(upbeat music)
I'm Tamsen Fadal and this is "The Broadway Show".
♪ The cardboard trees ♪
♪ The painted seas ♪
♪ The sound here ♪
♪ Yes, a world to rediscover ♪
Mr. DeMille, she's ready for her closeup.
After winning a Tony Award for playing Cher,
Stephanie J Block is taking on another diva,
faded screen star Norma Desmond.
It's the concert presentation of Sunset Boulevard
at the Kennedy Center.
Let's send it out to Paul Wontorek.
♪ The atmosphere ♪
♪ As thrilling here as always ♪
♪ Feel the early morning madness ♪
♪ Feel the magic in the making ♪
You are a humble, talented actress
who has taken on these diva roles.
We actually just got to see you in "Into The Woods"
where you got to be every woman.
Now we're back in Cher mode.
Yeah, a little bit, right?
Yeah, just jumped back in. Yup.
Back into star mode.
It takes a posture, it takes a confidence,
but the beauty of this confidence
is it's just fueled by so much insecurity and so much doubt.
When you hit a certain age, as I have hit,
that sort of underbelly of Norma
I think is very real for me as well.
I just wanted to really make sure she was always human,
even though it will hit all of the marks
of theatricality and over-the-top.
She has a mental health issue, but something caused that.
There's something real that happened
and in talking to Sammi, I said, "I would like to hope"
"that if there was the right medication or trauma therapy"
"in the 1930s or 40s or 50s,"
"this story coulda ended differently."
It really coulda had a different story
but they didn't have any language
for mental health back then.
So she's defined as crazy and maniacal and imbalanced,
and I'm hoping to find moments of joy and deep insecurity,
but a humanity that the audience at the end will go,
"Oh, crap, I wish this could've ended differently."
♪ I'm trembling now ♪
♪ You can't know how I've missed you ♪
♪ Missed the fairy tale adventures ♪
♪ In this ever-spinning playground ♪
♪ We were young together ♪
It's so interesting to me.
I've been thinking a lot recently
about how Broadway has traditionally cast
a lot of leading-lady iconic roles older.
You're actually young for this role
in the history of the show.
♪ I can't wait to correct you ♪ Oh, really?
I'm older than Glenn when she first did it.
I'm older than Betty when she first did it.
No way!
Yep, they were all in their late 40s.
And the script itself says, "Norma, a 50-year-old woman."
Look at you.
Your dream cast. 5-0, baby!
So that has been something
that I know has been chitter-chattery.
So they were too young?
They were younger than I was.
(Paul laughs)
But you know, with the costumes, the music itself,
I think her sensibility and physicality,
it can lend itself to looking a little older
or feeling perhaps a little older.
But 50, in 1950 when the play takes place,
it did look different.
I can think of my Grandma Marie and my Grandma Marguerite
with their little cigarette cases
and the gray hair and the brooch.
I'll look at picture and be like,
"Oh my gosh, how old is Grandma Marguerite here?"
And my dad's like, "I dunno, 42?"
"43?"
And my jaw drops.
So it's just a different understanding, I think, of age
that I will say that there's a line in the play that says,
"Nothing has changed."
And I do feel a little bit like that
with the age of it all or the weight gain of it all
or the desperate attempts to keeping ourselves young
instead of gracefully embracing,
"Here we go, we're on the road to aging."
I think that's kind of a timeless story
and it will resonate today
just as it did when this first played in the 90s
or just as it did for Norma in the 30s and the 40s.
We're kind of led to believe that Norma Desmond
has been ensconced in this mansion.
Yeah, right. With Max for decades
as her career when the talkies came in just sorta went away.
Yeah, she became a bit of a recluse.
And you talk about mental health.
Can you imagine?
You're a performer who loves to perform.
I'm sure even when you have a couple years
between projects. Or COVID.
When we were all in our homes
and all we desperately wanted to do was get out
and socialize and be and belong.
This woman hasn't belonged anywhere in a very long time.
There's a scene in the movie that I'd like to hold onto
where a lot of old silent film stars come
and play cards like once a week, so she still has
a bit of a touch of whatever's going on outside.
But yeah, to maintain that this is her protected world,
she is still a star within these walls,
and if she leaves it, something could shatter.
Something could break.
The illusion could no longer exist.
So COVID actually gave you a little bit of an in.
A lot. Interesting.
When Jeffrey Finn asked,
"What project would you like to do?"
for the score, for my age,
but also that sense of isolation and fear,
and of course, the lyrics of the song "Never Said Goodbye",
it's all about re-engaging and reentering,
and that was one of the things
those lyrics ran through my head
that I thought this might be a good time to sing this out.
♪ So much to say ♪
♪ Not just today but always ♪
These songs.
I'm a big Andrew Lloyd Webber fan.
Me too.
It's just like his quiet masterpiece
where it's not the first one people mention.
"With One Look."
The lyrics of "With One Look" literally sums up everything.
"With one look I can break your heart."
Everything, in a two-and-a-half-minute song.
That's right. It's just stunning.
And the way this score is supported
by his orchestral brilliance
so every emotion is supported and uplifted,
which I feel is very satisfying as a singer.
It's gonna be very satisfying for an audience.
I can't wait to hear the orchestra.
It is my hairiest part right now.
It's where I'm getting stuck
because you kinda have to jump in 150%
with this very short rehearsal process,
but in doing so, I'm losing the music and going,
"Oh crap, I was supposed to start this motion here"
"in order for everything else to continue"
because it's like an operetta.
It's underscore pretty much through the entire two and 40,
so you've gotta hit those musical marks
or else things start to fall apart,
and that's the hardest thing for me thus far.
I'm hoping when I hear the orchestra,
there'll be a glissando or some sort of instrument
where I go, "Oh, there it is!"
"That's where I'm supposed to do that."
But right now, I'm getting lost
and screwing up a lot of people along the way. (laughs)
Is it fun to get the opportunity
to put your stamp on some of these songs
that we've heard so many fantastic performers do?
It's so thrilling.
It really is thrilling.
And I have, of course, immersed myself
in Glenn and Betty and Patti,
and even though there is a common thread,
their voices, all of them are so singular
that it really is a different storytelling
depending on the placement, the tone,
the emotional weight that is being held when they're singing
that it allowed me a sort of sense of freedom to say,
"It's okay."
"You can blend and do what you need to do, Steph,"
"to make this happen and make it right for you."
I do think Sammi is creating something really special
in the way of the misogyny of it all
and the point of view of the story being told
by a young white 20-something cis male
that we're gonna flip it on its head just a little bit.
♪ This world's waited long enough ♪
♪ I've come home at last ♪
♪ And this time will be bigger ♪
I'm curious because we see Norma in the show
manipulating, literally plotting a comeback,
so you really see an actress who is-
She's hustlin'. She's hustling!
And I'm wondering about you.
How is your relationship with the industry?
Has it shifted at all since the Tonys?
You just said Jeffrey came to you and said,
"What show would you like to do?"
Right, and that is a very, very special and unique thing.
I find that, again, my path wasn't how I ever dreamed it
when I was a preteen or in my 20s,
but because I've been around a couple decades now,
relationships are key to everything.
And if you can talk to someone on a human level
and then you can start mentioning business, ideas,
hopes perhaps in 2025,
doesn't that sound like the effing future?
It's a little scary, but in 2025,
maybe this project can happen.
I'm all about that now.
I think it's important, even if you're dismissed,
even if it's a "No, thank you",
to voice what you would like to create
and with whom you'd like to create it,
and that was Sammi and this is why I chose her.
In choosing directors,
first of all, I wanted a female director.
I think that point of view and that sensibility
was just going to have to help this storytelling.
And then when I heard Sammi's age, I was like, "Oh no!"
She's not gonna know what this plight is
or what this story is.
But I chatted with her
and she was so remarkable, grounded, smart,
and at a certain point, I was like,
"I thought you were perhaps gonna be too young."
And she goes,
"And that's ageism, which is the same story as Norma."
"It's just turned."
And at that moment, I was like, "And you're hired!"
because she was thinking
and looking at things in a different way
that even I wasn't looking and thinking like.
And I think that was important to bring into the room,
this different energy, this different sensibility,
and it has brought a different and beautiful
and new angle of telling the story.
Finally, there's been a lotta talk of making a movie
of this movie musical. I do, I've heard.
And I know Glenn Close has been working on doing this.
I, years ago, had my own dream cast lists for this film
and ironically Liza Minelli and Cher were both on that list.
You're kidding.
'Cause I would kill to see either one of those.
Can anyone speak to this with more truth and authenticity
than the two women you just named?
And you have famously- Oh boy!
Portrayed both of these women.
I'm praying!
Hold on, I'm praying to the gods right now. (laughs)
I'm summoning my goddess of Cher and Liza.
Oh, my gosh.
Who's making this film?
Do we know?
Warner Brothers, Sony, 20th Century?
I forgot.
(Paul laughs)
Does this look natural? (chuckles)
It's your screen test.
You're on!
That's so wild!
I think Cher could do this brilliantly.
Can you maybe deliver one line from each of them?
(Stephanie chuckles) Oh, come on.
(in Cher's voice) Oh, my God, I hate that word!
It's not a comeback.
It's a return!
(in Liza's voice) I would be terrific!
It's a comeback, not a return!
(in normal voice) I'm way outta practice for Liza.
(Stephanie laughs)
(bright music)