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Broadway II


 Billy Wilder told Sondheim: "Don't make SUNSET BOULEVARD into a musical. That movie needs to be an opera."


Sondheim listened. But Andrew Lloyd Webber thought: "I can write a pseudo-opera." Buzz around ALW's SUNSET BOULEVARD was strong: People were saying, This is the female PHANTOM.


Patti LuPone signed on for London, but the contract said someone else could do the role in Los Angeles. When LuPone learned of Glenn Close's casting, she (allegedly) said: "Glenn Close? She brays like a donkey. They call her George Washington because--in profile--her nose actually meets her chin." (LuPone denies this story, but the source says, How could *I* come up with insults like that?)


Glenn Close did everything right; Meryl Streep would hang out in the shadows of the theater. (Maybe Meryl eventually recognized that this part would always belong to Glenn, even in the hypothetical film version of the musical.)


Elaine Paige heard an early draft and said: "It's time to fire the writer." This was done--though, for a while, no one bothered to *tell* the writer. I'm not sure of the changes that followed, except that "One Small Glance" became "With One Look." Also, the guy who took over is the guy responsible for the title: "As If We Never Said Goodbye."


Glenn won all the awards. George Hearn scooped up a Tony. A young Alice Ripley earned some attention. The memory of the Broadway production's opening night turns twenty-six years old this week.


As a teen, I enjoyed standing in my room and trying on the role of Joe:


Beneath the tan, the battle rages....

Smile a rented smile! Fill someone's glass!

Kiss someone's wife! Kiss someone's ass!

We do whatever pays the wages.....


Billy Wilder did eventually see the musical, and it seems he kept most of his thoughts to himself. The original Broadway production is the textbook example of a "flop-hit": something that has the appearance of success, but actually stinks to high heaven. Though "Boulevard" ran for over two years on Broadway, it not-so-secretly *lost* many truckloads and truckloads of money.


Happy Birthday, Norma.....

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