Sunset Boulevard Revisited

Dreams are not enough to win a war,
Out here they're always keeping score;
Beneath the tan, the battle rages.
Smile a rented smile, fill someone's glass,
Kiss someone's wife, kiss someone's ass,
We do whatever pays the wages.

Sunset Boulevard, headline boulevard,
Getting here is only the beginning –
Sunset Boulevard, jackpot boulevard,
Once you've won, you have to go on winning.


Sunset Boulevard has just run at the regional theatre in my parents' town, which inspired me to dig up the soundtrack again and give it a listen (or three). It's one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's more overlooked musicals, and to be fair it doesn't have the memorable and diverse tunes of his earlier stuff, but it makes exemplary use of leitmotif and my obsession with it a few years ago taught me most of what I know about story construction.

I appreciated it before, but there are some aspects of it that are so much more resonant when you've seen the L.A. entertainment industry from the inside ...

I wonder if I should dig up the storyboard I half-thumbnailed for the last scene between Joe and Betty ... hmm.