If you're lucky enough to get a ticket to see Nicole Scherzinger in the Broadway revival of Sunset Boulevard, you might want to wear comfortable shoes.
The Grammy nominee gives a chilling, career-defining performance in the musical that's so commanding, so seductive and so magnificent, she's receiving multiple mid-show standing ovations — including one that lasted 6 minutes on Sunday, Oct. 20, when the show officially opened at the St. James Theatre in New York City.
It's an incredible moment to witness, and one that fans of the former Pussycat Doll frontwoman feel is long-overdue. After years of cutting her teeth in the music industry and failing to connect as a solo artist in the states, Scherzinger is finally getting the flowers she deserves as she makes her Broadway debut.
She even lingers on the word "home" in the lyric "I've come home at last" from "As If We Never Said Goodbye," as if to remind everyone that the stage is where she belongs.
But Scherzinger will surely be getting way more than flowers for playing faded silent movie starNorma DesmondinSunset Boulevard, styled as Sunset Blvd. this time around. Already the recipient of the Olivier Award after the musical's run in London's West End, the X-Factor and Masked Singer judge should be making space on her shelf for a Tony Award, with many considering her the frontrunner for the prize.
Not only is Scherzinger's powerful voice in top form, but she's given layers to the character audiences have never seen before (and that's not counting the trendy dance moves choreographer Fabian Aloise has arranged). Scherzinger's Desmond is charismatic, funny, sensual, intelligent, dramatic, conniving and monstrous — all at the same time. She flirts her way into the hearts of everyone around her in a way that has you rooting for her, even when her behavior becomes ugly and outrageous.
Let's just say, she'd make a fantastic Real Housewife of Beverly Hills.
The show, adapted from Billy Wilder’s Oscar-winning 1950 film for the stage by book writers and lyricists Don Black and Christopher Hampton, follows Desmond as she hires young screenwriter Joe Gillis (Tom Francis) to help her stage a comeback to the silver screen after Hollywood deems her too old for the industry. Desmond, however, begins to feel threatened when she discovers Gillis' relationship with young writer Betty Schaefer (the bright Grace Hodgett Young). And in her desperation, not even Desmond's steadfast butler Max von Mayerling (theater veteran David Thaxton, better than ever) can stop what she does next.
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Those who have seen previous versions of Sunset Boulevard may think they've seen it before, but Lloyd's bold vision makes this story feel completely fresh. Though the story may be set in 1940s Hollywood, he sees it told through the eyes a 21st century, with a production that's so technically marvelous, it's impossible to look away.
Set on a bare stage designed by Soutra Gilmour surrounded by rows of lights, everything is completely in black and white (which makes the red blood oozing from Desmond's face all the show's finale more striking). A tilted black screen anchors the center back wall, where live footage captured by steadicams on stage is broadcast, showing audiences new angles to each performance.
Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom's are responsible for the inventive video design and cinematography.
It's a wildly effective technique, and one that allows new statements to be made about the show's topics, like when the camera fades between close-ups of Scherzinger and Hannah Yun Chamberlain (who plays Young Norma) as Desmond contemplates her faded youth. There's even an opening title sequence and closing credits, fitting for a story about the allure of the cinema.
The cameras also give the show a meta element. Act II opens with the lens following Francis, spectacular in his own right, as he meanders through the backstage halls of the theater where current-day references to the Pussycat Dolls and a cardboard cutout of Webber are littered about. He then sings the musical's title song while he walks down 44th Street, through Times Square's famed Shubert Alley, and back onto the stage.
Francis doesn't flinch once during the sequence, likely so used to it now given he did the same thing while playing the role in London. (He got a standing ovation, too, on Sunday night after the song wrapped — one of four total the show received). Still, that steadiness is characteristic of the guarded drive the actor gives Gillis, who narrates the action of the show after unzipping himself from a body bag center stage.
Sunset Blvd. also stars Olivia Lacie Andrews as ‘Nancy,’ Brandon Mel Borkowsky as ‘John,’ Shavey Brown as ‘DeMille/Stan/Finance Man,’ Cydney Clark as ‘Joanna/Guard,’ Raúl Contreras as ‘Finance Man/Frank,’ Tyler Davis as ‘Sheldrake,’ E.J. Hamilton as 'Lisa,’ Sydney Jones as ‘Dorothy,’ Emma Lloyd as ‘Mary/Heather,’ Pierre Marais as ‘Sammy,’ Shayna McPherson as ‘Camera Operator,’ Jimin Moon as ‘Morino/Hog Eye,’ Justice Moore as ‘Jean,’ Drew Redington as ‘Myron/Jones/Camera Operator’ and Diego Andres Rodriguez as ‘Artie.’
Mandy Gonzalez will play Desmond at certain performances, while Caroline Bowman is the standby for the role.
Swings for the production are Giuseppe Bausilio (dance captain), Kristina Garvida Doucette (assistant dance captain), Brandon LaVar, Maggie Likcani, Abby Matsusaka and Rixey Terry.
Ahead of the opening on Sunday, Lloyd Webber shared best wishes to Broadway team. "Hi everybody at Sunset. You are the most wonderful cast, the most fantastic orchestra — everybody involved with the production has been absolutely great," he said in a video on his instagram Stories. "I wish you every single bit of good luck for the opening."
Tickets forSunset Boulevardare now on sale.
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