Glenn Close takes to the stage in Sunset Boulevard: 'I feel totally new in this role'

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Robert Dex @RobDexES5 April 2016
The Weekender

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Sunset Boulevard star Glenn Close said she felt “totally new” as she returned to the role — and the costumes — she first had 20 years ago.

Close, who won a Tony Award in 1995 for her first appearance as faded Hollywood star Norma Desmond, left the stage to a standing ovation as the musical revival hit the West End.

The actress, who played the part in Los Angeles and New York two decades ago, said she had kept some of the original props and costumes, which she is wearing again for this run at the Coliseum.

She said: “She is one of the great parts ever written for a woman, it is infinite in the possibility of exploration and I feel totally new in this role, I feel like I’ve never done it before except I’m wearing these old clothes.”

Christopher Hampton, Don Black, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, Glenn Close, Siobhan Dillon and Michael Xavier 
Dave Benett

The musical, based on Billy Wilder’s 1950 film, is a dark tale of delusion and paranoia in Hollywood, in which Close’s character dreams of a triumphant return to the big screen.

Close said she had been “very nervous” ahead of her performance and praised the “phenomenal” reaction from the audience, who gave her an ovation before she sang a note.

She said: “I’ve had a wonderful coach and beautiful music and I’ve had 20 years to learn how to sing it.

Take a bow: Glenn Close after the show
Dave Benett

“All of us are kind of gobsmacked, I’ve never had this kind of response and it’s not just me, I think it is the sum of the pure story and the music.

"It is such a powerful story to begin with and then to have such incredible music that puts the emotion on a higher level, I honestly think there is nothing like it.”

The actress, whose TV and film career includes Fatal Attraction, Damages and 101 Dalmatians, was joined on stage by the show’s writers Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton.

Lloyd Webber said “no composer could ask for a better Norma Desmond”.

“It was the best performance I’ve ever heard and it’s just a joy to hear the orchestra,” he added. “The intensity was amazing.”

Close, who has 42 performances to go in the run, said it had been “a fabulous, wonderful adventure”, and Lloyd Webber said he was glad the show had stood up to a revival.

“I think it’s always exciting when a piece comes back,” he said. “I was very pleased that tonight there was nothing I would have changed. I wouldn’t change this at all and certainly wouldn’t change the performance.”

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