LLOYD Webber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard may be strong on drama, score and visual effects, but I still can't understand how he drew inspiration from Billy Wilder's sour and sardonic portrait of Hollywood's Dream Machine.

The Really Useful Theatre Company's new production starring Faith Brown and Earl Carpenter has set up home at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton until Saturday, December 8, by which time I sincerely hope the sound crew have got their act together to eliminate the distortion that marred much of the first act.

Directed by Robert Carsen (the Beautiful Game) and choreographed by Peter Darling, who was responsible for the dance routines in the film Billy Elliott, this is the show's first ever UK tour.

Although the chorus (Ensemble) representing the Hollywood community provides several punchy numbers (Every Movie's a Circus and This Time Next Year), it's the show's two main characters, Norma Despond and Joe Gills, that are the pivot of the production and to this end both Faith Brown and Earl Carpenter pull out the stops.

Faith, who has had a successful career in theatre and television, as well as as an international recording artist, both solo and with her brothers The Carols, gives a remarkable (with an excess of Hollywood hysteria) performance as the ageing silent screen star whose twisted obsession with "a Hollywood comeback" leads to madness and murder.

Something of a Phantom of the Boulevard, the creepily seductive Norma keeps her toy boy hack, Joe Gillis, virtual prisoner while he reworks the script that she believes will get her back on track.

Joe, young and cynical and engulfed in the demented siren's delusions, juggles her obsessive and possession love with that of his love for Cecil B. DeMille's young production assistant Betty Schaeffer (Ceri Ann Gregory).

It all ends in tears, but the versatile Earl does a great job with this demanding role.

The show opens with a projected close up of Norma Despond, staring out wild-eyed and mute from the silver screen, before moving on to Paramount film studios where young Joe is pleading for work

Pursued by the money men, in a most bizarre on-stage car chase, he lands up at the mansion of Norma Despond. Strapped for cash he's now trapped until the show's dramatic end.

There's no denying Sunset Boulevard opens and closes on a melodramatic note, but much of what goes on in between rests heavily on several memorable, if not show-stopping, numbers - With One Look, The Perfect Year, New Ways to Dream and Surrender.

Action moves between 'a stark '40s film studio and Norma's glitzy mansion where a huge gilded staircase serves as theatrical entrance and exit for the statuesque Faith Brown, attired in stunning "fishtail'"creations.

From the orchestra pit the musicians under the direction of Douglas Whyte gave full vent to Lloyd Webber's score - even at times drowning out the lyrics.

Although Sunset Boulevard has won seven prestigious Tony awards, for my money it's not one of Lloyd Webber's greatest musicals, but no doubt most fans of musical theatre will be entranced by the musical and its outstanding stars.

Sue Cansfield