Letters to Dunaway Stir ‘Sunset’ Controversy : Theater: A missive from Andrew Lloyd Webber details the actress’s firing, while the show’s director says he argued against closing the L.A. show.

The offstage saga of “Sunset Boulevard” continues.

Separate letters to actress Faye Dunaway from the show’s director and its producer are generating controversy, speculation and possible lawsuit fodder regarding Dunaway’s abrupt firing and the show’s closing in Los Angeles on June 26.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, the show’s composer and producer, and “Sunset” director Trevor Nunn have each written Dunaway detailing what led up to the two events. And given that Dunaway has threatened legal action on her firing, the letters are of more than passing interest.

Settlement talks are now under way between lawyers for Dunaway and Lloyd Webber, says Dunaway’s lawyer, Pierce O’ Donnell.

O’Donnell, the man who got a $900,000 judgment in 1992 for Art Buchwald and his producing partner in their breach-of-contract suit against Paramount Pictures, calls Nunn’s missive to Dunaway “a multimillion-dollar letter.”

While he refused to discuss its contents, O’Donnell confirmed he has in hand a three-page, single-spaced letter from Nunn to Dunaway. The letter was sent about a week after Dunaway learned she’d been fired.

According to sources, Nunn’s letter details what led to the decision to close the show in Los Angeles and expresses his disagreement with that decision. It also reportedly apologizes for how Dunaway was handled.

Nunn, who also directed Lloyd Webber’s “Cats,” “Aspects of Love” and “Starlight Express,” wrote London’s Evening Standard a few days after writing Dunaway. That letter followed an article in the British newspaper in which Lloyd Webber said, among other things, that “the decision to close in L.A. was forced on us by the director, Trevor Nunn, and the musical director, David Caddick--both of whom felt that Faye was not ready.”

Nunn’s letter to the Evening Standard refutes that. “I protested forcibly for several days that the decision to close the show should be reversed,” Nunn wrote. “I was not present at the meeting at which Andrew describes himself as arguing for a postponement. If I had been, then he and I would certainly have been on the same side.”

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Dunaway, who had no stage experience as a singer, was hired in May by Lloyd Webber. On June 23, just a few weeks before Dunaway was expected to open in the show, Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Company released a statement saying “it was concluded after several weeks of rehearsals and vocal preparation that the musical demands of the role were such that it was not possible for (Dunaway) to perform as scheduled.”

Dunaway learned of this through her then-manager, Bob Palmer, who said the Oscar-winning actress was “flabbergasted.” One day after the announcement, Dunaway hosted a press conference at which she called the composer’s decision “yet another capricious act by a capricious man.”

The Evening Standard also printed a long letter sent from Lloyd Webber to Dunaway a few weeks later. In that letter, which O’Donnell confirms is the same letter Dunaway received, Lloyd Webber told the actress that his decision to fire her “was certainly not ‘capricious.’ It was a very carefully considered decision, taken after much debate and with great concern for your career and reputation.”

Tony-winning actress Patti LuPone also found herself out of a promised job as “Sunset’s” Norma Desmond. LuPone, who originated that role in London in July, 1993, was originally contracted to reprise it on Broadway this fall. After repeated denials, Lloyd Webber announced in February that Glenn Close would play the role on Broadway, and in mid-May, Really Useful and LuPone’s attorney said they had reached a settlement of reportedly more than $1 million.

“Sunset Boulevard” is still playing in London. The $13-million Broadway production, starring Close and to be directed by Nunn, is scheduled to open Nov. 17. According to the Really Useful Company, the Broadway production already has passed $20 million in advance ticket sales, considerably more than the $4 million in advance ticket sales the Los Angeles production had when it closed at Century City’s Shubert Theatre.

Meanwhile, producer Garth Drabinsky has announced plans to produce “Sunset Boulevard” in November, 1995, at Toronto’s North York Performing Arts Centre. Really Useful has said the Toronto production will use such elements from the Los Angeles production as its $3.5-million to $4-million set.

Lloyd Webber’s attorney, New York-based John Eastman, did not return Times’ calls. But lawyer O’Donnell said he has sent Eastman’s office a 38-page complaint and a copy of Nunn’s letter.

“Both sides have a preference to solve it out of court, if we can, but Faye Dunaway’s resolve to get justice is unwavering,” O’Donnell said. “We are ready to file (our complaint) in a heartbeat if settlement talks break down.

“This is a very determined person. She can and will sing if necessary.”