Gloria sings the blues
After her successful comeback in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson was approached to star in a to be created musical. Ms Swanson answered she would do no such thing, unless the musical in question was an adaptation of Sunset Boulevard. The writers – Dickson Hughes and Richard Stapley – took up the challenge and worked hard on getting a stage adaptation on paper. The studio, who owned the rights to Billy Wilder’s script, refused to cooporate. So all the writers were left with was a copy of the script Ms Swanson had kept after shooting the film.
The play was never staged and all that remains is a demo recording of the songs, starring Richard Leibell and Laurie Franks as Norma Desmond. But underground record label Stage Door comes with this glorious issue of the original demo recordings. As a bonus, it throws in a couple of songs by Ms Swanson herself.
It would have been ironic that one of the greatest stars of the silent era would end her career doing a musical. It’s even frigtingly uncanny that producing the musical resembles the plot of Sunset Boulevard. Just like Norma Desmond, Ms Swanson hires someone to write her a script.
