One of musical theatre’s most arresting and celebrated shows, SUNSET BOULEVARD, will take centre stage at the newly restored Te Whare Whakarauika Wellington Town Hall in April 2027, with WITCH Music Theatre presenting Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece as part of the venue’s grand reopening programme for a strictly limited engagement. The musical has earned major acclaim across Broadway and the West End, including seven awards from 11 Tony Award nominations for its original 1994 Broadway production, and seven Olivier Awards from 11 nominations for the acclaimed 2023 Jamie Lloyd Company revival. That production went on to make a Broadway transfer in 2024, earning 11 Tony Award nominations and taking home seven awards, including Best Revival of a Musical in 2025.
Andrew Lloyd Webber has composed the scores of some of the world’s most famous musicals. His shows have run continuously in London’s West End for 50 years and ran for 43 uninterrupted years on Broadway. He is one of the select group of artists with EGOT status, having received numerous Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards.
The production, designed specifically with the Town Hall’s refurbished auditorium and 120 year-old Edwardian era concert pipe organ in mind, will run from Friday, 9 April to Sunday, 11 April 2027, marking the New Zealand professional premiere of Sunset Boulevard and starring internationally acclaimed, Tony Award-nominated performer Keala Settle, best known for her role as Lettie Lutz in The Greatest Showman and her powerhouse performance of the Golden Globe-winning song “This Is Me” from the film.
For Keala, the production marks a deeply personal return to Aotearoa, and her first headline musical engagement in New Zealand since appearing alongside Hugh Jackman in The Man. The Music. The Show. in 2019. Following a career spanning Broadway, Hollywood and the West End, she returns home to lead a landmark production in one of Wellington’s most significant cultural venues.
Based on Billy Wilder’s iconic 1950 film, Sunset Boulevard is a hypnotic and feverishly theatrical musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton. The original film was a major Academy Awards success, receiving 11 nominations and three wins. Set in 1949 Hollywood, the original story follows faded silver-screen star Norma Desmond and struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis, whose shared hunger for recognition draws them into a dangerous and intoxicating dance towards disaster. Haunted by dreams of a Hollywood comeback, Norma sees Joe as her chance to reclaim her place in the spotlight. What begins as a simple favour soon spirals into an increasingly consuming entanglement of ambition, desire and delusion.
WITCH Music Theatre Creative Director, Ben Tucker-Emerson, says bringing Sunset Boulevard to the Wellington Town Hall represents an extraordinary moment for both the company and the city. “Getting to work with Keala on this show in Aotearoa, the Town Hall’s historic reopening, and WITCH hitting its tenth year… It’s a pretty extraordinary convergence, and that’s exactly why it feels so… well, kismet.
Josh and I have spent a decade saying ‘why not?’ and taking some fairly decent swings as independent music theatre producers. Look, we’re not a Broadway machine. We proudly make music theatre our own way, on our own terms, with our own kaupapa woven into everything we do, and now we’re collaborating with Keala Settle on one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s most accomplished musicals, in what will be a world-class performance venue here in Pōneke. Is that terrifying? Of course it is. But I can’t wait to throw open the doors and invite Wellington into this rare and monumental moment for music theatre in Aotearoa.”
On the role of Norma Desmond, Keala Settle says, “There’s not a lot of roles like this for women, so to be able to have something this strong and powerful, and to have the chance to tell it in a different way is a great offering, and I’m so lucky to have been given the opportunity to do it. I jumped at the challenge.”
For Keala, returning to Aotearoa is an opportunity to reconnect with her whakapapa and deepen her connection to her whānau and whenua. “To be able to return to Aotearoa, and specifically Pōneke, closer to where my whānau are from, and to not only make peace with who I am, but to have the opportunity to make that connection with the audience and with whoever else is going through that journey – that’s big. To be able to claim that and to experience it in real time with the people there, that’s why I chose to do it.”
Joining Keala Settle in the cast are three leading actors from the Aotearoa musical scene, Nick Lerew, Chris Crowe and Bailea Twomey. The musical’s narrator-protagonist, Joe Gillis, will be played by Nick Lerew, an actor originally from the United States and now based in Aotearoa, whose credits include Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and Wicked. Joining him as Norma’s fiercely loyal servant, Max Von Mayerling, is New Zealand’s original Phantom of the Opera, Chris Crowe, and no stranger to the Lloyd Webber canon. Bailea Twomey also makes a homecoming to Aotearoa following her sensational turn in WITCH’s 2024 production of Lizzie, swapping the axe for a typewriter as ambitious young screenwriter Betty Schaefer. Further casting announcements will follow, with auditions for additional roles opening this month.
WITCH Music Theatre’s journey began at BATS Theatre in 2017, and this production marks the company’s 10th anniversary year, a decade of creating music theatre experiences for Wellington and New Zealand audiences. A production of Sunset Boulevardat the newly reopened Wellington Town Hall represents a significant milestone in that journey, reflecting WITCH’s evolution as an independent theatre company born at BATS, to one of Wellington’s leading producers of musical theatre.
SUNSET BOULEVARD will be presented at Wellington Town Hall from Friday, 9 April to Sunday, 11 April 2027.
SUNSET BOULEVARD
Te Whare Whakarauika Wellington Town Hall
Friday 9 – Sunday 11 April 2027
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton
Based on the Billy Wilder Film