Banzai in full bloom

Superficiality is unavoidable but undesirable; at least for anyone taking the long-term view and hoping to survive on their talent, as opposed to their ability to brown-nose. Operate in a system like the Hollywood studios of the Forties and Fifties for long enough, though, and what’s left of a character’s integrity might wander off.

When that happens, everything becomes an act, and when a character fails to realise how little of themselves they’ve retained, they exist on the brink of tragedy with every step.

Add to this premise the fact the the music is by Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose name generally polarises theatre fans, and the need to take a production that started life as a mega-budget musical and transform it into the stripped-down “banzai” format that’s more user-friendly in smaller theatres, and it’s clear that the show is more about being challenged than being cheered.

Several elements, however, ensure that you will leave this production of Sunset Boulevard with a grin on your face. First on that list is an under-appreciated aspect of the theatre experience: lighting. Denis Hutchinson, who also designed the sparse but very clever set, has given the piece the dark, brittle mood it requires, while also somehow capturing the Hollywood gloss of the characters’ experience.

One trick involves Angela Kilian’s faded silent screen star Norma Desmond performing a song for Jonathan Roxsmouth’s screenwriter Joe Gillis while an old projector whirrs in the background. The light from the projector casts a shadow of Desmond on the side wall of the theatre (many audience members will not even notice), where the shadow further exaggerates Desmond’s over-the-top gesticulations, thus further underlining the pathos of her situation.

In another scene, as Kilian (above ) sings the show-stopper New Ways To Dream, her butler, Max (James Borthwick), the single benign presence in the play (although he has his own agendas) keeps an eye on her from the top of a staircase. His body and all around him are enveloped in darkness, but there is just enough light on his face to confirm the strange link between him and his mistress, and to suggest an intriguing, unexplained sadness in the character.

Kilian and Borthwick are arguably better than they’ve ever been. Norma Desmond is melodrama personified, and it could be argued that it’s easier to over-act than it is to exercise restraint, but Kilian gets the tone of the character just right: teetering on the edge of sanity and paranoid, yet somehow still seductive. And Borthwick makes Max an incredibly sympathetic presence, who is nevertheless able to show a bit of steel when the situation calls for it.

Jonathan Roxmouth (above) effortlessly holds the whole thing together, his Joe Gillis sufficiently well-coiffed and square-jawed to be the ideal noir narrator, but also able to veer from narcissicism to empathy and back again – and sing and dance.

With this production beginning as Jersey Boys ends its run, South African musical fans are as blessed as any on Broadway or in the West End.

Sunset Boulevard will be at Pieter Torien’s Montecasino Theatre, until October 20