A new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Sunset Boulevard, starring Sarah Brightman, kicks off its tour in Shanghai with 11 shows scheduled to take place at AIA Grand Theatre from April 19 to 26.

The best-selling soprano of all times, Brightman said in Shanghai on April 17 that "I've been lucky to have an incredible long and international career," which helps her to understand the heroine of the show, a star of the silent movie era, who gets entangled with a young playwright trying to get a foothold in Hollywood. "I understand all the things that Norma had been through...when movies went into the talkies, her career was taken away from her.

"There have been people who have had greatness, and then that's been taken away from them. In some personalities, it can become very dangerous even to themselves or to other people. And Norma Desmond is that particular type of personality. So it's been very interesting for me psychologically to work with it."

Brightman has enjoyed great popularity in China since her performance alongside Chinese singer Liu Huan of the theme song for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Through the past decades she has been to Shanghai many times. "I always feel that Shanghai is an incredibly exciting city to be in. And every time I come back, there's still the originality of it, but there are lots of changes, which are always exciting: new restaurants to go to, new places that have been built up. It's a wonderful, wonderful city," said the diva.

Tim Draxl, who plays the hero in the musical, said he understands the desperation Joe Gillis feels as a young playwright trying to survive in Hollywood. "I lived in LA for seven years, so I know what it's like to go into an audition room and do not get work for two or three years."

Such desperation "pushes people away", he said, adding he wanted to find something that is endearing to the audience in his portrayal of a character often disliked by audiences. He wants to bring into this production a different aspect, which is that "he genuinely cares about Norma" and "gets torn between the world of Norma and Betty, but he's only doing what he thinks is the right thing to do at that moment."

Sunset Boulevard started its China tour in Beijing last month, and after the performances in Shanghai, it will head on to Wuhan in Hubei province and Shenzhen in Guangdong province.