If it takes someone very famous to properly play a character who’s been very famous, then Sarah Brightman is one of the few actors who can convince as Norma Desmond, the faded silent film superstar of Sunset Boulevard.

In Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical version of Billy Wilder’s 1950 film, which plays at Sydney Opera House from August 28, Desmond is one of the most famous women of the 1920s, still convinced of her celebrity three decades later.