NEW MEXICO NEWS

Sunset Boulevard comes to UNM's Popejoy Hall

by Terry Davis
New Mexico News


In November 16, Petula Clark will step onto the stage at Popejoy Hall to perform the role of Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, a role she has performed hundreds of times. With each performance, she convinces another American audience that she should be remembered for more than a few pop hits from the 1960s. Including Albuquerque, the tour takes Clark and the Sunset company to 47 cities in the United States.

With more gold discs to her credit than any other British artist, worldwide album sales well in excess of 30 million, a stage and film career that began during World War II and a newly-released album, Petula Clark is still, after 50 years in show business, one of the most sought after artists in the world today. Webber and director Trevor Nunn called on her to assume the role of Norma Desmond for the London production, filling a role previously played by Glenn Close, Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone and Diahann Carroll among others.

Based on the Billy Wilder film of the 1950s, the Webber musical tells a story of faded glory and unfulfilled ambition. Silent movie star, Norma Desmond longs for a return to the big screen, having been left behind by the advent of talking movies. Joe Gillis, a struggling Hollywood screen writer, encounters Norma and they become involved in a passionate and volatile relationship. In this country, Sunset Boulevard won seven Tony Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards for the Broadway production and nine Drama-Logue Awards for its Los Angeles production.

Petula Clark, known most commonly in this country for her Grammy-winning single from the 1960s, "Downtown," had established a film, stage and recording career in Europe long before recording music for American audiences. Relatively few in America know of her stage successes before and after her appearance on the Top 40 charts of the 1960s. All told, she hit the Top 40 charts 15 times between 1965 and 1968.

Petula began her career at a very young age, becoming Britain's most famous child star by the age of ten. She established her name through her many appearances on BBC and the hundreds of shows she did for the troops during World War II.

At the age of 12, she made her screen debut and continued to appear in films throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, serving under contract to the Rank Organization. Starring opposite such established stars as Peter Ustinov and Anthony Newley, she received her first screen kiss from Sir Alec Guiness in the movie The Card.

"The Rank Organization were anxious to prolong my little girl image for as long as possible," she recalled, "while I desperately wanted to grow up. At 17, I was still in ankle socks, but yearning with all my heart to become beautiful and mysterious like Ingrid Bergman!"

She quickly shed her little girl image by pursuing a singing career, traveling throughout Europe performing her big hit "With All My Heart." Her subsequent songs rose quickly and steadily to the top of the charts in Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France and Italy, making her the most popular female singer of the 1960s. She earned a Grand Prix National du Disque Francais for her successes in France.

At that point, she began recording in the United States. Her first single, "Downtown," went to number one on the Top 40 charts. She followed that quickly with "I Know a Place," "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" and "Don't Sleep in the Subway," among others. She also recorded the hit "This Is My Song," written for her by Charlie Chaplin.

She broke into films in this country in the 1960s when Francis Ford Coppola tapped her to star opposite Fred Astaire in Finian's Rainbow. She also co-starred with Peter O'Toole in Goodbye Mr. Chips.

After her brief burst of fame in this country, she returned to Europe to keep working on her recording and acting careers. In 1981, she starred in the smash London revival of The Sound of Music, playing the role of Maria. Among those in the audience for opening night was Maria von Trapp, who said, "If I never see The Sound of Music again, this is the way I want to remember it – and I want to remember Petula's performance as the greatest performance of Maria."

Throughout the 1980s, Petula toured the world, selling out shows in Canada, Australia and the United States. In 1989, she opened in an original stage musical, Someone Like You, for which she wrote the music and lyrics and co-wrote the book. The show, successful on tour throughout England, opened in London in early 1990.

In 1992, she returned to her singing career and toured her home country and the rest of Europe. While appearing in Paris, she was invited to New York to see the newly opened production of Blood Brothers. Three days later, she signed on to play Mrs. Johnston opposite David and Shaun Cassidy. She followed her critically acclaimed 12-month run on Broadway with a year-long national tour of the show.

Mid-year 1995, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and director Trevor Nunn approached her to play Norma Des-mond in Sunset Boulevard. She had some considerable reservations – among them her concern that she wasn't right for the part – but she was finally convinced to do it. She took over the role in the London company in September 1995 and played it through to the show's closing in April 1997, the longest run any actress has ever had in that role. From there, she took off on a tour of the United States with the show. After that first tour closed, she gladly signed on to star in the new touring production directed by Broadway veteran Susan Schulman, which is the tour that brings her to New Mexico.

She summed up her own career in 1994, accepting an Achievement in Arts Award in London, when she said, "I've really just been living my life. In which case all of us should have one of these. Most of my life has been spent traveling around all over the world singing, playing, acting – with musicians, fellow actors, singers, technicians, backstage people and lighting and sound, producers, directors, and designers from every color and creed from all over the world and it's been great fun."

Tickets for Sunset Boulevard are still available and range in price from $31.50-$56.50, depending on the performance and are available through ProTix outlets, including by phone at (800) 905-3315.

Petula and company will perform eight times during their six days in Albuquerque, November 16-21. With each performance, Clark will undoubtedly convince another large body of people that she's more than the girl who took us "Downtown" over 30 years ago. With her array of talents on full display, audiences undoubtedly will cheer her as a genuine star of the stage