Petaluma director resurrects ‘Sunset Boulevard’ musical for Sonoma debut

Once the queen of silent film, Norma Desmond refuses to die. Seventy years after she came to life in Billy Wilder’s film noir classic “Sunset Blvd” — and 30 years after Andrew Lloyd Webber resurrected her in the form of a musical — the middle-aged recluse still hungers fiercely for a comeback.

“I am big,” she insists. “It’s the pictures that got small.”

On Sept. 24, Sonoma Arts Live will begin a three-week run of the 1993 musical Sunset Boulevard. Petaluma resident and long-time theater artist Carl Jordan is the director. The show will be staged at the Sonoma Community Center in Sonoma.

Why the enduring appeal of the story? The answer partly lies in the genesis of the 1950 film. Wilder cast 53-year-old Gloria Swanson, once the richest and most successful actress in silent film, as Norma. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and constituted a brief comeback for Swanson.

The story also stays alive because of its themes.

“There is always corruption, ageism and misogyny in Hollywood,” said Daniela Innocenti Beem, who plays Norma in the Sonoma Arts Live production. “The story remains completely relevant today. Nothing has changed.”

Widely considered one of the best singers in the Bay Area, Beem likens the role to an emotional roller coaster.

“Playing Norma Desmond is a challenge,” she said. “I don’t want to create a caricature, especially touching on mental illness. Finding the character means exploring the incredible balance she maintains between her ego, her delusions, and her fragility. She teeters back and forth. When the show is over, the audience may be torn between a rosary and a stiff drink. It appeals to a broad audience.”

Singing the part is also challenging, Beem noted.

“Lloyd Webber typically takes five or six melodies and creates a show around them, with many subtle changes. It’s fun for the actors,” she said.

One of those actors is Ron Lam, a retired San Francisco police officer who lives in Petaluma. Lam is part of the show’s ensemble. He recalls that when the album of “Sunset Boulevard” came out, he bought it and played it over and over.

“The score is great,” Lam said. “Lloyd Webber’s work is so lush and evocative of the era. I think it’s more operatic even than ‘Phantom of the Opera.’”

Lloyd Webber would probably agree. In a 2013 BBC interview, he said, “I think in many ways Sunset is the most complete musical I have written, in the sense that the book and the music and everything come together.”

“The songs are not easy,” director Jordan said. “Lloyd Webber loves to change time signatures constantly in the show. But we have amazing vocalists in the four principal roles.”

Michael Scott Wells plays the impoverished screenwriter Joe Gillis, with Tim Setzer as Desmond’s mysterious live-in butler Max, and Maeve Smith as Joe’s colleague and possible love interest. The music director is Ellen Patterson, with choreography by Devin Parker Sullivan.

The black and white film is clearly noirish, mostly taking place in Norma Desmond’s lonely mansion. Jordan’s production honors the grim genre through such elements as black and white projections, but the musical makes more use of the outside world.

“When we leave the mansion,” Jordan said, “we try to show the difference between the dark heaviness of Desmond’s world and the lightness of life in Hollywood, for example at the movie studio or in Schwab’s Pharmacy on Sunset.”

The writers of the musical, Don Black and Christopher Hampton, remain faithful to Wilder’s story. Audience members familiar with the film will recognize many great lines from the movie.

“Wilder was a genius,” said Jordan, “a brilliant writer and director who went against the grain in Hollywood. He had enough power to put in scenes that the ‘suits’ didn’t want.”

Like many theater artists, Jordan’s theatrical efforts have been sidelined by COVID-19 for many months. When the epidemic hit, he had lined up seven productions to direct, all of which were canceled. He is, to say the least, glad to be back at work.

“The cast is a joy to work with, and it’s nourishing to the soul to be working with them,” he said. “Directing a big musical — cast of 16 — during COVID is a lot of adjectives: insane, wonderful, stressful, joyful. The first priority is safety.”

Everyone involved is vaccinated. The cast rehearses in masks, sometimes in shields.

“The stage manager even takes your temperature when you arrive,” he said. “Everyone will be tested before the opening and weekly after that.”

This production of “Sunset Boulevard” appears to be a Sonoma County premiere. While the original London and New York productions were notoriously expensive, with hydraulic lifts and a three-story mansion, Jordan’s production focuses on the story and the music.

“When it was handed to me, we adapted it to our stage,” Jordan said. “We are telling the story simply, without a lot of business. We tell it with song, dance and acting.”