The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, which is the law of nature. In Beijing in April, every day at dusk, a large number of rushing audiences rushed to the east to chase the "sunset" because of the market rules. The "light" that makes the audience happy is the musical "Sunset Avenue" performed at the Beijing Art Center.

　　The actor and role fit perfectly

　　The musical "Sunset Avenue" is adapted from a black-and-white film directed by Billy Wilder in 1950. It tells the story of the female star Norma Desmond, who was abandoned by audio films, and met the unknown young screenwriter Joe Gillis. The two then developed a series of emotional entanglements, resulting in an irreversible tragic ending. The script, actor, soundtrack and photography of the movie have won many international film professional awards, and are a classic work in black and white films.

　　In 1993, the film was adapted into a musical, and the composition was Weber, who created classic musicals such as "The Cat" and "The Phantom of the Opera". According to records, the original musical "Sunset Avenue" was created by Weber for the youthful Sarah Brightman, but for various reasons, Sarah Brightman missed the show. In the next 30 years, she basically never appeared in musicals. In 2024, Sarah Brightman announced his return to the musical stage, and the play he chose was "Sunset Avenue".

　　I believe many people walked into the theater for the name of Sarah Brightman. In the hearts of the audience, she is the ethereal Bel canto angel, the first generation Christine (the heroine of the musical "Phantom of the Opera"), and the soul singer who sang the theme song of the Beijing Olympics "You and Me" at the Bird's Nest in 2008.

　　But this time, on the musical stage, her performance made many audiences feel sad. Aging, gaining weight, beauty in the old age... Some viewers post these keywords on social media after watching the show. Indeed, Sarah Brightman is 65 years old, and her appearance and voice are declining, but this state is perfectly in line with the state of the heroine Norma Desmond, an outdated female star.

　　Norma was once the goddess in the minds of the audience, the money tree of the film company, and the object of the media's pursuit. Every one of her works has received warm welcome and great attention. But when audio movies were born, silent movies were quickly eliminated, and Norma became the beauty in the audience's memories, the abandoned son of the film crew and the media. She seemed to care nothing, but in fact she was always being torn up by her unwillingness to the heart, and she was eager to return to the light, return to the set, and enjoy the camera and the audience's attention.

　　The musical downplays the bipolar madness of the movie version of Norma. Sarah Brightman's performance is infatuated, weak and charming. The beautiful music and singing greatly enhance the lyricism of the whole play, making the story less suspenseful and sinister, and more romance and fragility.

　　Norma, who was always dressed in black on the stage, implying that she had been forgotten by the light and was overwhelmed by the darkness. Sarah Brightman 30 years ago could offer perfect high notes and beautiful appearance, but now she doesn't need to act. There is no flower to be popular and no one is young anymore. Every wrinkle in her is a proof that everyone has been paying attention to. The inconsistent breath and occasional out-of-control pitch are footnotes of the years.

　　There is "sunset" and there is "sunrise"

　　Sarah Brightman is brave, and she can certainly predict the audience's dissatisfaction or even criticism, but she is not afraid. She walked on the "Sunset Avenue" with the audience, facing people's fear of aging and their harshness of actresses together.

　　The entertainment industry seems to have an unwritten rule. A male actor can be more "valued" when he is old. Even if the audience keeps complaining about Leonardo DiCaprio losing his figure management and his "beauty in the prosperous era" will no longer be his attention, he will continue to pay attention to his acting skills and works. However, there are other standards for actresses. On stage and on the screen, when an actress approaches middle age, she has to accept the situation of playing supporting roles or even having no play to play.

　　There is never a shortage of 18-year-old girls in the world, and there is no only 18-year-old girls in the world. Youth and beauty should not be the standard for measuring the level of actors. In the early morning, noon and dusk, the sun is beautiful all the time. How to break the age anxiety and appearance anxiety, make acting skills the most important criterion for evaluating actors, and keep the actors' value from being obscured by the "sunset" is a question worthy of the audience and practitioners' thinking.

　　Interestingly, also last year, the film "Stage Spring and Autumn", which marked Chaplin's compromise with audio films, was adapted into a musical by Japanese creators and brought to the stage. "Stage Spring and Autumn" is also a film work born in the 1950s, and also describes the dilemma of actors after silent films were eliminated by history. At a similar time, different countries and different creative groups have adapted old movies of similar themes. It is not difficult to see the anxiety that entertainers have shown about the current creative environment.

　　At a time when short videos are developing rapidly and micro-short dramas are unstoppable, movies and stage plays are indeed facing great challenges. The audience is accustomed to fragmented and highly concentrated information transmission methods, and gradually loses patience with the narrative told. Especially with the increasing maturity of AI technology, TV stations can already replace live hosting with AI anchors. AI will not be tired, sick, make mistakes, or collapse. Will live actors completely lose the opportunity to appear on stage in the future?

　　Silent films will be replaced by audio movies, black and white movies will be replaced by color movies, and then there will be 3D and IMAX... Technology is always developing, and a new sun rises every day. Instead of immersing in the glory of the past, being submerged and eliminated, it is better to learn to accept or adapt. After the silent film era, Chaplin kept up with the times in time and began to shoot audio movies. Although he no longer had the glory of the silent film era, at least he worked hard. In the torrent of the times, individuals may not necessarily change the direction of the wheels, but humans are best at adapting and evolving. There will always be a group of people like Kuafu, chasing the sun, never ending.

　　Illusion caused by desire

　　This version of "Sunset Avenue" has been re-arranged and has a high degree of completion, and the singing and dancing have maintained a good level. The stage design continues the beauty of the original version, striving to express the luxury and decline of Hollywood's golden age, but the real scene of the luxury manor on the stage is really inconvenient to change, and the performance area can only be distinguished by lights, which makes the time and space explanations of individual scenes a little chaotic.

　　The tragedy of the male protagonist Qiao in the play is quite realistic. An unknown little screenwriter accidentally met the big star of the past and won the favor of the other party. If Norma's dilemma is aging, outdated, and unwilling to accept it, then Jo's dilemma is greed, vanity, and ordinary. He longs for success and wants to take shortcuts, but he is unwilling to accept the aging and neurotic Norma. He is greedy for the gentleness and understanding of young women, but how can he only enjoy the wealth and convenience brought by Norma and not accept her control and constraints?

　　It is often said that the entertainment industry is a world of fame and fortune, and it is difficult not to get lost in it. Performing arts is also a very cruel profession. Practitioners must find a delicate balance between themselves and their roles by consuming their appearance, figure, specialties, skills, culture, and experience. Some people are confused by the dazzling light in front of the stage and mistakenly think that they are equal to traffic and data, which is the entire value. But the traffic is like a gust of wind, unpredictable; like a shackle, it is difficult to escape, and being consumed to the extreme will become a symbol. In the performing arts and fame market, which allocates resources according to appearance and respect according to status, every sunrise is a reshuffle. "Sunset Avenue" is a fable and a mirror that reflects you, me and him who are full of desire and are devoured by desire.

　　"I haven't become smaller, it's because the picture has become bigger." Hollywood's Sunset Avenue is the place where silent films die, and it is also a despair that cannot stop the arrival of the night. The story was written from the beginning and the ending was: Norma wrote a script "Salome" by herself and hoped to be the heroine again, so as to return to the public eye. In the end, she did it in another way - she wrote the script with her life and "kissed the saint's cold head" in the eyes of the crowd. On the Sunset Avenue, the palm trees under the golden sun shine with shadows, which is like the appearance passage on the set. Norma dances the last dance in his life and burys the last glory of the silent film era with his own hands. Offstage, the audience sitting in the dark witnessed the sunken but still dazzling Sarah Brightman and all the actors completed the elegy dedicated to the golden age of the film. (Photo provided by Wang Su of Beijing Youth Daily/National Grand Theater)

[Editor in charge: Tang Wei]