You've seen it on the big movie-palace screens, on small television screens, on big Broadway stages, and now you can see Billy Wilder's classic tragedy noir up close and intimate in the 218-seat Ruth Page. Ah, but in 2019, when the employability of Glenda Jackson, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren et al., are inarguable, can Porchlight Music Theater sell playgoers on the premise of an actress being all washed up and over the hill at the ripe old age of—FIFTY??? This noir-era Mrs. Havisham must be portrayed as delusional, but Michael Weber's direction of Sunset Boulevard steers well clear of cheap camp to emphasize the vulnerability of the lonely princess awaiting the return—a word she prefers over "comeback"—of her adoring subjects. It also hints at the underlying compassion leading the artist-turned-gigolo whom she mistakes for her prince to continue in their folie à deux. Let's not forget, either, the interpretive opportunities offered by an audience whose memory of the characters' real-life prototypes—among them, silent-film legends Erich Von Stroheim, Cecil B. DeMille, and Gloria Swanson—are decidedly dimmer nowadays. For an abundance of audience memories, however, you need only look to Chicago's beloved diva Hollis Resnick, whose career may have spanned realms far and wide, but who never abandoned her fans at home, and whose vocal chops and verbal acumen in her—ahem! maturity show no sign of abating. Regional musical veterans Larry Adams and David Girolmo likewise lend baritonal gravity to the roles of the two gallant protectors. Next to such anchors, youngsters Billy Rude, Michelle Lauto and an agile ensemble of storefront-circuit regulars cannot help but come off as somewhat lightweight (exacerbated by the cumbersome sound mix on opening night), but do ample justice to Andrew Lloyd Webber's classical/jazz score.
