Sunset Boulevard – MCC

Sometimes you need a star to carry a show. This was certainly the case at Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard which arrived in Malta for the first time at the Mediterranean Conference Centre. It was a landmark event, a full-scale, self-produced musical, and Maltese star Talitha Dimech delivered the goods. She was simply superb as Norma Desmond, the faded Hollywood superstar.

Talitha managed to perfectly capture the role's demands of simultaneously being both emotionally fragile and haughty/imposing. She has a surprisingly good voice, and negotiated the score's more demanding passages with assurance, delivering the show stoppers "With One Look" and "As If We Never Said Goodbye" with aplomb. She can also act, and this role certainly needs both skills. Her final descent down the staircase of her mansion was electric.

Cliff Zammit Stevens as Joe Gillis provided a strong counterweight, balancing youthful charm and hard-nosed cynicism. He also mastered an American accent, which not all players attempted, while Talitha had a perfect stagey voice. Neville Refalo brought appropriate dignity to the role of Max von Mayerling, Norma's butler and keeper of secrets. Eleanor Spiteri was a glamorous and touching Betty Schaefer, difficult in a role that is always in Norma's shadow, and the ever present Stephen Oliver this time carried off Cecil B. DeMille.

With its lush almost operatic score and dark foreboding atmosphere, the show lends itself to large-scale treatment, and that is exactly what was delivered by this grand production. Unlike the most recent London version that incorporated video cleverly, but somehow lost the authenticity of the original, this was a more faithful rendering. The set and lighting choices evoked both the faded glamour of old Hollywood estates and the colder, more modern studio world Joe inhabits.

The production was directed by Hermann Bonaci, who I am told returns to the theatre after a gap of many years. He put strong emphasis on the underlying psychological imperatives and the taut dynamics between the main characters.

Musical direction by Joe Brown ensured that Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony-winning score received the lush, dramatic treatment it demands. The presence of a live orchestra also made this a special production, and added weight to numbers such as "The Perfect Year" and the Act Two finale. Sue Vassallo's choreography was much required in the ensemble scenes. The costumes by Tamsyn Coetzee were simply fabulous — perfectly capturing the era and Norma's flamboyant character.

On the negative side, the first ten minutes were badly flawed by sound issues, at least for those of us in the front of the stalls. I hope something that will not be repeated at future performances.

Overall, Malta's premiere of Sunset Boulevard was both authentic and yet freshly local. I look forward to the next production of a musical classic.