Stunning Boulevard is big Opera House hit

Stunning Boulevard is big Opera House hit

14 October 2015

ST Patrick’s Choral Society, set itself the ambitious task of filling the Grand Opera House in Belfast five times over with its production of Sunset Boulevard — and succeeded in style.

Blurring the lines between what was officially billed as an amateur performance, and what was at times as good as any professional one, it brought sell-out audiences to their feet in a series of standing ovations.

“Better than the West End,” shouted one satisfied customer after Thursday evening’s performance.

This, of course, was no average musical society show. In fact, it was pure box office.

The Downpatrick-based society has been building a reputation for high quality performances over many years, and the king of the West End himself, Andrew Lloyd Webber, even sent the cast a “Break a Leg” good luck message before Wednesday’s opening.

At the centre of Sunset Boulevard’s blackly comic tale is Norma Desmond, the 50-year-old former silent movie star who never made it into the ‘Talkies’ and is dreaming of a return to the glory days.

She doesn’t need to “make a comeback”, she explains, as she’s always been a star.

Norma is desperate to wow Hollywood with a new , in which she will naturally play the young leading lady, and a chance meeting with struggling writer Joe, trying to pay the bills in an industry demanding the next big hit, seals their fate. Joe is hired to edit the script and is expected to move in.

The reclusive Norma becomes increasingly unstable and the relationship between her and Joe becomes more warped as the story unfolds.

From the expertly choreographed chorus line giving it their all, to the virtuosity of the starring roles, the society’s version of this tale was a slickly put together operation capturing the glamour and madness of Tinseltown.

The recitative-style opening was particularly well co-ordinated and this relaxed looking cast were obviously well rehearsed for the frenetically paced scenes.

Special mention, of course, to the mesmerising performances from award-winning vocalist Fiona Keegan as Norma Desmond and Mark McMullan as Joe Gillis.

Gloria Swanson played Norma Desmond in the original Billy Wilder film and Fiona Keegan gives the screen legend a run for her money — a melodramatic, wild-eyed, performance, both comic and vulnerable, to match her impressive vocals.

Mark McMullan’s Joe plays along with Norma’s dream, veering between affection and contempt for her and himself, but the relationship between the two is always plausible.

His boyish good-looks are cut through with a convincing insouciance, but the moral decline doesn’t go so far that we aren’t concerned about him and Betty Schaefer, played by Courtney Burns, the young script writer who is the real love of his life.

With Joe simmering with frustration throughout much of the story, there is some necessary light relief, most notably in ‘The Lady’s Paying’, in which the young writer gets suited and booted, and later as Norma undergoes an intensive beauty regime ahead of her increasingly unlikely studio return.

Norma’s odd butler Max also provides a comic turn. Fergal White in this role is more sensitive perhaps than sinister, and his solos were particularly popular with the audience.

And as we learn more about this particular butler, Norma’s twisted world appears even more tragic.

From then on reality and fantasy become even more blurred in the story-line as Norma hurtles in a Hollywood haze towards final insanity.

Some extra touches, such as the background silent movie material, helped to evoke the era alongside the music that hypnotised and repelled us in turn.

Sunset Boulevard is a savage indictment of the fame business and some of the stars it produces — and remains as relevant today as it was back in 1950.