Salome Lyrics – Sunset Boulevard

Song Overview

“Salome” is the moment Sunset Boulevard stops flirting and bares teeth. Norma unveils the screenplay she’s written for Cecil B. DeMille, and Joe clocks an opportunity. The duet moves like a guided tour through delusion: her rapture, his side-eye, both locked in the same mansion, same myth. On the 1994 American Premiere cast album, it lands after “With One Look,” deepening Norma’s grand plan and setting Joe’s next bad decision in motion.

Review and Highlights

I hear two tracks running at once: Norma’s fevered movie in her mind, and Joe’s dry commentary cut like a voiceover. Webber writes the scene as a double exposure. Norma sings in broad, arching phrases about veils and silver trays; Joe tosses in deadpan asides about the chimp and the organ wheeze. The orchestration flickers between glamour and gallows - bright strings for her fantasies, darker brass for his skepticism. It’s funny until it isn’t.

Creation History

The number appears in Act 1 of Sunset Boulevard, introduced by Norma and intercut with Joe’s narration. On the 1994 American Premiere recording with Glenn Close, George Hearn, and Alan Campbell, “Salome” follows “With One Look” and precedes Max’s “The Greatest Star of All.” The album dropped September 13, 1994, and became the de facto reference for the show’s U.S. text and sound.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Joe stumbles into Norma’s decaying palace and, after trading barbs, gets conscripted. She thrusts her screenplay at him - a star vehicle about the teenage temptress who beguiles Herod and demands the Baptist’s head. Joe flips pages, clocking the melodrama, the champagne, the mummified pet. Norma keeps selling. By the time she asks his birth sign and offers a room over the garage, the trap has a ribbon on it.

Song Meaning

“Salome” is self-portrait by proxy. Norma worships a girl whose gaze bends men and whose desire eclipses morality. That’s not subtle. Joe’s patter reinforces a second theme: in Hollywood, storytelling is currency and self-deception is legal tender. The mood pivots from giddy to queasy as the duet needles the line between romantic obsession and control. Context-wise, the scene hardens the arc that began with “With One Look” - Norma’s return isn’t a comeback, it’s a crusade, and Joe is her scribe, hostage, or both.

Annotations

“And her staring like a Gorgon”

Norma’s look is a weapon. The Gorgon image doesn’t just signal danger - it captures how paralysis works in this house. Joe knows he should walk; he doesn’t. The stare does the tying.

“If she can’t have him living / She’ll take him dead”

Wilde’s Salome asks for the Baptist’s head; Norma’s allegory does the rest. The lyric prefigures the musical’s endgame, when love curdles into possession and possession ends in violence. The foreshadowing isn’t coy - it’s a flare.

“You can trust them”

Trust threads the whole show. Norma extends it recklessly, Joe rations it, Max counterfeits it. In this scene, a throwaway line becomes a contract: Joe accepts the job and the house key, and the slope gets steeper.

Style and rhythm

The scene fuses patter with grand, filmic melody. Norma’s lines linger on sustained tones and swelling intervals; Joe’s replies are clipped, near-spoken, riding the bar line. The push-pull creates a chamber-movie feel - like two reels projected on one screen.

Emotional arc

Start: thrilled - Norma sells the dream. Middle: barbed - Joe undercuts the fantasy. End: sealed - the work, the room, the nine a.m. call. The duet closes with a door, not a button.

Touchpoints and echoes

The lyric leans on the 1950 film’s DNA. In Wilder’s movie, Norma brings her script to Paramount and meets DeMille on a Samson and Delilah set. The musical keeps that world in orbit, letting “Salome” double as a love letter to silent-era excess and a cautionary tale about its afterlife.

Key Facts

• Artist: Andrew Lloyd Webber, George Hearn, Alan Campbell
• Primary vocalist in number: Norma Desmond (original LA cast: Glenn Close), with commentary by Joe Gillis
• Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Lyricists/Book: Don Black, Christopher Hampton
• Album: Sunset Boulevard (1994 Los Angeles Cast)
• Release Date: September 13, 1994
• Track placement: Act 1, after “With One Look”
• Approx. length: about 6:40
• Label: PolyGram/Polydor; U.S. distribution also under A&M
• Genre: Stage musical duet with patter and dramatic monologue
• Instruments: Full theatre orchestra - strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion, rhythm section
• Mood: seductive, sardonic, tightening
• Language: English
• Music style: cinematic lyricism against spoken-sung counterlines
• Poetic meter: mixed prosody, patter intercuts with broad legato

Questions and Answers

Where does “Salome” sit in the dramatic arc?

Early Act 1, as the pivot where Joe stops running and starts collaborating. It’s the handshake with strings attached.

Is “Salome” ever performed outside the show?

Yes - standbys and tour Normas have featured it in press and concert clips. The number also appears in non-English productions, including the Brazilian staging with a Portuguese text.

Why reference Samson and Delilah?

Because Wilder’s 1950 film staged Norma’s DeMille visit on a reconstructed Samson and Delilah set at Paramount. The musical inherits that echo of studio mythmaking.

Did this track chart or come out as a single?

No dedicated single or chart run for the track itself; its life is on cast albums and stage.

Are there notable adaptations of the text?

Brazil’s 2019 production used a Portuguese translation by Mariana Elisabetsky and Victor Mühlethaler; “Salomé” keeps the scene’s bite while swapping idioms for local color.

Awards and Chart Positions

No track-specific chart history. The show’s major honors frame the song’s legacy: the original Broadway production won the 1995 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Book. Jamie Lloyd’s 2023 London revival captured the 2024 Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival. The 2024–25 Broadway transfer won the 2025 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, with Nicole Scherzinger named Best Actress in a Musical.

How to Sing Salome

Range and forces. Norma’s material typically sits in a mezzo-to-soprano mix with top notes around E; Joe answers from a baritone place. Balance the dialogue and sung lines so humor doesn’t flatten the menace.

Diction and pace. Keep consonants clean without hammering. When Joe undercuts a line, clip the phrase and lean into the rhyme; when Norma soars, let legato do the work.

Breath and placement. Norma’s phrases bloom on sustained vowels - think lifted soft palate and steady air. Joe’s quips need conversational release; breathe at punctuation, not bar lines.

Acting beats. Norma sells a film inside the song. Map three gears: allure, conviction, command. Joe starts amused, shifts uneasy, ends opportunistic. Play the shift, don’t signal it.

Ensemble blend. Orchestral swells can tempt oversinging. Trust the mic or the room, and ride the mezzo core rather than blasting chest at climaxes.

Additional Info

Cross-cultural versions. The Brazilian production in 2019 featured Marisa Orth as Norma and Daniel Boaventura as Max, with a Portuguese translation by Mariana Elisabetsky and Victor Mühlethaler; “Salomé” retains its bite in a new idiom. Tour and standby interpretations - for example, Linda Balgord and Karen Mason - show how different Normas shade the scene, from sardonic to operatic.