The revamped Sunset Boulevard tour soldiers on, reaching San Francisco's Curran Theatre Oct. 13 for a run through Nov. 7. The production, which stars British star of song and stage, Petula Clark, as Norma Desmond, began its journey Dec. 1, 1998, at Pittsburgh's Benedum Performing Arts Center. The 47-city tour, presented by PACE Theatrical Group and Columbia Artists Management, will take the show through the year 2000.
Busy designer Derek McLane has rethought the settings for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, in order to bring down costs of moving the production from town to town -- a difficulty which hampered Sunset's first road company.
Kathleen Marshall, artistic director of NY's acclaimed "Encores!" series, is choreographer on the new production. Marshall joins her frequent collaborator, director Susan H. Schulman.
Starring opposite Clark is Lewis Cleale as Joe Gillis. Also in the cast are Sarah Uriarte Berry (Les Miz) as Betty Schaefer, Allen Fitzpatrick as Max, Michael Berry as Artie Green and George Merner as Cecil B. DeMille.
A list of remaining tour dates, as it now stands, follows: Albuquerque, NM: Nov. 16-21
Tulsa, OK: Nov. 23-28
Green Bay, WI: Jan. 4-9, 2000
Boston, MA: Jan. 11-16, 2000
South Bend, IN: Jan. 18-23
Nashville, TN: Feb. 8-13, 2000.
-- By Robert Simonson
