Betty Buckley is ferocious but very vulnerable . She has the vocal chops - when she hits the note on 'I've come HOME at last!' the effect is volcanic and truly the moment Norma Desmond has waited for all these years. Another sequence that is chilling is ' We taught the world' in Act 1 where you see her tragedy, desperation and how insane she is becoming. An amazing artist.
I would have given anything to have seen this in London with Buckley and Barrowman. Alas, I was a teen with no money, living on the other side of the world. I'm so happy you got to experience that!
Awwwh wow! That must've been simply incredible. My mum was in that original production with Buckley (and also E.P.) and Barrowman (1st Cover Betty Schaefer) up until it closed and as her 16year old, theatre adoring son I would give anything to see Sunset like that, in its full glory. We need a proper revival- original scenic/costume designs and all!
So did I! That was my first experience of Sunset Blvd.! Not just because she was the first Norma I ever saw (and I saw Glenn Close, Elaine Paige and Petula Clark) but she is my FAVORITE!
Betty Buckley's singing is so powerful because it is also acting. She conveys so much with her pacing and pauses. I saw Sunset Blvd with Glenn Close. It was fun and campy. Then with Betty Buckley. I was weeping with the first song! Such depth, pain, pathos and beauty!!!
I saw Sunset Boulevard in ‘94 in London’s West End. Betty Buckley was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed her performance as well as John Barrowman’s. Later, I bought the soundtrack and spent many hours listening to it. Miss Buckley is an American treasure.
I saw the original production with Patti and this slight revamp with Betty. Betty had the edge, helped by a tweaking of the script from the original version. I took my Mum and she remembered seeing this and always talked of it.
Say thank is not enough !!!!! I had the privilege to see this play at Broadway in 1994. Unforgetable!!!!!!! Thanks again!!!!! Warm regards from Brazil!!!!!
I love Betty's speech to the cast and crew, it's so centred, focused and authentic, I like to think she's snapped out of the delirium at this point and realised where she is what she's there to do. The familiarity of being back on set with a cast and crew brings her comfort, and allows her to gather her thoughts rationally. I love Glenn Close but I really do hate how she and pretty much every Norma after her portrays this insane melodramatic pantomime villain type character instead of finding the Woman who felt she had lost her reason for being and turned to love to try and fill that gap. I'm pretty sure a lot of us,. especially in the theatre field can relate to that.
42:27 - 42:30 is chilling. "I want to spare you a lot of sadness." - Something about the way she says sadness, and her mouth dropping into a faint grin makes it so cool.
Its a very touching scene, like innthe magnificent movie, sad and full Grandeur...and cold, O my God cold and cruel...she is a Magnificent Actress and great Singer! CHAPEAU, MADAME
I saw Sunset maybe 10 times and don't ever remember hearing the Entr'Acte to Act 2 like that (with "Greatest star of All") - always remembered it as it's on the recordings. Interesting...
i have seen the show in 1995 (i believe) with Betty in London, and John Barrowman as Joe.later with Elaine Paige, but Betty is the one for me. i never liked Patty LuPone 's version.so i actually never wanted to visit the show, till i saw Betty at the Royal Variety show, i had to see it....amazing.
Somehow I always feel this is Betty Buckley, rather than Norma Desmond. Glenn Close, brilliant actress that she is made you see and feel Norma, Betty has a great voice, but somehow the scene comes off like a cabaret act.
It feels like she always delivers her lines the same way, but I guess that's the direction they decided to go for. Her Norma is very different from Glenn's over the top portrayal, much softer, which makes the ending less satisfying somehow. She's a phenomenal singer and we can't deny her star quality.
I agree that Glenn Close was more believable as a washed up star. Betty Buckley's version continues to be incredibly beautiful- --so much so that it isn't incomprehensible at all that she could actually make a "return." For that reason, she is less believable in the role.
I’ve said this for years. There’s no denying Betty had one of the better voices but her Norma is too autobiographical. Glenn disappeared into the material. Just like Patti’s performance, there isn’t much nuance. It just feels like watching Betty coast through a Tuesday matinee. It’s thrilling to hear, but not believable to me.
alguien me puede decir donde puedo conseguir las letras en español , ya que la voy a ver este mes en Londres y quisiera comprender mas sus letras, desde ya muchas gracias
Just curious, why was this filmed? I'm guessing it was a bootleg, because it would have been hard to sneak in a camera in the 90s. Yet it's not a professionally done shoot either.
Yep, this production rates four paws up. BUT Max's maturity & imposingly silent capability aren't fulfilled in Mr. Barrowman. George Hearn and Daniel Benzali naturally didn't struggle with portraying eldership. Their Superman Max's are stage managers absorbing need from each room. Mr. Barrowman has da voice chops, obviously. i miss the moat around his tigress.
The end scene - me when my BF left me for a 20 yrs.old Ding-Dong, just wish I had a gun ✅👍🏼. Fast forward to current, that Ding-Dong 20 yrs. old left him. How sweet it is - revenge.
That you SOOO much for posting this. I've seen tons of shows/musicals/concerts in my life but this is one I didn't get to see. Fell in love with the music the first time I heard it with Glenn Close and I'm not even a big Andrew Lloyd Webber fan either. Really don't like most of his stuff. JCS was about the only thing I loved by him... and this. I almost got to see it in NYC when I was a teen but my dad wasn't the musical type and since we missed the first 3 min of the show he wasn't going to buy a ticket. Knew all the music and everything but nope, 3 min late. I was so mad!!! But I did get to see Lis Miz the next day, which was good, but Sunset never traveled because of how elaborated the stage set was. THE AUDIO AND THE PICTURE LOOKS REAL GOOD FOR LATE 90'S HOW DID YOU SNEAK THAT CAMERA IN? BTW, just saw Motown: The Musical last night and that was a lot of fun.
its quite normal, when we have some emotions blocked or tension acumulated, our body needs to release it, and one of the most fast ways is trough cough.
I'm a bit late in finding this treasure. Betty is better than Glenn Close, and in many way's better than Elaine Page. Have you watched her hands, she has movement in her hands that is beautiful and expressive to watch. This is where she excels to me. She is a joy to watch perform. I never saw the original movie, so i cannot compare the acting, someone below indicated that Desmond is supposed to be representative of Greta Garbo: i think if Andrew wanted it to be about Greta Garbo he would have called the character that. I believe from what he said is that the character was representative of the era. So not having seen the movie, Betty did a great job, and once again there are nuances that neither Glenn Close or Elaine Page had. Elaine was a bit chopping at the dialogue in the music to me, she could have been a bit more smooth and elegant.
In viewing both Glenn Close and Miss Buckley's 'Mad Scene' finale, they both do not hit the mark. Miss Buckley comes in range; Miss Close, still a near miss. Their performances are I agree...Cabaret. Miss Swanson's film original film appearance IS: perfection and was what the director, then wanted. One of the prime and begged for stars who were originally to play Norma was Greta Garbo ( Please, it would have been the definitive performance). Why, Garbo knew, loved and lived with the Gilbert's, the Barrymore's, the Valentino's. Miss Paige's voice is A-1, but she's still a tad too young for the part. So far, only Miss 'Evita' herself reached a believable madness.
anthony ochocki Saw Patti do it in London and Glenn is LA Patti was far superior and should have taken it to Broadway Im glad Patti sued the hell out of him and won
I totally agree with you. I never even knew about Linda Balgord until I started watching these bootleg clips on RU-vid. I was blown away by Linda's performance. She was beautifully expressive and has a glorious voice. Linda Balgord plays the character from the outset as someone completely disengaged from reality. The other two merely play Norma as somewhat deluded. I wish we had a complete video of Linda's performance. She was great.
True enough, but the only reason LuPone went crazy is because somebody pulled out of a cell phone during the finale. And the swimming pool she bought with the settlement didn't look that impressive.
@@karrezza Glenn Close makes me nervous when she sings because she has some pitch issues with going flat. I also feel when it comes to playing neurosis that Norma has in spades no one comes close to Buckley in her voice. I do like Glenn Close as an actress but her singing voice is not like LuPone or Buckley which I think the role requires but all of us have different views. I personally think Buckley should have been cast in the first place but then they couldn't have drummed up all that publicity in the first place. Oh, well......
