A Candid Chat With Sunset Boulevard Stars Tom Francis, Grace Hodgett Young, and David Thaxton

No one knew what to expect from Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Sunset Boulevard, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black, and Christopher Hampton’s grand adaptation of the Billy Wilder classic. Removing the show from its usual trappings — the ornate mansion with a winding staircase — and replacing it with a stage-length video screen broadcasting live feeds from around the venue, this Sunset took the West End by storm from the minute it began performances at the Savoy Theatre.

The acclaim was in no small part due to its quartet of stars: pop star Nicole Scherzinger leading the company as faded film star Norma Desmond, West End vet Tom Francis as social climbing screenwriter Joe Gillis, Olivier winner David Thaxton as imposing butler Max Von Mayerling, and newcomer Grace Hodgett Young as go-getting script reader Betty Schaefer. Scherzinger and Francis won Oliviers for their performances; Hodgett Young earned a WhatsOnStage Award for hers and went on to play Eurydice in Hadestown in the West End, and Thaxton balanced it all with being the father of a newborn baby.

Now, they are gearing up for Broadway; Sunset Boulevard begins performances at the St. James on September 28, and Thaxton describes it as the pinnacle of his career. On a break from a recent rehearsal, he and Francis and Hodgett Young share the secrets of this success.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

It’s exactly a year ago that the show began previews at the Savoy. The set is a giant video screen, you’re all wearing black sportswear, Tom is singing the title song on the street. Were you terrified, like, “This could be a total disaster?”
Grace Hodgett Young: I’ve always said this show is Marmite, and I stand by that. People will either come with an open mind and they’ll love it, or they’ll be expecting the big staircase, the turbans.

David Thaxton: The Monkey.

Grace: Right.

David: The car! So, I’m a massive Sunset Boulevard fan. It’s one of my favorite shows. I saw it here in 1996 with Betty Buckley as Norma.

Tom Francis: That was, like, three years before I was born.

Grace: That was a long time before I was born.

David: I loved every second of it. What we’ve done with it is brave, inventive, and exciting. It’s not what you think of as Sunset Boulevard. If people want to die on that turban, that’s fine. There are other productions like that in the world right now.

Tom: The beautiful thing about theater is your imagination can run wild. You can either sit there and be like, “Where’s the staircase?” or you can imagine it, and because it’s not there, you get drawn into that world even more. There are no distractions.

David: When you make something new and you put it out there for consumption, if you’re happy with the work you’ve done, what people think of it is irrelevant. You can’t do anything about it. People consume it in whatever way they want.

Tom: I can’t really have an opinion on people’s opinions of the show because I’ve never actually seen it. I have no idea what the show looks like or how it feels for an audience member. Even when the covers are on, Jamie won’t let me watch it. The only POV that I’ve got is Joe Gillis’s track. Even the album, I’m not allowed to listen to it. I still haven’t seen the film.

David: The movie?

Tom: Yeah, I didn’t know much about Sunset Boulevard when I took the job. I was like “Should I watch the film?” And Jamie was like, “Under no circumstances can you watch the film.” I’ve not listened to any of those versions of Sunset that David loves. I’ve not watched any versions of Sunset that anyone loves.

David: It would totally change it. I’ve only seen the production shots because you can’t avoid those. I saw the shot of New Year’s Eve and Tom is on the screen at the back, and I said “Does he look like that?”

Grace: I’ve not seen anything of what I look like on the screen, and I don’t want to.

Did you feel like you had unfinished business when the London run ended?
Tom: We all thought it was unfinished.

Grace: For sure.

David: But we all knew this was happening.

Tom: I think the thing I’m most looking forward to… I finish the show and I’m like “That was a workout.” I go home and I feel like I achieved something.

David: Grace, you have another show under your belt at this point.

Grace: I know. When we did it the first time, I was very much like “This is my first job. I need to do everything right.” Now, in coming back to do something that is a lot more laid back than leading Hadestown, I come with a newfound confidence. I did feel like Betty was a workout for me. Having done Eurydice, I realize I’ve got a lot of chill time. Betty’s barely on. It’s a great track.

Tom, take me outside the theater as you sing the title song. Were people generally respectful?
Tom: People are generally respectful, yeah. There were a few protests — not for us — that we walked through. The pub was a little bit loud sometimes, but other than that, it was pretty good. Security back home were brilliant. You wouldn’t mess with them. I think I’ve got three or four security guards and two policemen here, and I’ve got slightly different in-ears this time which block out more sound, so I can dial in a little bit more, which I’m happy about.

David: My favorite, and I do mean this, thing I’ve witnessed as an actor on a stage is the first preview. Nobody had seen this version of the show before. The moment that Tom walked into the auditorium, there was this visceral, guttural reaction, where people stood and applauded and made noise. It was unreal. It was never quite the same again, because from that moment on, everyone knew what was going to happen. The second you walked in, people went “Jesus Christ, that’s real.” It was staggering.

Grace: No one believes it, even after they’ve seen the show. I think my most-asked question at the stage door is “Is ‘Sunset Boulevard’ filmed live?” Like, if it’s raining, he’s got an umbrella. You can see it’s live. People think that when you walked through the doors at the front of house, that’s when it became live.

Tom: Everything is live.

Talk to me about the Broadway of it all.
David: I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve done a lot of West End stuff. In a lot of ways, it’s very similar. A rehearsal room is a rehearsal room, a theater is a theater. But this is the pinnacle of my career. And that includes Olivier Award wins and things like that. It’s just the pinnacle.

Tom: I love the community here. I was here for two months in the summer. I went to loads of opening nights and met fun people. Everyone opens their arms and they’re like, “We’re really excited to have you here.” That is a lovely thing.

David: Everyone who makes theater cares about it just as much, and is just as passionate, talented, and brilliant. But in the U.K., we’re always fighting to get noticed and make people give a shit.

Grace: Constantly proving yourself.

David: Here, like you say, open arms. America is colossal. But people from all over the U.S. will take a week holiday to come to New York, and the centerpiece of that holiday will be seeing a Broadway show. We don’t have that in the U.K. You won’t get people who take their one week off in Harrogate saying, “Shall we go see The Lion King?”

Grace: One week off in Harrogate. [Laughs]

David: That doesn’t happen.

Grace: It’s wild here. I can walk past a guy that has a snake next to him, just chilling. I love it. I want to do more touristy things, but I feel like we need to be open to do that.

David: You’ll realize the myth about London being a 24-hour city. It’s very much not. This is a 24-hour city.