Leicester’s Curve has cancelled a concert version of Sunset Boulevard because the city has gone into the government’s tier three coronavirus restrictions—but the production will be filmed and will be available online.
Curve’s chief executive Chris Stafford and artistic director Nikolai Foster said in a statement, “we are incredibly disappointed not to welcome audiences back to Curve this Christmas, especially as we have invested significantly in measures to ensure we can operate in a COVID-safe way.
“In a Curve first, we will be bringing back our terrific Sunset Boulevard company to film the production for audiences to watch from the comfort of their homes.
“The concert staging will involve our stalls being cleared of seats to accommodate our socially distanced 16-piece orchestra and we will celebrate every corner of Curve’s in-the-round auditorium with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s magnificent score.”
Joining the previously announced Ria Jones as Norma Desmond and Danny Mac as Joe Gillis will be several company members from Curve’s 2017 touring production. Molly Lynch reprises her role as Betty Schaefer while Adam Pearce returns as Max Von Mayerling, Dougie Carter is again Artie Green and Carl Sanderson returns as Cecil B DeMille.
The company will also include Benjamin Chambers, Owen Chaponda, Joanna Goodwin, Kristoffer Hellström, James Meunier, Gemma Naylor, Joanna O’Hare, Jessica Paul, Sam Peggs and Barney Wilkinson.
Musical supervision is by Stephen Brooker. Set designer Colin Richmond, video designer Douglas O’Connell and choreographer Lee Proud rejoin the production team.
Sunset Boulevard will be available from Tuesday 22 December until Saturday 9 January 2021, with up to three different performance times daily. The streamed version will be available for audiences in the UK and all territories except North America.