'Sunset Boulevard' rings up an $8 million advance; musical comes on strong but fails to upstage 'Phantom.' (The Phantom of the Opera)

The curtain goes up on composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard" Thursday night (Dec. 9) at the Schubert Theatre in Century City and $8 million is already in the till, according to the show's producer. But, while the advance sale was strong, it doesn't come close to the $14 million advance here posted by Webber's previous hit, "Phantom of the Opera."

Few expect Sunset to be the box office phenomenon Phantom was.

Phantom and Sunset's advance sales were not comparable given Phantom tickets were on sale twice as long. Sunset's London advance sale was $6 million.

Tickets are available here for the next 10 months but the run is "open ended." The longevity of Sunset's L.A. run as well as a possible New York staging could be determined by critics' reviews.

The show's notices will appear on Dec. 10 and glowing reviews in the Los Angeles Times could help the play, which doesn't have the pre-sell that other Webber shows have had on coming here from New York.

Sunset arrives at the Schubert directly from its London summer debut, which many in the theater business considered a coup for Los Angeles. Webber invested $12 million to mount the show here and the Schubert organization spent $5 million to reconfigure the 21-year-old theater in the ABC Entertainment Center to meet Webber's specifications.

The play has star power, with Glenn ("Fatal Attraction") Close in the lead. Previews began Nov. 23 and have been playing to mostly packed houses. Preview audiences have applauded Close's songs as well as when a ponderous mansion staircase set drops out of the rafters.

Opening night is completely sold out, as is the first Saturday night performance (Dec. 11). There were mezzanine seats available for Friday night and Saturday's matinee as of press time.

As $65 for an orchestra seat, Sunset is the highest priced ticket for any show to ever play here. It follows in Phantom's footsteps and Edgar Dobie, managing director for Webber's production company, The Really Useful Group Ltd., acknowledges Phantom will be a tough act to follow.

"With an advance of $8 million, we were above our ambitious target but beyond that I'm too superstitious to make predictions," he said. "Word of mouth is getting around, but until we see our notices it's too soon to make predictions. We have not set a New York date and will wait to see how we open here."

Phantom played at The Ahmanson Theatre for more than four years and broke all Los Angeles theatrical records, rolling up $154 million in ticket sales. When the show closed in August, it left a void in Los Angeles' live entertainment venues.

Ticket brokers were able to charge $250 a ticket for Phantom when Michael Crawford was in the lead. These brokers now say there currently is no "hot ticket" in town and Los Angeles is "starved for a happening."

There is no show, concert of sporting event for which demand is outstripping the ticket supply. The only thing that comes close is Barbra Streisand's Las Vegas Concert New Year's Eve, and brokers say they could get $3,000 if they had a seat in the first 10 rows for that $1,000-a-ticket event.

Ticket agencies are charging $106 to $187 for orchestra seats to "Sunset Boulevard" on the weekends. They have bought into the show cautiously.

"Right now |Sunset Boulevard' is not close to Phantom," said one major Westside broker. "Although the $8 million advance is a good number, the show's success depends on reviews. We bought very few weekday tickets and only bought into the big weekends. If the reviews are bad, we can download in a hurry. To me, Sunset looks like another |Les Miserables,' not another Phantom."

Marketing efforts to give Sunset a presence here have been usual. In addition to the standard newspaper ads, there has been a billboard campaign with 18 boards rotating around the Southland for the next six months.

One opening night, there will be a television special on station KCOP-13. The station plans to show the 1950 film classic "Sunset Boulevard" and cut live to the Schubert to capture arrivals at the theater. The show is based on that Billy Wilder-directed movie.

The Century Plaza Hotel and Tower across from the Schubert has used the show in its marketing efforts. It has sold 350 packages providing guests with two seats to the play in a special box overlooking the stage and a room at the hotel. Packages range between $275 and $300.

The hotel's marketing director, Jim Miller, said out of towners from Arizona and Oregon have been buying into the show. "This is the first production in a long while that is having some impact on the Westside and we are hoping for a long run," he said. "The show will bring about 2000 people here every night and that will also help, the restaurant business."