In Hollywood of the 50’s, the obscure screenplay writer Joe Gillis is not able to sell his work to the studios, is full of debts and is thinking of returning to his hometown to work in an office. While trying to escape from his creditors, he has a flat tyre and parks his car in a decadent mansion in Sunset Boulevard.

He meets the owner and former silent-movie star Norma Desmond, who lives alone with her butler and driver Max von Mayerling. Norma is demented and believes she will return to the cinema industry, and is protected and isolated from the world by Max, who was her director and husband in the past and still loves her. Norma proposes Joe to move to the mansion and help her in writing a screenplay for her comeback to the cinema, and the small-time writer becomes her lover and gigolo.

When Joe falls in love for the young aspirant writer Betty Schaefer, Norma becomes jealous and completely insane and her madness leads to a tragic end.

Review

Glamour, romance, tragedy: Sunset Boulevard has all the constituents of a great Hollywood movie and it started a two-week run at the Gaiety Theatre on Monday. Presented by Taylorian Productions and directed by John Cumberlidge, this staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stylishly dramatic musical deserves every plaudit in the book. The Isle of Man is extremely lucky in having the chance to see the first-ever amateur staging of Sunset Boulevard in the British Isles – one of the many reasons not to miss Taylorian’s stunning production – Isle of Man Today