Vintage Theater
Aurora, CO
April 29 - May 29, 2016
Sunset Boulevard is an ambitious musical for any theater to take on – especially an intimate space like the Vintage Theatre. It is from an era where the spectacle was as important as the content. I saw the original touring production in 1996, so I was intrigued to see how two decades had effected the show.
Despite being a small theater, the sightlines aren’t the best at the Vintage. The staging area is small so the actors need to use every inch of it, but some of that area is not easily visible from the back seats. And when the upper level was used the ornate chandeliers obstructed the actors’ faces.
The car chase scene became somewhat comical in their attempt to stage it with actors on platforms, holding up the steering wheel in front of black and white street footage. Later on when a car actually did roll onto the set it the effect was undermined by the fact that it had to roll backward to leave.
The costumes were well done for the most part. Some of the “movie” costumes were a bit too cheap looking to believe they were a part of a Cecil B. DeMille film. But the rest were bright and indicative of the time. The quality of Joe’s suits was obvious as he moved through the show. And Norma Desmond was appropriately ostentatious throughout.
One aspect that was hard to overlook was the difficulty of the score. Each of the principals has a wide range to cover and at some point they all struggled a bit. At times it seemed that the complex music hindered the emotional output that should have gone along with the music.Overall, it was an entertaining show but it seems to be a bit too big a production for this theater. It is a difficult production to stage and I admire Vintage for taking it on.
