This is Billy Wilder’s classic 1950 melodrama Sunset Boulevard, starring the great silent film actress Gloria Swenson, who actually mourned her fate there so that millions of viewers sobbed in the corridors.
This story now – already in the musical genre – will be performed by an international team of actors from four countries: Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Russia. Will perform in Russian in the premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s famous musical “Sunset Boulevard”, created on the plot of the same film by Billy Wilder. According to the terms of the license, the show will take place only seven times from April 6 to April 12 in one of the largest concert halls in Yerevan – the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex. The performance director is a young director Anton Muzykantsky, a graduate of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s London Arts Educational Schools; Last year, the musical “Borrow the Tenor” directed by him at the Sverdlovsk Academic Musical Comedy Theater was awarded the “Golden Mask”.
On the video – a fragment from the Broadway show with Glenn Close in the role of Norma.
The musical version of ‘Sunset Boulevard’ first saw the light of day in London exactly 30 years ago, had 11 nominations for the ‘Tony’ Main Theater Prize and won three awards – including Best musical comedy. Anton Muzykantsky wrote his own version of the libretto for the performance of Yerevan, where the action takes place in the surroundings of an old abandoned film studio (Armenfilm helped with the old cinema equipment from the middle of the last century ) – so there will be a world premiere.
Photo: kinopoisk.ru
In all stage versions of this musical, the star role of its heroine Norma Desmond was always played by a famous actress – Glenn Close on Broadway, Faye Dunaway in Los Angeles … Georgian singer Tamara Gverdtsiteli will play Norma in Yerevan. The second most important role of the young playwright Joe Gillis (played by William Holden in the film) goes to the winner of the “Golden Mask” Evgeny Yelpashev from the Sverdlovsk Musical Comedy Theater. The role of Betty Schaefer is given to Kazakh actress Aliya Agadilova, Max von Mayerling – Yerevan actor Artur Manukyan. Most of the large troupe are artists from Armenia. The head of the production company SKYFIST STUDIO, Poghos Harutyunyan, said in an interview with the Yerevan edition of Bravo: “I want the whole world to know how talented the Armenian people are. my native land know that here they can develop, reach heights and become famous all over the world, therefore, I am ready to bring global projects to Armenia and involve local actors in these projects.
Anton Muzykantsky calls the main theme of the future performance the past, which does not let go, trying to replace the present. “At the casting, we were surprised by the level of training of Armenian artists, he admitted in a television interview. Here the musical genre is not as developed as in the West or in Moscow. has many artists. who sing and dance beautifully, play perfectly and work with incredible dedication “Armenia has ancient musical traditions, a high singing culture, an ensemble – it is very felt, and the artists are absolutely ready for our genre. actors from Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Armenia are involved in the performance, and it’s a joy to see how these people are still. They interact very well and work together.”
The show will be accompanied by the State Symphony Orchestra of Armenia.
