Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, created in the mid-1990s was his last big show to have some measure of success, including a two-year run on Broadway. Even at that, however, the musical version of Billy Wilder’s 1950 film had a troubled stage history, opening in London in 1993 and the following year on Broadway. It is reported to have lost nearly $20 million, in part due several lawsuits by actresses cast then set aside for the role of the faded silent film star Norma Desmond.
But those losses were also the result of Sunset Boulevard’s Broadway production expenses — well over $700,000 per week. So it’s no small feat that Cincinnati Music Theatre, an all-volunteer community group, has pulled off a credible rendition of the sordid tale of Hollywood desperation and dementia. With a cast of 28 and ably staged by veteran director Skip Fenker, supported by a 16-musician orchestra conducted by Kendra Struthers, CMT’s Sunset Boulevard at the Aronoff Center’s Jarson Kaplan Theater gives the show a big-time patina.
Sunset Boulevard, presented by Cincinnati Musical Theatre, continues at the Aronoff’s Jarson-Kaplan Theatre through May 18. cincinnatimusictheatre.org.
This article appears in May 15-21, 2013.
