At The House On Sunset Lyrics
At The House On Sunset
The sound of heavy rain. It's day-time but dull enough to need the lights on.JOE's typewriter is no longer on the table, but closed and standing on end on the floor.
HE's alone in the great room, playing solitaire.
MAX is at the organ, wearing his white gloves, playing.
HE looks up at the audience, breaks off from his game.
JOE
In December, the rains came.
One great big package, over-sized, like everything else in California;
and it came right through the roof of my room above the garage.
So she had me moved into the main house.
Into what Max called " The room of the husbands."
And on a clear day, the theory was, you could see Catalina.
And little by little I worked through to the end of the script.
At which point I might have left;
Only by then those two boys from the finance company had traced my car and towed it away;
and I hadn't seen one single dollar of cash money since I arrived.
(HE resumes his game;
all of a sudden NORMA sweeps out of her room and down the stairs.
SHE's holding a fat typescript in her hand. SHE snaps at MAX.)
NORMA
Stop that!
(MAX stops playing.)
Today's the day.
JOE
What do you mean?
NORMA
Max is going to deliver the script to Paramount.
JOE
You're really going to give it to De Mille?
NORMA
I've just spoken with my astrologer.
She read De Millle's horoscope; she read mine.
JOE
Did she read the script?
NORMA
De Mille is Leo; I'm Scorpio.
Mars is transiting Jupiter, and today is the day of closest conjunction.
JOE
Oh, well, that's all right, then.
NORMA
Max
MAX
Yes, Madame
(SHE hands the typescript to MAX.)
NORMA
Make sure it goes to Mr. De Mille in person.
(HE leaves the house by the front door. There's a silence;
NORMA moves up and down in a state of heightened emotion;
JOE is steeling himself to broach a difficult subject.)
JOE
Well....
NORMA
Great day.
JOE
It's been real interesting.
NORMA
Yes... hasn't it?
JOE
I want to thank you for trusting me with your baby.
NORMA
Not at all, it is I who should thank you.
JOE
Will you call and let me know as soon as you have some news?
(NORMA frowns; SHE turns to him, her expression bewildered.)
NORMA
Call? Where?
JOE
My apartment.
NORMA
Oh, but, you couldn't possibly think of leaving now, Joe.
JOE
Norma, the script is finished.
NORMA
No, Joe. No. It's just the beginning,
it's just the first draft: I couldn't dream of letting you go, I need your support.
JOE
Well, I can't stay.
NORMA
You'll stay on with full salary, of course...
JOE
Oh, Norma, it's not the money.
(NORMA now has a look of genuine panic on her face,
and JOE sees that some reassurance is essential.)
Yes, of course, I'll stay until we get some sort of news back from Paramount.
(HE's on his feet now, and NORMA grips his hand tightly for a moment.)
NORMA
Thank you, thank you, Joe.
(SHE releases his hand and moves off leaving him a little shaken by this turn of events,
his expression rueful. HE turns to the audience.)
JOE
So, Max wheeled out that foreign bus
brushed the leopardskin upholstery.
He trundled along to Paramount
to hand Cecil B. our hopeless opus.
My work was over
I was feeling no pain
locked up like John the Baptist.
Song Overview
Review and Highlights
I’ve always liked where this cue sits in the show - the first creak of the mansion door. It’s brief, almost throwaway, but it resets the air in the room. Webber writes it like film language: a tracking shot of strings and low brass, then the camera finds Joe, lost and out of his depth. The text moves as spoken-sung recitative; rhythm is set by footsteps, not drum kit. You hear noir without anyone saying the word.
Highlights
- Function - a scene-setter that drops Joe inside Norma’s decaying palace and tilts the story toward obsession.
- Writing - tight underscoring with quick harmonic pivots; dialogue rides the orchestra rather than breaking for a standalone tune.
- Performance - Glenn Close slices through the texture; George Hearn’s dry authority grounds the moment; Alan Campbell keeps Joe wary, restless.
- Takeaways - this is where the house becomes a character, and the rules of the show quietly change.
Creation History
Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics and book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, the scene first landed in the Los Angeles production at the Shubert Theatre (December 1993). The recording most listeners know comes from the American Premiere/1994 Los Angeles cast album, with orchestrations credited to David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It’s essentially cinematic underscoring crafted for live theater - the show’s signature sound in miniature.
Song Meaning and Annotations
Plot
Joe, running from repo men and the heat, slips into what looks like a deserted palace on Sunset. A voice snaps from offstage - Norma’s - and Max appears with that undertaker calm. Joe protests, tries to reclaim authority, and fails. In a handful of lines, the house absorbs him. We learn, sideways, that a funeral is underway for a small, beloved creature. Death sits in the corner before anyone invites it in.
Song Meaning
The piece maps power in a haunted room. Joe’s “where am I?” isn’t just geography - it’s a boundary check. Norma’s interruptions mark ownership; Max’s clipped replies enforce it. The message is simple: this is Norma’s world and you’re already inside it. Mood: tense, slightly absurd, then quietly macabre. Context: the musical lifts film-noir grammar - chiaroscuro scoring, hard cuts, gallows humor - and lets the orchestra carry subtext while the characters volley.
Annotations
“Christ, where am I? / I had landed / In the garden of some palazzo / Like an abandoned movie set”
Joe frames the mansion as a set - the first hint that everyone here performs even when they think they live.
“Any law against burying him in the garden?”
That throwaway line turns the room cold. It telegraphs Norma’s indifference to norms and slides the story toward the final scene we don’t yet see.
Genre and rhythm
Through-sung musical theatre with orchestral noir colors. The pulse is speech-driven; strings and winds shadow the cadence of the lines rather than laying down a drum groove.
Emotional arc
Start: disorientation. Middle: command enters. End: Joe yields to the house, even if he won’t admit it yet.
Touchpoints
Echoes of classic Hollywood melodrama, but with the late-20th-century sweep Webber favors. You can hear the lineage to “As If We Never Said Goodbye,” only here the grandeur is still under wraps.
Key Facts
- Artist: Andrew Lloyd Webber with Glenn Close, George Hearn, Alan Campbell (1994 Los Angeles cast)
- Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Lyricists/Book: Don Black, Christopher Hampton
- Album: Sunset Boulevard (1994 Los Angeles Cast) - American Premiere Recording
- Release Date: 1994
- Label: Polydor (UK) / Verve or related PolyGram imprint (US)
- Genre: Pop, Musicals
- Language: English
- Track #: 5
- Music style: through-sung recitative with orchestral film-noir coloration
- Orchestrations: David Cullen, Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Mood: tense, sardonic, shadowy
- Featured cast: Glenn Close (Norma), George Hearn (Max), Alan Campbell (Joe)
Questions and Answers
- Why does this tiny track matter?
- It’s the gateway drug to the mansion. The house becomes a character, and Joe starts losing leverage the instant he steps inside.
- Is there a standalone melody to hum?
- Not really - it’s built like underscoring, designed to carry dialogue and atmosphere rather than produce a set-piece tune.
- What does the “garden burial” line signal?
- Norma’s rulebook. Etiquette bends to her impulses, which foreshadows the fatal logic of the finale.
- Who shaped the sound we hear on the classic recording?
- Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score, orchestrated with David Cullen - a partnership that gives the music its glossy, cinematic weight.
- Any notable adaptations of this moment?
- Brazil’s 2019 production (São Paulo) translated the show - including this scene - into “Na Mansão em Sunset,” aligning syllables and stresses for Portuguese while keeping the bite.
Awards and Chart Positions
- Tony Awards (1995): Best Musical; Best Original Score (Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black, Christopher Hampton); Best Book (Don Black, Christopher Hampton); acting wins for Glenn Close (Lead Actress) and George Hearn (Featured Actor).
- Revival milestones: The 2024-25 Broadway revival won Best Revival of a Musical and Best Leading Actress (Nicole Scherzinger) at the 2025 Tony Awards; lighting also won.
- Album chart note: The American Premiere Recording (1994) briefly entered the Billboard 200, peaking around the lower reaches of the chart in early autumn 1994.
Additional Info
Brazilian adaptation: A major 2019 São Paulo production at Teatro Santander starred Marisa Orth (Norma) and Daniel Boaventura (Max), translation by Mariana Elisabetsky and Victor Mühlethaler. It ran March through July and picked up multiple national theatre awards, proving the score travels across language without losing its noir snap.