Curve Leicester to stream Sunset Boulevard with Ria Jones later this month
© Manuel Harlan
Exclusive: Curve Leicester will be streaming a captured performance of Sunset Boulevard across dates in December, it has been announced.
The venue's chief executive Chris Stafford and artistic director Nikolai Foster said "Due to Leicester entering Tier 3 and the uncertainty of when we will be able to reopen, we have made the difficult decision to cancel public performances of Sunset Boulevard. 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.
However, the show must go on and 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 own homes. The concert staging will see our stalls cleared of seats to accommodate our socially distanced 16-piece orchestra and we will celebrate every corner of Curve's astonishing in-the-round auditoria with Andrew Lloyd Webber's magnificent score.
"Although we are sorry not to be able to come together in person this Christmas, we are delighted we can share this specially-created concert with audiences across our city and beyond. Our sincere thanks to Really Useful Group, Paramount Pictures, UK Theatre, the Musicians Union, our sponsors PPL and the Culture Recovery Fund for helping make this possible."
The production will be available between Tuesday 22 December and Saturday 9 January (tickets will cost from £20) and there will be up to three different performance times daily. The streamed version will be available for audiences in the UK and all territories across the world, with the exception of North America. Tickets are on sale now via the Curve's website.
As announced previously, the piece will star Ria Jones as Norma Desmond and Danny Mac as Joe Gillis, Molly Lynch as Betty Schaefer, Adam Pearce as Max Von Mayerling, Dougie Carter as Artie Green and Carl Sanderson as Cecil B DeMille. The Sunset Boulevard company also includes Benjamin Chambers, Owen Chaponda, Joanna Goodwin, Kristoffer Hellström, James Meunier, Gemma Naylor, Joanna O'Hare, Jessica Paul, Sam Peggs and Barney Wilkinson.
A 16-piece orchestra, supported by music licensing company PPL, will perform, with musical supervision by Stephen Brooker and casting by David Grindrod. Set designer Colin Richmond, video designer Douglas O'Connell and choreographer Lee Proud will also rejoin the production team.
The musical is Andrew Lloyd Webber's adaptation of Billy Wilder's original 1950 film about a fading silent film actress. The piece has book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton.
The venue still intends to begin public performances in the new year – with two shows – Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual and The Color Purple, currently scheduled, as well as the Turbine Theatre's revival of Hair.
