ELAINE PAIGE - Finale 2 (Sunset Boulevard [Reprise])

[missbabyice]

I don't think the show is considered a flop. It was revived a few years ago and got pretty good reviews. It's hardly an infamous flop anyhow. That belongs to the stage musical version of Gone with The Wind and Too Close to the Sun- a musical based on the last days of Ernest Hemingway before his suicide.

[Melodrama421]

ok, i love Alice Ripley (if that is who's playing Betty), but i thought Norma was the one who's supposed to be freaking out!

[delpa1986]

i listen to the soundtrack cd every day out of obsession. tis puts a picture to the music

[waynespeers]

thank you thank you thank you!! This is one of the best final scenes (except for Phantom :) )



[independantwoman]

she sounds like a kid in this but i guess thats the point right norma is kind of a big kid who never really grew up or grew into the real world. It works really well plus i love how her hysterical laughter transitions into tears

[fellatio24]

Hardly a flop. It was bringing in $700,000 dollars almost until the last month it closed. This, however, was not enough to cover the astronomical costs.x

[chorus8]

Saw the show on Broadway with Miss Paige shortly after she took over from

Betty Buckley. She was great and I thought the show was sensational. Can't

believe it was considered a flop. Thanks

for posting this, I love it.

[inmyprime]

Who is the Betty in this vid?

[HouseOnSunset]

I think it's Alice Ripley.

[tonyesque]

It is

[caseyjay231]

@HouseOnSunset yes, it is alice.

[stuartwhymark]

indeed....then Faith herself, then Earl

[HouseOnSunset]

I wonder which set needed more advanced hydraulics... John Napier's or Faith's? :-P

[stuartwhymark]

but u do need an actress who stays in character till the curtains close! lol. But then i suppose its not as bad as Earl Carpenter walking because she got top billing....

[HouseOnSunset]

I thought Faith's bosom got top billing?

[stuartwhymark]

I much preferred her in the West End production to the 1st UK tour.....Faith Brown. wonderful voice....awful stage prescence. Walked up the stairs at end of Act 1, in pain with the bandages on the wrists.......and then turned and started tottering back down the stairs before the curtain had come down!

[HouseOnSunset]

Who needs stage presence when you got Faith's jug presence? LOL, but I did "enjoy" her never ending "OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD!"

[stuartwhymark]

I am always very very pro different productions, or revamped shows, or new stagings. The 2nd UK tour of Miss Saigon was still as breathtaking and spectacular as the original and the 1st UK tour. Not sure if that version made the US but it involved a much scaled down set which sat on the stage for most of the show and computer generated helicopter and fantasic lighting to create the Fall of Saigon and was quite realistic. Scaled down Beauty and the Beast UK tour was appalling tho!

[HouseOnSunset]

Check out my clips of the 2nd US Tour. Every time Petula went on staged and croaked "I'LL BAAAAY MAaAaaaaAaaaaaaAy," baby Jesus wept.

[stuartwhymark]

maybe they shouldnt. Have you seen the Newbury/current West End production? The cast are also the orchestra, there is a small spiral staircase as the central piece of scenery and apart from curtains, a chez longue which doubles as Schwabb's door sign and a couple of palm trees, the whole production is so amazing! a far far cry from the original but an amazing feat in its own right. Why should the original always be copied and recreated?

[HouseOnSunset]

I guess ANYTHING is better than the Susan Schulman abortion... (Unless you count the illegally stages Spanish production.)

[stuartwhymark]

But still packing them out in the West End which Swedish production opening later this year, Dutch production winning awards at their version of The Tony's and Oliviers last year.....maybe on the whole some of the productions were a COMMERCIAL flop, the entire concept was not and has not been a flop, as it has been constantly touring and opening around the world since the World Premiere in London

[HouseOnSunset]

True, but sadly no one attempted to do a big budget version since 1997.

[stuartwhymark]

As i am. You said ALL Original stagings lost "millions upon millions". They didnt. London made a profit. As did Germany. I may be wrong with Canadian and I readily admit that could be the case. But not ALL Original productions made a loss, as you said.

[HouseOnSunset]

Okay, but overall it was a loss and nowhere near a successful franchise that Webber had intended it to become... Which is really sad, when you think about. Such great shows shouldn't be treated like fast food chains.

[stuartwhymark]

Just a comment on the narrative to this video...."The show would go down in infamy as one of the biggest flops in Musical Theatre History"....not sure that it was flop - it ran for 3 years in the West End, opened in LA , transferring to Broadway, Original productions in Canada, Germany & Australia etc, toured the US 2 or 3 times, Toured the UK twice - the most recent tour transferring to the West End where it is still playing and they have extended the "limited" run of 3 months to a year.

[HouseOnSunset]

.......And yet the original staging lost millions upon millions everywhere it played.

[stuartwhymark]

Broadway was the only production to lose Millions. This was also due to that Patti Lupone & Faye Dunaway suing Andrew Lloyd Webber, & not solely down to the running costs. The London production, as well as Canadian, German and other original productions all recouped their costs. Debbie Byrne was taken ill & the Australian production (co-starring Hugh Jackman) closed early for this reason. Sweeping statement to say that ALL Original productions lost millions when it was only Broadway!

[HouseOnSunset]

I'm talking about the original stagings... The 1st US Tour, although superb, made absolutely no money and the Australian fiasco had way too many problems to list and was actually the biggest flop of all. And I don't think the Canadian show fared much better.

[chrischico]

Also Elaine Paige's: No one ever leaves a star! isn't really dramatic, it was too hasty. And the gun shots were just a simple *plop*.

Don't understand me wrong! I'm not saying the Broadway version isn't good, it is magnificent. I just have my own view of this scene.

Still love Sunset Boulevard and I trult believe this should have been a major, major hit!

[HouseOnSunset]

....Umm, isn't it EXACTLY what happens in the original staging, except with different blocking due to another set being used?

And the reason all you hear is a "pop" is due to poor audio quality. I have other videos with better audio where it sounds different.

[chrischico]

Alright the pop thing can be true, excuse me.

What happens in the original staging (in my opinion) is that Betty doesn't really act as she is in love; it get the idea especially from the line: Please can you tell me what's happening. But alright...

Furthermore, Joe doesn't pull her through the entire house, she just walks with him. And Joe doesn't get shot while walking trough the front door. So it isn't really EXACTLY what happens in the original staging.

[chrischico]

I do agree with the concept of another set (I wished they used the original set and costumes here, however it still looked spectacular)

[HouseOnSunset]

You really think so? I liked the sets, for the most part, but the Dutch costume designer needs to be SHOT! Poor Simone and Pia look RIDICULOUS! For example, Norma would NEVER wear a turban to the studio, ridiculous! The only saving grace was the final Salome costume.

[chrischico]

the original set is far better, I prefer the over-the-top sets of ALW (like Phantom).

some of the costumes were pretty nice. I have to agree with the studio-costume, I liked the orginal black one better. And because I prefer over-the-top I like the original Salome costume it resembles her insanity.

[HouseOnSunset]

Oh, I LOVE the original Salome costume! Especially when there's a bigger headdress, like in the original London and 1st US Tour stagings!

[HouseOnSunset]

...Umm, that's not the staging, that depends on the actors playing the role. For example, Ron Bohmer basically throws Betty around the mansion in the 1st US Tour and Lauren Kennedy, who plays Betty, acts like a love struck puppy the entire time.

[chrischico]

To quote you:

''...Umm, isn't it EXACTLY what happens in the original STAGING''

so I just re-used the word you used as for English is not my native tongue.

And I never knew of the garden effect, for you can't see it very well on the video. It sounds pretty good as he also walks into the garden in the movie

[HouseOnSunset]

Check out my video of the 1st US Tour. It's shot at a better camera angle, so you can see the garden effect (and Linda Balgord's amazing performance as Norma is just icing on the cake!)

[HouseOnSunset]

Joe actually walks out the back entrance into the garden... It's a very complicated effect to pull off (having the mansion rise up and a small garden staircase with potted plants slide out) so all the lower budget versions never used that effect.

The worst version is in the 2nd US Tour, where Norma basically shoots Joe off into the wings... Very "high school production" of them!

[chrischico]

love the final scene, but I prefer the one in the Netherlands myself; its more dramatic. Betty comes in still in love but becomes more and more angry as Joe is singing and Joe is pulling her on and off the stairs.

And in the dutch production Joe actually tries to walk out of the frontdoor as Norma shoots him and he walks trough the door and gets shot for the third time, then he falls into the pool (which can't be seen because it is outside).

[Bobaaay]

Betty is the fantastic Alice Ripley! Best Betty! Great show, wish it had run much longer, brilliant set, best Lloyd Webber Score.

[dysonSWE]

Elaine is brilliant in this scene. Sunset Blvd will open in Sweden autumn 2009

[DistantCousin]

LOL, well I meant as opposed to London! Sorry! :-) I didn't recognise the rest of the cast, so speculated it must be New York.

[DistantCousin]

Is this a Broadway performance?

[HouseOnSunset]

Do you see a pathetic gay guy trying desperately to act hetero? No? Well.. Then we must have the Broadway show on our hands! ;-)

[stuartwhymark]

Is that not slightly homophobic?

[HouseOnSunset]

What is?

[HouseOnSunset]

If you're referring to Uwe Kroeger, John Barrowman and/or Lewis Cleale.... Then, NO, just the cold, hard, depressing truth.

[garrychelsea]

go and see kathryn evans at the comedy theatre in the new production of sunset, she outsings anyone to have sung the role

[DistantCousin]

I've seen Kathryn twice now - she was wonderful, a close 2nd to Elaine, but then again I am a big Elaine fan so she is almost impossible to beat in my mind

[griffinm7]

Sunset Boulevard was far from a musical flop. Sure enough it's no Phantom of the Opera, but it had a decent run all over the world. It also still tours in many countries.

[clevm002]

The stairs which he walks down after beeing shot,

Where exacatally are they,

On stage or off stage ?

[garrychelsea]

the stairs were on stage the filled the space left by the garage/ arties house/ he staggered down them then fell into the orchestra pit

[Feareous]

Wow...Betty sure bellows at times...

Has it always been like this, or is it just this actress???

I enjoyed Paige's performance of Norma, her one laugh right after "Thank you" is obviously fake, but it still tends to send a shiver down my spine...