Glenn Close Returns to Broadway in ‘Sunset Boulevard’

Actress won Tony Award for Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in 1995

Glenn close
Getty Images

Two decades after winning a Tony Award for playing aged silent-film star Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s musical version of “Sunset Boulevard,” Glenn Close is returning to Broadway this winter in the role.

Close will star in a new production directed by Lonny Price that had a sold-out run earlier this year at the English National Opera on London’s West End.

The revival will begin performances on February 2, 2017, for an official opening on February 9 at the Palace Theatre. The production, which will boast a 40-piece orchestra, will have a limited 16-week run.

Don Black and Christopher Hampton wrote the book and lyrics, adapted from Billy Wilder‘s 1950 movie.

“Sunset Boulevard” originally premiered in London’s West End at the Adelphi Theatre in 1993, where it ran for almost four years.

The American premiere was at the Shubert Theatre in Century City, Los Angeles, in December 1993 with Glenn Close as Norma. The musical was an instant success and played 369 performances before moving to Broadway in 1994 with, what was then, the biggest advance in Broadway history, at $37.5 million.

“Seeing Glenn Close revisit her Tony Award-winning performance in London’s West End was a transcendent experience for us both,” producers Paul Blake and Mike Bosner said in a statement. “We wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Glenn’s masterful performance is even richer and more layered than before.”

When the show opens, Lloyd Webber will have four musicals running simultaneously on Broadway, including “The Phantom of the Opera,” “School of Rock” and a new revival of “Cats.”

In addition to her Tony Award for “Sunset Boulevard,” Close twice won Best Actress in Play for “The Real Thing” in 1984 and “Death and the Maiden” in 1992.

Comments