Luke Yankee was the director of a musical cabaret based on the making of it called SWANSON ON SUNSET that was performed at the Roosevelt Hotel's Cinegrill on Hollywood Blvd. and he was interviewed for this a few years ago by documentarian Jeffrey Schwarz, the director of Tab Hunter Confidential and I Am Divine, and says, "It's a juicy story about a love triangle with Gloria Swanson and two gay men. I can't wait to see it."
I have a story about this. I saw this production of Swanson on Sunset at the Cinegrill! It was in 1994. In 1993, I had first seen Webber's version of Sunset Blvd. in London with Patti Lupone in October. When I returned to Los Angeles the musical premiered at the Shubert Theatre in November where I saw it again, twice that year, and a couple more times in 1994 when it prematurely closed later on because of the Faye Dunaway flap, before it moved to Broadway.
In December of 1994 the SWANSON ON SUNSET cabaret production at the Hollywood Roosevelt Cinegrill opened and because I really love the musical, I, of course, attended this. I loved this, too. I also really liked the music, a different kind of take on what Webber did with it, but it was written way before that, in the 1950's! It even opened with video footage of Gloria Swanson doing a number from this show on Jack Paar's program!
The composer of the music, Dickson Hughes, played the piano for this and also stepped into the role of himself at various times in this presentation. Not too long after I saw this, Dickson Hughes became a frequent visitor to Video West where I looked. I first noticed when I waited on the guy and saw his name on the computer. So I had to tell him I saw it and how much I enjoyed the music. So much so that I asked him if there were any recordings of it that I could find, as I'd really love to have that. He seemed flattered that I liked it that much and he said he'd try and see what he could do. He said something about any recordings of it are in the library collection at the University of Texas, or something.
Well...that never happened.
To make this story shorter, I'll jump to 2019 when I discovered that 11 years earlier, in 2008, a British company called Stage Door Records, released a double CD collection called "Gloria Swanson in Boulevard."
I couldn't believe 11 years went by and I, or especially a friend of mine who knows 99% of everything to do with Broadway, musicals, and show recordings, had never come across this before! I, of course, looked up Stage Door Records and on their website they have a page for this so I was at first really excited.
http://www.stagedoorrecords.com/stage9005.htmlIf you look at the page listing there it's a 2 CD release with a total of 43 songs and music, with several bonus tracks. I was like, "Yowsa!" And also extensive informative liner notes by co-author Richard Stapley. H-o-w-e-v-e-r, there was no button to place an order for it.
I wrote to them and told them my story and they replied, saying: "Unfortunately, the 'Boulevard!' CD is long since out of print. It was released in 2008 and was a limited pressing of just 500 units so very quickly sold out. I'm really sorry we can't help out with the CD." They did say that a 33 1/3 album of some of the songs had been put out at one time and they occasionally turn up for sale. But I want it all.
I keep hoping one might appear on eBay or British eBay, but I don't check often. (Please check, Sara, heh! DO you know of any used music stores there? Like Amoeba here in L.A.?) Maddening! There must be one of those 500 CD sets someone doesn't want. Or would let me borrow! (Yes, to copy!)
If you go to the link above there are a few selections from this CD set that you can listen to.
...sigh... Maybe someday!
Stage Door Records happened to have released two double disc collections of Christmas music the last two years. In 2019, A Vintage Broadway Christmas, which I had bought prior to finding out about the Boulevard cd, and last year, 2020, they released A Hollywood Christmas. Each release has over 50 songs on it! Lots of unreleased material, or hadn't been in decades. I loved both of them.
I am definitely going to see this new documentary!!!
