Pygmalion - no, it's not the most conventionally attractive set design, but there's nothing confusing about it. The set is deliberately reminiscent of an audio lab - hence the soundproofing on all the walls and the speakers above all the doors. It's a VERY obvious visual metaphor.
Sunset Boulevard - I saw it Friday night. Yes, thrilling, but one of those rather intellectually sloppy productions where it's probably best not to think too hard about what the director's concept is trying to say. It's dazzling to look at, and enormously entertaining, but Lloyd hasn't thought every element through as well as he thinks he has, he sometimes leans too hard on arch self-referential touches, and one (admittedly spectacular) sequence was nicked directly from Ivo van Hove's staging of Network. Overall, yes it's an astonishing reinvention of the show, but it isn't unimpeachable. The singing is superb, though, and Scherzinger is great (so is Tom Francis as Joe Gillis), and yes, I'm sure it'll end up in New York.
And in particular - Scherzinger takes the final verse of With One Look in the original key, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone sing it better than she did. And I saw every one of the ladies who played Norma in the original London production. |
