Written Assinment #2-Theme
THEA 1013-X01 Summer
6/01/2011

Sunset Boulevard, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, performed Sunday February 13, 2011
At the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA.

Theme: The is the desire to be a famous celebrity or to prove that you don't have to go that far to show love, care, and devotion, which is clearly evident in the attention the maniacal Norma gets. I think this is the theme due to my interpretations from watching the play. The play is based around Norma Desmond and Joe Gillis. Norma is a onetime super star of the silent screen era. Norma is living in the past in her dilapidated mansion on the Los Angeles street. When washed Joe a washed up, down on his luck screenwriter accidentally crosses her path, she sees in him an opportunity to make her comeback to the big screen. When Joe accidently meets her he comments, "You used to be in pictures — you used to be big," to which she retorts, "I am big ... it's the pictures that got small!" Norma courts Joe hoping to for a return to pictures, she eventually finds out that this is not to be due to Joes true love and she is being used. It all really goes wrong when Joe leaves his true love Betty because he enjoys the lavish life style Norma allows him. Joe eventually comes to his senses and attempts to leave Norma to go home. He tells Norma that her movie will never be filmed and that her fans have all but abandoned her. Angry and grief-stricken partially because Norma had already figured out the love triangle was incomplete. Norma shoots and kills Joe. Soon the police show up, diluted
Norma then mistakes the police to be studio personnel and her beloved fans. Thinking she is on the set of Salome, Norma slowly descends her grand staircase and speaks the immortal phrase, "And now, Mr. DeMille, I am ready for my close-up."