Some years ago, when Life magazine was in its heyday as a weekly pictorial chronicle of world events, the back page would feature the best, most interesting, photograph of the week. One of the most memorable was a dramatic -- albeit "posed" -- shot of an elegant, gloriously gowned Gloria Swanson, standing amid the rubble of New York City's legendary movie palace, the Roxy Theatre, which was being razed.
In retrospect, the photograph seems to be a black-and-white glossy metaphor for Swanson's most famous character -- deranged, lonely, Hollywood has-been Norma Desmond, the central character in "Sunset Boulevard." Desmond's mind is a mental version of the piles of plaster left by the Roxy's wrecking crews."Sunset Blvd.," Billy Wilder's Oscar-winning film-noir journey down the dark side of Hollywood's street of dreams, was one of the most honored films of 1950. The film relates the dramatic story of Joe Gillis, a down-on-his-luck screenwriter, and how he becomes enmeshed in the strange, almost Gothic world of Desmond, a deluded silent-screen star who is convinced she is still in demand.
On Tuesday evening, the Theater League of Utah brings Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning musical version to the Capitol Theatre, with Petula Clark starring as Norma Desmond.
Not only has Clark been getting rave reviews for her performances during the first year of the show's national tour, she is in the unique position of having played the same role for nearly two years in London. That production (and its Broadway counterpart) came crashing down under the financial strain of an abundance of budget-draining scenery.
"Both of those productions required that the theaters be filled to 90 percent capacity for every single performance just to break even," Clark said during a telephone interview from Scottsdale, Ariz., where "Sunset Boulevard" had just resumed its cross-country tour after a three-week respite.
The newly mounted national tour of "Sunset Boulevard," was directed by Susan Schulman, who has also received critical acclaim for the way she has carefully refocused the story.
"There will always be people who've seen both versions and who will miss seeing Norma's mansion coming down from the ceiling, but they may be more influenced by the technical trappings than the meat of the play," Clark said. "This (new version) feels more like a movie than the original."
Originally, when she did the first production in London, Clark said, "It was a role I didn't want to do, actually, and I went into it reluctantly after Trevor Nunn pushed me into it. I had never been asked to play anyone like this before."
In fact, just a few months before, at quite the opposite end of the scale, she had been playing Maria in "The Sound of Music" -- a 180-degree turn from Norma Desmond.
Scenery designer Derek McLane, who saw the original Broadway production, says he "thoroughly enjoyed it -- but I had no idea that at some point I'd be restaging it."
When Pace Theatricals acquired "Sunset Boulevard" for the new national tour, the producers put together an entirely new creative team.
"Susan (Schulman) and I watched the movie and realized that it is a very moving story. We threw everything out and went back and looked at the movie again and really started from scratch," he said, during a telephone interview from Chicago, where he was working on a one-day-only industrial presentation for Toyota.
"The staircase in this production functions pretty differently (than the Broadway/London versions)," McLane said. "But the show is not really about 'the staircase.' What we've done is set the whole thing inside a Hollywood movie studio soundstage, where Max (Norma's longtime guardian) creates Norma Desmond's Sunset Boulevard mansion in the huge, empty space."
The loading dock doors at the back of the stage open up, and the staircase rolls in. All of the other elements of her dark, gloomy house appear piece by piece. Giant drapes unfurl and furniture assembles itself on stage. "By the end of the transformation, the mansion is there and the studio is gone. It's all carefully orchestrated to Lloyd Webber's music," he said. "The key now is watching the entire mansion unfold. Max spends so much time perpetrating Norma's fantasy that the house becomes a metaphor."
"Petula Clark is really quite moving in this role," McLane added. "I would say that if we had one goal when we started out, it's that Norma has to break your heart when she goes back into the film studio and sees Cecil B. DeMille."
The production travels with six or seven semitrailer trucks packed with scenery, costumes, sound and lighting equipment and wigs. The show's scenery was designed to fit in theaters and stages in a variety of shapes and sizes.
"The crews only have about 12 hours to set everything up," said McLane. "It was rough going for the first couple of months, but they're pretty expert at it now."
McLane is currently working on the first-ever professional production of Stephen Sondheim's very first musical, which Sondheim wrote in 1954 when he was 24. McLane has also worked on nearly 20 opera productions, including half a dozen for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and others in Houston, Toronto and Glasgow, Scotland.
Clark said she had first seen the film version of "Sunset Boulevard" when she "was just a kid. I thought then it was very bizarre."
Then, when Trevor Nunn was directing the London version of Lloyd Webber's musical, "He told me not to see it, even though he had told most of his other leading ladies to see it. He wanted me to do my own thing.
"But just recently my son got the video and tricked me into seeing it. He put it on one night and, there I was, watching it. It's incredible how much of the original dialogue is in our show, either in the spoken dialogue or in the lyrics of the songs. It captures the feeling of that era, and the music gives me goosebumps."
Former Brigham Young University student Christeena Michelle Riggs, who toured for several months in "Les Miserables," is in the ensemble of "Sunset Boulevard." And according to Clark, Riggs has been playing Betty (Joe Gillis' girlfriend), while Sarah Uriarte Berry is taking some time off. "She may also be playing Betty when we get to Salt Lake City."
Clark is pleased with the critical reaction the resurrected "Sunset Boulevard" has been getting. One Los Angeles reviewer, when the show recently played in suburban Costa Mesa, noted that if Clark had starred in the first U.S. productions, it would not have closed and would still be playing today.
Christopher Rawson, reviewing the show last December when it played in Pittsburgh, noted that Clark is "more real, less dotty and more comically manipulative" than the "brilliant Gothic gargoyle of Glenn Close or the more tremulous poignance" of Betty Buckley.
TICKETS, ranging from $25-$60, are available at the Capitol Theatre and Abravanel Hall box offices and all ArtTix outlets. Call 355-2787 for reservations.
Performances will be 8 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays, Sept. 21-25, and 7 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 26, with matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Season tickets are also still available for the Theater League of Utah's 1999-2000 season, which includes "Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical," Feb. 2-6; "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story," March 7-12; and Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," July 26-Aug. 13, plus the return engagement of "Les Miserables," Nov. 16-Dec. 5 (the latter available as an option for season subscribers).
"Buddy" will be presented at Kingsbury Hall. All other shows will be at the Capitol Theatre.