Moonlight Stage Company's "Sunset Boulevard

        Say this for Sunset Boulevard. Unlike most of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s scores, which boast one memorable song, this 1993 musical based on the classic Billy Wilder film has two: “With One Look” and “As If We Never Said Goodbye.” Both are sung by Valerie Perri, who as faded movie queen Norma Desmond is the chief reason to experience Moonlight Stage Company’s outdoor production of this show, directed by Larry Raben. Though Robert J. Townsend and Norman Large are just fine as doomed script writer Joe Gillis and eerie servant Max, it is Perri, portraying Norma with unfettered passion and escalating delusion, that wins the day. As always, Moonlight’s staging is lavishly costumed and robustly orchestrated, and projections by David Engel enhance the illusion that you’re back in a noir L.A. that once was. (Review originally published in San Diego CityBeat on 8/23/17.)