Petula Clark, the Norma Desmond of the upcoming U.S. tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard, is cutting an album for Varese Sarabande. Clark will go into the studio in September. The as-yet-untitled album will be released in October.

Varese Sarabande's Bruce Kimmel said the recording will be of an eclectic nature, emcompassing Broadway and movie songs as well as other selections.

Clark knows a bit about singing. Prior to her stage career, she scored a series of pop hits in the late '60s, among them "Downtown," "My Love," and "Don't Sleep in the Subways."

The Sunset Boulevard tour will begin at Pittsburgh's Benedum Performing Arts Center on Dec. 1. 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 been selected to rethink the settings for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Tony Meola has been hired to do sound, while Peter Kaczorowski will design the lighting. Kathleen Marshall, artistic director of NY's acclaimed "Encores!" series, has been signed as choreographer on the new production. Marshall will join her frequent collaborator, director Susan H. Schulman, on the project.

The 60-week tour is scheduled to launch Dec. 1 at the Benedum Performing Arts Center in Pittsburgh. A complete list of tour dates, as it now stands, follows:

Nov. 30-Dec. 6, 1998: Pittsburgh, PA
Dec. 7-13: Richmond, VA
Dec. 14-20: Columbus, OH
Dec. 21-27: Houston, TX
Dec. 28, 1998-Jan. 3, 1999: Louisville, KY
Jan. 4-10: Kansas City, KS
Jan. 11-17: Memphis, TN
Jan. 18-31: Philadelphia, PA
Feb. 1-7: Newark, NJ
Feb. 8-24: Cleveland, OH
Feb. 25-28: Schenectady, NY
Mar. 1-21: Detroit, MI
Mar. 22-28 : Providence, RI; Rochester, NY
Mar. 29-Apr. 4: Baltimore, MD
Apr. 5-11: East Lansing, MI
Apr. 12-18: Hershey, PA
Apr. 19-May 2: New Haven, CT
May 3-9: New Orleans, LA
May 10-16: Orlando, FL

Additional cities are to be added.

-- By Robert Simonson