Returning to the musical-theatre stage after 30 years, Sarah Brightman is the weak link in this lavish revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s adaptation of Billy Wilder’s 1950 film.

With book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, Sunset Boulevard premiered in London in 1993, and has since played around the world from Broadway to Australia (in 1996 starring a young Hugh Jackman). Though lacking its inspiration’s darkly satirical film-noir complexity, Lloyd Webber’s musical has won numerous Tony and Olivier awards.

Sarah Brightman as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Photo © Daniel Boud

Sunset Boulevard sees struggling Hollywood screenwriter Joe arriving by chance at the mansion of largely forgotten silent-era movie star Norma Desmond. She persuades Joe to stay and edit her script, which Norma believes will mark her on-screen comeback.

Stifled by her desperate love for him, and delusions of enduring fame fed by loyal butler Max, kept-man Joe sneaks out to work and fall in love with script editor Betty.

Starring as Norma in this new Opera Australia production directed by Englishman Paul Warwick Griffin, Brightman was The Phantom of the Opera’s original Christine. Stepping away from musical theatre in...