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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Nicholas de Jongh's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Craig Revel Horwood.
Cast: Kathryn Evans, Dave Willetts, Ben Goddard, Elisa Boyd, Tomm Coles, Alexander Evans, Kate Feldschreiber, Sam Kenyon, Nick Lashbrook, Tarek Merchant, Laura Pitt-Pulford, Helen Power
Description: Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical about the world of a faded screen starlet. Starring Kathryn Evans, Ben Goddard and Dave Willetts. Directed by Craig Revel Horwood.
Trains: Tube: Piccadilly Circus/Leicester Square 
Phone: 0870060 6637
Website: www.theambassadors.com/comedy
Small is better and sometimes beautiful when it comes to this scaled-down, intimate version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1993 musical melodrama, closely based on the famous Billy Wilder film.
This Sunset Boulevard, with those catchy but clichéd lyrics from Don Black and Christopher Hampton, is another in the Watermill’s appealing line of musicals, stripped down to their best essentials. Instead of the traditional orchestra for a musical, director Craig Revel Horwood makes do with an 11-strong band, most of whom act and sing as well. The versatility of these performers, some playing more than one instrument, delights but never distracts from the main narrative. Sarah Travis’s artful arrangements help you clearly hear the romantic, nostalgic line of Lloyd Webber’s score, from the first moments when a single violin laments the murder of Ben Goddard’s handsome, baby-faced Joe Gillis.
This penniless script writer on the skids falls in with Kathryn Evans’s washed-up, has-been of a film star, Norma Desmond, and in the end falls fatally out with her. Lloyd Webber, as Evita and Phantom Of The Opera reminds us, is fascinated by life-victims.
The rise and fall of the couple’s mutually exploitative relationship, against the backcloth of a ruthless, Hollywood society that shows nothing but contempt for the failed and passé, is the musical’s main business.
The 1993 production incited you to come out singing the praises of the sets, of that vast, spectacular staircase down which Norma comes like a tragedy queen en route to a meeting with destiny. It reeked of sumptuousness. Here the elegant designer Diego Pitarch reduces Norma’s home to a modest spiral staircase under which stands an upright piano, a candelabra perched upon it. The swimming pool into which Joe’s bullet-laden body tumbles is aurally suggested rather than depicted. Yet I was far more closely engaged by the doomed love affair of clinging Norma and unwilling Joe in this version than I was at the 1993 premiere.
The key to the production’s impact is Ben Goddard, whose Gillis emerges as a pathetically young casualty of ambition, without the bulwark of talent. Moving between Norma’s home, where Dave Willetts’s butler keeps reality at bay, and the young Hollywood set, where a script-girl longs for him, Goddard’s Gillis exudes bemused impotence as he falls deeper into the coils of the crazy, smitten Norma. It is of course Miss Desmond, yearning to be back in her famous yesterdays and fantasising about a comeback, who ought to capture the pathos that Lloyd Webber’s score invites — Everyone Needs New Ways To Dream and We Never Said Goodbye.
Dressed strikingly in black and white, Miss Evans deploys a singing voice powerfully impressive in tone and range, particularly when returning to the studios to see Craig Pinder’s compassionate Cecil B. DeMille. When, though, it comes to acting she resorts disastrously to melodramatic burlesque. It is as if some drag queen were sending up Norma in a Vauxhall Tavern drag performance. That Sunset Boulevard still so beguiles owes plenty to Lloyd Webber’s seductive music, to Goddard and those remarkable actor-musicians.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
I went to see Sunset Boulevard and i thought it was the best thing i've ever seen. It is without a doubt the best musical ever and the cast deserve an award for their amazing performances. Personally i have never been so impressed by an actor and so moved than when i saw Ben Goddard enter the role of Joe Gillis. And i hope that there will be a cast recording on cd because that cast is too good to be forgotten and replaced therefore a cd will at least keep the music in our hearts!
- Laura Muehlfenzl, Munich, Germany
Went to see it earlier this evening and...what can I say: sad, tearfull, moving but BRILLIANT, AB FAB!!!
- Renee, London
I saw Sunset Boulevard last week and am going to book again before it finishes its run in April. It's different to the usual run of the mill musicals, it's funny and sad, brilliantly acted and the cast are so full of energy and talent.
If you're going to see one musical this year, make it this one, you won't be disappointed.
- Jeannie, London
I saw Sunset Boulevard last night and i tell you it was the perfect end to the year. (some may even say the perfect year).
From start to finish i believe this was the most moving, believable and heartbreakingly wonderfull show.
Kathryn Evans was fantastic as Norma Desmond ( the greatest star of them all) her wonderfull portrayal of the ageing leading lady left me with tears in my eyes more than once. Her showstopping numbers are sung directly from the heart and are all breathtaking. The emotion she put into every line left me with goosebumps.
Ben Goddard played a gorgeous and fantastic Joe Gillis. A particular high point of the show is his rendition of the title song. He gave classic song a fresh lease of life, whilst at the same time filling the theatre with the traditional magic that sunset Boulevard has always encompassed.
Sunset Boulevard has ony 12 on stage cast members, and all of them are stars, each sparkling in their role. The parts of Betty, Artie and Max are particularly well played, but the whole cast is diamond!
Craig Revel horwood should be very proud. He has directed a masterpiece and the whole cast and crew should be highly commended on putting on such a good show!
Its a just reminder of how amazing Andrew Lloyd Webbers is (though it's not like we ever forgot)
- Sarah Forsyth, Kent
