“Sunset Boulevard” cast member Vanessa de Jager, left, and musical director Sharon Tree. Photo by Gary Schafer
It’s a song that captures the Hollywood ethos and to Vanessa de Jager, who plays the young romantic lead, Betty Schaefer, having lunch with “CityNews” is a good excuse to show off some of the glamorous late ‘40s fashion she’ll be wearing.
To musical director Sharon Tree, it’s an excuse to let off steam. “Sunset Boulevard”, you see, is among the most musically challenging of Lloyd Webber’s shows, especially “Let’s Have Lunch”, which she describes as “most complicated and contrapuntal… I have to do it again and again just so that I know I can… it makes me feel as if I’m limping.”
The show is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 15-song recreation of Billy Wilder’s celebrated 1950 noir film, from which wordsmiths Don Black and Christopher Hampton took most of the lyrics.
Tree is one of Canberra’s most in-demand singing teachers, she masterminded the orchestral section of Supa’s “War of the Worlds”, played keyboard in “The Phantom of the Opera” and is now working on next year’s stadium production of “Jesus Christ Superstar”.
While her favourite composers are Stephen Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown, she credits Lloyd Webber with writing great tunes that people can actually remember (for instance, in this show “With One Look” and “Greatest Star of All”) and a gift for creating complex harmonies.
De Jager’s character Betty has several lovely melodic moments with her opposite number, the ambitious young scriptwriter Joe Gillis, played by Daniel Wells.
Betty, in the rather kinky story of “Sunset Boulevard”, is the young studio staffer to whom the doomed Joe escapes every night after becoming lover/toyboy to the demanding former screen diva, Norma Desmond.
“He treats me like an equal,” de Jager says of Joe, but as anyone who knows the movie is aware, this is not a partnership that’s going anywhere.
Both Tree and de Jager have become quite fascinated by this production’s star act, Bronwyn Sullivan, who plays Norma Desmond. While Tree is quick to praise the musical ability of the other principals (they all read music, which makes her life much easier), all eyes are on Sullivan, who brings mystery, glamour and a thrilling stage voice to the role.
Close as they are to the show, Tree and de Jager are still puzzling over the grand exit of Norma in the arms of the police.
“You see her unravel and you ask yourself, how mad is she? Or is she still playing a role?” they chorus.
And with deep and meaningful questions like that, dessert can’t come too soon.
“Sunset Boulevard”, directed by Stephen Pike, at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, October 8-25. Bookings to theq.net.au or 6285 6290.
The post Arts / ‘Boulevard’ brings challenges appeared first on Canberra CityNews.