Stars Party at Paramount to Celebrate ‘Sunset Blvd.’

The scene: The official opening night of “Sunset Boulevard,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s extravagant musical based on the same-named 1950 Billy Wilder film. Celebs, studio chiefs and theater types sauntered into the Shubert Theatre at 6:30 Thursday for the show, then barreled over to Paramount Studios afterward for a black-tie party that included dinner and dancing on a sound stage. Reviews were mixed, with some ecstatic about the performance and others doing their best to say something nice.

Who was there: Among the 900 guests were composer-producer Webber and his wife, Madeleine; the musical’s stars--Glenn Close, Alan Campbell, Judy Kuhn, George Hearn and Alan Oppenheimer--and director Trevor Nunn; plus Billy Wilder, Lana Turner (for the show only), Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi, Tom Selleck and Jillie Mack, David Geffen, Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Tony Bill, Sherry Lansing, Judi and Gordon Davidson, Wendy and Leonard Goldberg, Barbara and Marvin Davis and Houston social star Lynn Wyatt.

Dress mode: A tuxedo is a tuxedo is a tuxedo--unless you’re a celebrity, which means you’ll wear anything but the traditional tux. Selleck wore a shaw-collar heather gray jacket and Ben Vereen sported a black shirt, sans tie, with a black tux jacket. Close had on a dramatic black beaded gown that showed off her tiny figure and Nancy Reagan was seen in Reagan red. The cold brought out a few un-P.C. fur coats. And how can you spot the dancers from the show? They’re the ones in the shortest, tightest skirts.

The food: Corporate Entertainment Services catered a sit-down dinner that included pasta, chicken potpie and lemon mousse and fresh berries in chocolate cups. Some guests didn’t quite know what to make of the potpies (too reminiscent of TV dinners?) but downed them anyway.

Quoted: “This opening night is particularly important because it’s Los Angeles, and I very passionately wanted this piece to come here first in America,” said Lloyd Webber. “I hope it works because I think it’d be great for a lot of reasons. I think the town’s had a bit of a bashing, and it would be very nice if something worked here for a change.”

Also quoted: Madeleine Lloyd Webber, who organized the event, was asked if she had perfected the art of schmoozing yet. “Not really,” she replied. “I’m still very English.”

L.A. theater, R.I.P.?: Patrick Swayze, who lavished praise on the show, said he hoped it would do well, if for nothing else than to stir up interest in L.A. theater. “It’s really sad that this is supposed to be the artistic capital of the world, in terms of film anyway, and it’s amazing that the theater cannot have a life here. You can come up with a lot of different reasons why, but you have to have a major, major press machine to make anything happen here.”

Noncommittal congratulatory line of the evening: “You must feel really good about your performance.”

You know you’re in trouble when: Your waiter refers to your table as being in ‘Siberia.”