Sunset Boulevard - 1999 National Tour (Soundboard Recording)

February 1999
Petula Clark (Norma Desmond), Lewis Cleale (Joe Gillis), Allen Fitzpatrick (Betty Schaefer), Allen Fitzpatrick (Max von Mayerling)

After the first national tour’s premature closing (credited to outrageous running costs paired with extended runs, but without “star” names leading the cast), the next production of Sunset Boulevard would come a year later in the form on a non-equity tour - starring Petula Clark, having previously played Norma Desmond in the original West End production.

This newly “revamped” 47-city tour would be sent out on a much tighter budget than it’s predecessor - with an entirely new creative team, different staging & scenic design. Producer Scott Zeiger told Playbill, "During the first tour, it was physically too heavy...In a mid-sized market like Tampa, the show grossed $2.5 million over the run, but spread out over five weeks, when the break even point is $500,000, that's terrible...even if we have a quarter of the figures, and do a quarter of the run, that would be fantastic."

The setting of the show changed, and some lyrics were performed as dialogue (as you will hear). It launched in November 1998 and would play smaller venues for shorter periods of time through April 2000, cancelling a number of stops and ending earlier than scheduled. The following excerpt is from the Deseret News, advertising an upcoming tour stop in Utah:

"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."

Scenery designer Derek McLane, who saw the original Broadway production, said, "We threw everything out and went back and looked at the movie again and really started from scratch."

"The staircase in this production functions pretty differently," 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 creates Norma Desmond's Sunset Boulevard mansion in the huge, empty space."

Видео Sunset Boulevard - 1999 National Tour (Soundboard Recording) канала twistingboulevard