Thank you so much for this. I will never forget the night I saw Betty Buckley in Sunset Boulevard. I'd seen the original production in London and liked it - but I was not overwhelmed. It lacked 'something'. That something was Betty Buckley. I bought discount tickets from TKTS and initially lamented that the seats were in the third row - usually the worst seats in a big scale production - yet from the moment Ms. Buckley made her entrance, I praised whatever gods conspired to get me those seats. Despite the grandeur of the production, Sunset Boulevard was/is essentially a very intimate piece and Ms. Buckley's every word, movement, gesture made it so. I can still recall the scent of her perfume, the smoke of her cigarette, the swish of her costumes as she owned each moment of her character on stage. It was not just her incredible voice but her magical presence - her total embodiment of the role. It WAS Norma Desmond I was watching and listening to. She was beautiful, charming, mad, heartbreaking, pathetic and valiant. This was musical theater at its best - transporting, enthralling... everything. This was the seductive alchemy that happens only once ... with a singing actress who truly embodies the role she plays. Pure magic. I don't know what else to say.
Terrific - though very strange that all the adjustments made for Close are retained here, though Buckley didn't need them, e.g. going down instead of belting upwards "screenplay" and "seven veils".
When I saw Betty and Elaine Paige on Broadway in Sunset, each time I prayed that I’d get to see Brian Batt as Joe because I disliked Alan Campbell. Sadly it was not meant to be. It’s nice to finally see him here!
