Exclusive: First look at Curve's Sunset Boulevard in Concert

Following the Government's announcement that Leicester has been put into Tier 3 measures, Leicester's Curve theatre has had to cancel its planned production of Sunset Boulevard in Concert.

However, in a first for Curve, the production will be performed by the company in the newly configured auditorium and filmed in HD for audiences to watch from the comfort of their own homes.

Tickets for the filmed version will start from £20 and between Tuesday 22 December and Saturday 9 January, 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.

Joining Ria Jones as Norma Desmond and Danny Mac as Joe Gillis are a host of original company members from Curve's award-winning 2017 touring production.

Molly Lynch will reprise her role as Betty Schaefer, Adam Pearce returns 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.

Curve's chief executive Chris Stafford and artistic director Nikolai Foster said: "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."

Set over a turbulent New Year's Eve in 1940s Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard is a tale of romance, glamour and obsession. Curve's artistic director Nikolai Foster directs Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, which features book and lyrics by Don
Black and Christopher Hampton and is based on the 1950 film by Billy Wilder.

The 16-piece orchestra, supported by music licensing company PPL, has musical supervision by Stephen Brooker. Set design is by Colin Richmond, video design by Douglas O'Connell and choreography by Lee Proud.