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Glenn Close heading back to ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ this time in London

Glenn Close arrives at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 2, 2014 in West Hollywood, California.

Glenn Close arrives at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 2, 2014 in West Hollywood, California.

(Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez / AFP / Getty Images)
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Glenn Close began her journey down “Sunset Boulevard” in 1993, with a production in Los Angeles that eventually catapulted her and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical to Broadway, where they would both win Tony Awards.

More than two decades later, Close will once again incarnate Norma Desmond in a semi-staged, revival production of the musical that will open in London in 2016. The production, co-produced by the English National Opera, is scheduled to open April 1 at the London Coliseum and run for just five weeks.

The company said the opera’s full orchestra will appear onstage alongside the cast in this production. No additional casting has been announced.

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Close recently returned to the stage after a long absence in last season’s Broadway revival of Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance.” Her return to “Sunset Boulevard” will mark her West End debut, though she has performed on stage in London before, including a National Theatre production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 2002.

Based on the 1950 Billy Wilder movie, “Sunset Boulevard” features a score by Lloyd Webber and a book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton.

The L.A. production took place at the Shubert Theatre in Century City. (The theater was demolished in 2002.) “Sunset Boulevard” was previously seen in London in 1993 with Patti LuPone, who was infamously dropped from the Broadway transfer of the musical in favor of Close.

ENO is producing “Sunset Boulevard” with the GradeLinnit Company. Last year, the two companies produced a semi-staged revival of “Sweeney Todd,” starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson.

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