Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Book & Lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton
Based on the Billy Wilder film.
SYNOPSIS
The story begins in 1949-50 with down-on-his-luck screenwriter Joe Gillis having car trouble, on Sunset Boulevard, in front of former silent film star Norma Desmond's mansion. To keep the repossession agents at bay, he hides his car in Desmond's garage. After 20 years out of the limelight, eccentric Miss Desmond wants to make a screen comeback. Gillis comments, "You used to be in pictures, you used to be big," she retorts "I am big . . . it's the pictures that got small!" She invites Joe to live at the mansion if he'll edit her script, Salome, for director Cecil B. DeMille. Joe goes to the studio to borrow money to pay off his debts and meets sweet, pretty Betty Schaefer, who works with him on his own script and falls for Joe, leaving her boyfriend, Artie.
Norma has also developed feelings for the young screenwriter, buying him lavish gifts; she even attempts suicide when he goes off to a party. Joe finishes Salome and the phone rings: The studio is calling, but it turns out that Norma's car is wanted for a film, not her. Max, her ex-husband (and live-in butler), can't bring himself to give the ex-star this sad news. So, Norma happily meets DeMille, who is, of course, non-committal about Salome. Meanwhile, Norma has detected that Joe and Betty are lovers. She telephones the younger woman to confront her, but Joe grabs the phone from her hand, asking Betty to come see first-hand the hell he is living in. Betty arrives, and Joe breaks her heart by telling her he's a kept man and is planning to stay that way. As soon as Betty leaves, however, Joe tells Norma that he's leaving her as well and heading back to his hometown in Ohio. He also bluntly informs her that Salome will never be filmed and all her fans have forgotten her. Norma, furious and grief-stricken, fatally shoots Joe. Descending into insanity, Norma mistakes her arresting officers for her beloved fans and studio executives. Thinking she is on the set of Salome, Norma descends the staircase with the immortal phrase, "...And now, Mr. De Mille, I am ready for my close-up." |
