevard opens on Broadway tonight after debuting last year in Los Angeles. "It's Andrew Lloyd Webber's most seamless score and it features a dazzling star turn from Glenn Close as the faded movie star Norma Desmond," says Michael Walsh, TIME contributor. Walsh predicts it's destined to be a big hit and, like other Webber blockbusters, will tour before long.Post your opinion on theSocietybulletin board...