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Petula Clark needed some convincing, too.
``I spent three hours in his office arguing with him, telling him it
really wasn't a good idea to do it -- that I wasn't right for the part,''
Clark said.
``He just kept saying, `Of course you are.' ''
She took the role with much trepidation.
``I don't actually remember saying `Yes, I'll do it,' '' Clark said.
``For the first month, I really didn't enjoy it. It was terrifying, it was
absolutely terrifying. It was all I could do to remember my lines and not
trip over the furniture.''
Then something started happening.
``I began to fall in love with Norma,'' Clark said. ``And when the show
was over (in London), I found myself missing her.''
So Clark didn't hesitate to sign on for a U.S. tour of Sunset
Boulevard. The show comes to Louisville's Kentucky Center for the Arts
on Tuesday, playing through Sunday, Jan. 3.
``I said, `I'll get to see Norma again,' '' Clark said.
Sunset Boulevard is based on the 1950 film starring Gloria
Swanson and William Holden. It is the story of a fading and delusional
Desmond and her improbable relationship with struggling screenwriter Joe
Gillis.
Joe happens upon Norma's house one day while fleeing repo men. When
Norma finds out Joe is a screenwriter, she persuades him to stay and help
her revise a script for Salome, which she believes will be her
comeback role.
When the script is finished, Joe prepares to leave, but Norma pleads
with him to stay because she has fallen in love with him. He reluctantly
agrees, setting a manipulative, twisted, tragic affair in motion.
The original stage show in New York and London featured rooms on
hydraulic lifts and other special effects. But that sort of elaborate
equipment doesn't travel well, so director Susan Schulman trimmed the
show.
But Clark is insistent that this Sunset is not ``a potted
version of what it was.''
``From the audience's point of view, I think it is better,'' she said.
``I thought the London production was magnificent, and that was the
flagship, but people will be more touched by this. You're able to get more
emotionally involved.''
Getting emotionally involved is what endeared Desmond to Clark.
``The tendency is to play her as this gargoyle,'' Clark said. ``But who
cares about her if she's a gargoyle. She's actually quite fragile.''
What's more, we shouldn't think of Petula Clark as just that
Downtown girl.
``I'm not bright and perky all the time,'' she said. ``Putting people
in pigeon holes is foolish anyway.''
That goes for pop singers -- and characters in musicals.
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