THEATER : THEATER NOTES : ‘Sunset’ on Hollywood Boulevard

In 1955, not long after Gloria Swanson’s famous performance in the movie “Sunset Boulevard,” she tried to turn “Sunset” into a Broadway musical called “Starring Norma Desmond.” It never got off the ground.

Now that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latter-day musical staging of “Sunset Boulevard” is a huge hit, eight of the songs from “Starring Norma Desmond” and the story of the attempt to stage it are about to emerge from the realm of backstage anecdotes onto an actual stage.

The vehicle is called “Swanson on Sunset,” a three-actor account of the true story behind “Starring Norma Desmond,” written by and starring one of the story’s principals, Dickson Hughes. It will be workshopped in four performances at the Cinegrill in Hollywood--Wednesday, Dec. 21 and 28, and Jan. 4--and in a possible out-of-town engagement early next year before opening in L.A., probably at the Tiffany Theater next spring.

Hughes and his then-partner Richard Stapley became involved in the Swanson saga when they wrote to her asking her to star in their revue “About Time.” Swanson invited them to the L.A. home where she was staying and listened to their tunes. But she told them the only project that might induce her back on stage would be a musicalization of “Sunset Boulevard.” She asked them if they would be interested in writing it.

They were, and they did. But according to Hughes, “Starring Norma Desmond” foundered when Swanson developed a romantic interest in Stapley, much like that of Norma and Joe in “Sunset Boulevard” itself, but with one major difference--Stapley was already involved in a personal relationship with Hughes. Soon both relationships were over, and Paramount failed to renew Swanson’s one-year option on the project. All that was left of the saga was a demo tape and a recording of Swanson’s 1957 appearance on Steve Allen’s TV show, singing one of the songs from the “Starring Norma Desmond” score.

Although this account will be told primarily from Hughes’ perspective in “Swanson on Sunset,” he created it with Stapley’s permission (though not with Swanson’s--she died in 1983). In addition to the script, Hughes will provide the piano accompaniment and will play himself--sometimes leaving the piano bench to do scenes with the actors playing Swanson and Stapley. Besides eight songs written for “Starring Norma Desmond,” Hughes and company will perform four other songs written for “Swanson on Sunset” itself.

“Starring Norma Desmond” would have relied less on the original screenplay than did the Lloyd Webber version, Hughes said. But he added that he hasn’t seen the Lloyd Webber extravaganza: “My curiosity was satisfied by listening to the tape.”

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A CONNECTICUT YANKEE: Luke Yankee, the director of the “Swanson on Sunset” workshops, is also the just-appointed producing artistic director of Long Beach Civic Light Opera--perhaps the most prestigious job in the Southern California musical theater scene.

The son of actress Eileen Heckart and retired insurance broker Jack Yankee, the new producer, 34, was raised in New Canaan, Conn., got his Equity card at age 15 and attended Juilliard School of Drama. After an acting career turned to directing in the ‘80s, he ran a summer stock theater in Pennsylvania for two seasons, producing and directing all of its shows. He also has directed at theaters in Florida, Massachusetts and New Mexico.

Before moving to Los Angeles one day prior to the Jan. 17 earthquake--in order to pursue film and TV work--his only previous L.A. gig was assisting director Ellis Rabb on the Broadway-intended production of “Light Up the Sky,” with Peter Falk, which played the Ahmanson in 1987. But probably the starriest director he ever assisted was Harold Prince, with whom he worked on the Broadway production of “Grind.”

Yankee said that Prince helped him get the Long Beach job--and, after he was hired, he immediately faxed Prince an open-ended invitation to workshop a show at Long Beach.

The only LBCLO production Yankee has seen was last year’s “Company,” which he labeled “terrific.” But he’s aware that Long Beach has had financial problems, and “I need to play it very safe for the first year or two.” He said his show budgets should average no more than $500,000.

Eventually, though, “I’d love to explore new or lesser-known pieces, tours, co-production with New York producers”--and activation of the mid-sized Center Theatre next door to the LBCLO’s base of operations, the giant-sized Terrace Theatre. None of these is a new goal; the Center Theatre, for example, was briefly activated during the tenure of Yankee’s predecessor, Barry Brown, only to fall back into disuse when budgets shrank during the recession.

In September, the Long Beach City Council approved an LBCLO funding package of $490,000 a year for the next two years--in the form of deferred rent ($130,000 a year) of the city-owned Terrace Theater, $25,000 in annual grants from the theater’s management company, and a $1 increase in Convention Center parking fees, most of which will go to LBCLO for the first two years. However, the city required LBCLO to match the first $490,000 by January. Last week, LBCLO officials estimated they were within $25,000 of that goal.

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ADVANCE NOTICE: The $8-million advance reported for “Miss Saigon” roughly two months before its Jan. 25 opening at the Ahmanson Theatre is heftier than the $5.5-million advance for “Sunset Boulevard” roughly two months before that musical opened last December. But the “Saigon” advance isn’t as big as the two-months-out advance of $11.7 million for the Ahmanson’s last show, “The Phantom of the Opera,” back in 1989. “Phantom” combined the talents of “Saigon” producer Cameron Mackintosh and “Sunset” producer-composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who have since worked separately.