I met my daughter outside the theater, and we were, finally, ready to see the show.

Did I enjoy it? Well, first a little history. I saw the movie many years ago (and loved it). When the show first came out in 1993 it opened first in London. Since I was in New York I wasn’t able to see the show, so I bought the original cast recording instead. I loved that too. Eventually I saw the show in London. I’ve seen a lot of shows in New York and for some of them I didn’t care for the production. But I’ve never seen a poor performance. The depth of talent in New York City is incredible. When I saw the show in London the production was good, but the performances (particularly of the female lead) were less so. I was a bit disappointed, but I hoped to see it again sometime.

Fast forward to the present day. The performances were wonderful, especially those of the male and female leads. Nicole Scherzinger was particularly impressive despite the fact that she was rather too young, and perhaps too attractive to play the part. But what a fantastic voice.

Unfortunately, I have mixed feelings about the production. There were no sets. The earlier production I saw had realistic period (1940s) sets and costumes. This one had neither: just a pretty much empty stage and uniform black/grey costumes. It was a bit dreary, and at times could potentially cause problems. Near the end some asks something like “Who’s Norma Desmond?”. In the earlier production the walls were covered with pictures of her (showing how narcissistic she was). The male lead answers by pointing at pictures in turn and saying “That’s Norma Desmond! That’s Norma Desmond! That’s Norma Desmond!”. Of course, in this production there are no pictures to point at. Seemed a little strange. I could give other examples. I also thought the giant screen, although effective at times, was used too much. Finally, I find Norma to be a very sad person. Although the original production had a certain amount of humor, I felt this one poked too much fun at Norma’s expense. It was a bit like kicking a homeless man.

Still, I shouldn’t be so critical. You can’t always repeat the same production over and over again. It was a valiant attempt, which I felt didn’t quite work. Just the same I enjoyed it immensely!

Taken with a Sony RX100 MVII