Sunset Boulevard: The Hollywood Classic That Became a Musical

I have always loved the movie Sunset Boulevard. Billy Wilder’s 1950 film is, for me, one of the great classics of cinema, a film I can return to again and again and still find something fascinating in it.

Its dark, glamorous and slightly disturbing vision of Hollywood has stayed with me for years, and Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond is one of those characters who is almost impossible to forget — especially her facial expressions and eyes!

Having been one of the biggest stars of the silent film era, Swanson brought a fascinating layer of authenticity to the role, especially in the way Norma speaks about silent cinema and the stars who were left behind when Hollywood found its voice. Watching her play a fictional former silent film star while drawing so strongly on her own Hollywood history is one of the things that makes the original Sunset Boulevard so extraordinary.

That is why I have always been fascinated by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s decision to bring Sunset Boulevard to the musical stage.

Turning such an iconic film into a musical was a huge challenge. The original film already had such a distinctive atmosphere, dialogue and visual identity that it could easily have been difficult to translate into another medium. But Lloyd Webber found a way to give Norma Desmond something the film could never give her: her own musical voice.

His score captures the melancholy and darkness of Norma’s world beautifully. I particularly love the way the music moves between enormous Hollywood-style drama and deeply personal moments of loneliness. “With One Look”, “New Ways to Dream”, “The Greatest Star of All” and especially “As If We Never Said Goodbye” have become important parts of the musical theatre repertoire because they allow us to understand Norma rather than simply judge her.

The history of the musical itself is fascinating to me. Sunset Boulevard first opened in London in 1993, with the legendary Patti LuPone creating the original stage Norma Desmond. Trevor Nunn directed the production, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton. The original cast recording became an important part of the show’s legacy.

Patti LuPone’s Norma is particularly significant because she was the first actress to take Gloria Swanson’s unforgettable film character and establish her as a musical theatre icon. Later, Glenn Close would create another legendary interpretation of Norma, including her Tony Award-winning Broadway performance in 1995.

I think that history makes every new production of Sunset Boulevard interesting. Anyone playing Norma is not simply taking on another musical theatre role. They are stepping into a character already associated with some of the greatest performances in both cinema and musical theatre.

And this is exactly why I found the recent Broadway revival so fascinating.

Jamie Lloyd’s Sunset Blvd. brought this classic back to Broadway in a completely reimagined production, with Nicole Scherzinger as Norma Desmond. The production opened at the St. James Theatre in October 2024 and continued until July 2025. It also brought Tom Francis, Grace Hodgett Young and David Thaxton from the London production to Broadway.

What makes this revival particularly interesting is that it did not seem interested in simply recreating the traditional image of Sunset Boulevard. Jamie Lloyd approached the material in a much more contemporary and cinematic way, using lighting, video and a striking visual language to explore Norma’s obsession with fame and her increasingly distorted relationship with reality.

Nicole Scherzinger’s performance became one of the defining aspects of the production. Her portrayal of Norma earned her the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, while the production itself won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. It received seven Tony nominations in total and also won for Jack Knowles’ lighting design.

The recent revival showed just how much potential this musical still has. I was particularly interested in how a story first told on film in 1950 and transformed into a musical in the 1990s could still feel relevant today. The obsession with fame, the fear of being forgotten and the brutal relationship between celebrities and the entertainment industry have certainly not disappeared.

What I love most about Sunset Boulevard is that beneath all the glamour, it is ultimately a very sad story. Norma desperately wants the world to see her as the star she believes she still is. Joe Gillis sees Hollywood as his way out of failure. Everyone is chasing something, and almost everyone is trapped by the dream.

And Lloyd Webber’s music makes that tragedy even more powerful.

For me, Sunset Boulevard will always belong first to Billy Wilder and Gloria Swanson. I love the film too much for that ever to change. But I also think the musical deserves its own place in the history of the story. It does not simply copy the film. It takes its characters, its atmosphere and its obsession with fame and turns them into something that can be experienced through music.

It is Hollywood looking at itself in the mirror and discovering that the reflection may not be as beautiful as it once was.