Sunset Boulevard Standout David Thaxton Cares for Norma Desmond Onstage. At Home, It’s Dinosaur Duty

Age: 41

Hometown: Neath, South Wales

Current Role: David Thaxton makes his Broadway debut in Jamie Lloyd’s Olivier Award-winning revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard as Max von Mayerling, Norma Desmond’s fiercely devoted companion. His performance during the show's London run earned him a 2024 Olivier Award nomination. 

Credits: Thaxton made his West End debut in Les Misérables, eventually playing both Enjolras and Javert, and went on to appear in Love Never Dies, The Phantom of the Opera and Passion, winning the 2011 Olivier Award for his performance as Giorgio at the Donmar Warehouse. Subsequent credits include Jesus Christ Superstar, She Loves Me and Come From Away.

88 Keys and a Girlfriend
Thaxton grew up between South Wales, Sweden and Norfolk, England, in a house where music was ever-present—his mother was a piano teacher, and he just assumed every kid had 88 keys at their disposal. He was 10 when he first hit the stage in Blitz!, Lionel Bart’s lesser-known follow-up to Oliver!, and quickly fell for musicals and British comedy in equal measure. “John Cleese kind of taught me how to speak,” he says. At 15, he got a girlfriend and discovered Radiohead—“still my favorite band.” But even with new obsessions, theater never let go. “I spent my 21st birthday in Anything Goes. I just couldn’t stay away from it.” Radiohead never let go either: Thaxton is the frontman of Divisions, an alternative rock five-piece he describes as “a band for difficult times.”

The Factory Years
After drifting between university programs and eventually dropping out, Thaxton spent months pretending to attend class while actually reading the paper and sipping coffee. When the truth finally came out, he moved home to Norfolk where he worked in frozen food and inhaler valve factories—“just me, sitting at the kitchen table, watching my life drift off.” His dad eventually suggested applying to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He got in on scholarship. “That saved me,” he says. “It changed everything.”

Eponine and Enjolras
Thaxton’s West End career began with a failed audition for Miss Saigon that led instead to Les Misérables, where, seven callbacks later, he joined the ensemble and eventually took over as Enjolras. That’s where he met Nancy Sullivan, who played Eponine. “We met on day one of rehearsals,” he says. “It took over a year before we got together—but it all worked out.” They’ve now been married over a decade and share a 20-month-old son, Calon—Welsh for “heart.” “Being away from them is the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he says. “We FaceTime every night, and I read him books. His current favorite is Never Touch a Dinosaur—which I now have completely memorized.”

The Unicorn in the Room
His breakout came in the Jamie Lloyd-directed revival of Passion, where he played Giorgio and met Stephen Sondheim. “First thing he ever said to me was, ‘I like your beard.’ Then he goes, ‘Lenny always wanted to grow a beard like mine, but it would never take.’ And I’m thinking—you’re talking about Leonard Bernstein.” At first, everyone was too intimidated to approach him—“it was like having a unicorn in the room”—until Thaxton broke the silence by asking if he liked London. “He said, ‘Sweeney Todd was my love letter to London.’ From that moment, we just clicked.” Years later, he finally wrote Sondheim a letter saying everything he hadn’t said out loud. “He wrote back,” Thaxton says. “And he died six months later. If I hadn’t done it, I would’ve regretted it for the rest of my life.”

No One He’d Rather Do It With
When Thaxton walked into his audition for Sunset Boulevard, he barely recognized Jamie Lloyd, formerly preppy but now sporting a shaved head covered in tattoos. “If I had seen him on the street, I would've said, ‘That's my tattoo artist, Ricky,’” he laughs. “He looked totally different.” Back during Passion, Thaxton had two tattoos and Lloyd had none—“now he’s got way more than me.” Thaxton’s own ink tells a personal story: a Welsh dragon, his son’s name, lyrics by Elbow, artwork from his band and a scene from his wife’s favorite play, all layered with meaning and inked with intention. The creative connection picked up instantly, with Lloyd pushing Thaxton to build the character through exploration: “Jamie would say, ‘Give me a draft.’ You’d try something, then another. It all grew from there.” Thaxton admits he’s also dropped a few hints about his ultimate dream role. “If I die never having played Sweeney Todd, I’ll be so annoyed,” he says. “There’s no one I’d rather do it with than Jamie.”

There’s Nowhere to Hide
When Sunset Boulevard opened in London in 2023, audiences didn’t know what to expect—least of all a stripped-down, high-tech reimagining of the classic. “The reaction was feral,” Thaxton says. “People were on their feet, making these noises. I’ve never seen anything like it.” In Jamie Lloyd’s staging, the grandeur is gone; “it’s just four actors navigating these impossibly high stakes. There’s nowhere to hide.” Thaxton’s portrayal of Max culminates in a moment of quiet devastation, as he envisions—for the first time—a world without Norma Desmond. “The despair feels deeper here,” he says of the Broadway transfer. “The ending hits harder. You believe the romance. You believe Max has a broken heart. And I think audiences leave feeling it too.”