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Keala Settle is heading home. The Tony Award nominee will star as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard at Wellington Town Hall in New Zealand next spring, according to West End Best Friend.
The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical will play a limited three-performance run, April 9 through 11, 2027, at the newly restored venue, known in full as Te Whare Whakarauika Wellington Town Hall. The engagement is part of the building’s reopening programme following its refurbishment, and the staging has been conceived around the hall’s renovated auditorium and its 120-year-old Edwardian pipe organ. It will be the first professional production of Sunset Boulevard in New Zealand.
Settle, who was born in Hawaii to a Māori mother, earned a Tony nomination for Waitress and went on to global recognition as Lettie Lutz in The Greatest Showman. Her last musical appearance in New Zealand came in 2019, when she toured with Hugh Jackman in The Man. The Music. The Show. This production will be her first time headlining a musical in the country.
The show is presented by WITCH Music Theatre, the independent Wellington company led by Creative Director Ben Tucker-Emerson, which marks its tenth anniversary with the production.
Settle will be joined by Nick Lerew (Les Misérables) as Joe Gillis, Chris Crowe (The Phantom of the Opera) as Max von Mayerling, and Bailea Twomey (Lizzie) as Betty Schaefer. Additional casting will be announced at a later date, with auditions for the remaining roles taking place this month.
