'Sunset Blvd.' Theater Review: Nicole Scherzinger Excites in Bold Reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical

While Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage adaptation of the 1950 Billy Wilder film Sunset Boulevard Premiered in London in 1993 and on Broadway the following year, it was the last gasp of the '80s megamusical aesthetic—at least until it showed up. lion king And wicked The formulas come along in a pinch. Blockbuster success like that the cat, D sad, Phantom of the Opera And Miss Saigon Their musical craft was driven by their large-scale philosophy. Probably more.

The audience is packed the cat for his then-revolutionary immersive junkyard staging and the climactic ascent to paradise of Grizzabella, the faded cat on an exotic tire. In Les MisIt was the giant turntable and the big reveal of the Paris Rebellion barricades. the phantom Bringing a huge chandelier and crashing on stage Miss Saigon At the end of the Vietnam War, he flew in a helicopter to evacuate the last Americans.

with sunsetIt was a gasp-inducing staircase. Dominating the decaying grandeur of Norma Desmond's mansion, the ornate structure was designed for the grand entrance of that former star of the silent screen, as well as her final descent into madness. Stars including Patti LuPone, Glenn Close and Betty Buckley descend that staircase, clad in bejeweled finery that evokes Salome, the doomed princess Norma dreams of playing in an illusionary comeback car.

That rich history made the musical an out-of-left-field choice for British director Jamie Lloyd, known for bare-bones minimalist, bracingly modern productions that ditch sets and props to mine the text's dramatic core with piercing clarity. Among them are the most celebrated – on both sides of the Atlantic – treachery With Tom Hiddleston, A doll's house With Jessica Chastain and Cyrano de Bergerac With James McAvoy.

so how Sunset Blvd.As the show's title suggests, hold on without the golden splendor that allows Norma to remain trapped inside her fantasy of eternal stardom? Fantastically, it turns out. Despite a few full-numbers of altered performances, Lloyd is a chamber musical for four characters in what was once a behemoth, designed in atmospheric black and white, like a Wilder film, until the murders turn the stage red with blood.

I'll admit I've always wondered Sunset Boulevard It gives its leading ladies a chance to be a second-rate musical, with several great songs and glorious scene-stealing opportunities. It's the first time I've really considered it a terrible tragedy with something to say to a contemporary audience. Reflections on the cruelty of old age and obsolescence, the addictive fascination of fame, the currency of youth and beauty, and the tragic refuge of insanity have never carried such a sting.

Lloyd Webber's lush score is well served by a similarly strong cast of singers, and Don Black and Christopher Hampton's book captures the film's eerie darkness. But this production is the director and his star.

Headlining the news for the revival of Lloyd, which comes to Broadway after sweeping the Olivier Awards in London, is Nicole Scherzinger's sensational turn as Norma. Many thought the performer, made famous by early 2000s girl group Pussycat Dolls, was too young, or if she had the stage presence and acting chops for the role. But those concerns almost disappear from the moment he's lifted into the spotlight by the chorus during Lloyd's funky live-capture opening credits, just as the title appears in the boldest of red fonts.

Gloria Swanson was 50 when the film was made and Scherzinger was 46, which tracks precisely for a show set in 1949 about a woman who started in silent films at age 16. Played in his characterization, there is poignant subtext in the casting of Scherzinger, who has aged out of mainstream pop — though in his case, musical theater may be his true calling.

Scherzinger's roof-raising vocal power, especially on the musical's signature songs, “One Look” and “As If We've Never Been Gone,” is amazing, literally closing the show with her soaring high notes and dramatic key changes. She is the rare Norma who also has humble dance moves. His command is never in doubt, and Lloyd grants unfettered access to his every emotion, often giving Norma what she craves most — a camera and a closeup.

Rigged in a frame that occasionally does double duty as a steering wheel, those cameras are operated by chorus members and principals alike. As Scherzinger mesmerizes as he prowls like a panther, barefoot and wearing a simple black satin slip, the moments we see his performance double — live on stage, looking directly into the camera and splashed in black and white on the giant, tilting back screen — are a There is burning intimacy.

Her Norma has the melodramatic grandeur of the silent era – eyes blazing, fingers splayed and arms held so tightly that we see every sign. But there's also a rich vein of satirical humor and camp. As the pathos creeps in, the direction shifts, slowly building to a steady crescendo. When she's driven to murder, the star's long locks of black hair make her look like a femme fatale from J-horror.

That homicidal, anti-TCM victim who never saw the brilliant Wilder film was unemployed screenwriter Joe Gillis. This is no spoiler, the movie opens with William Holden floating face down, Norma dead in a swimming pool, while Lloyd Tom Francis' Joe unzips himself from a body bag to open the show. He promises to tell us the “real story,” not the tabloid version.

The excellent Francis – who, like the four principals, is recasting his role from London – finds an ideal balance between Joe's cynical opportunism and his charm. In a way, she is hardly worse than the emotionally manipulative Norma, who is always ready with a suicidal attempt to make sure she keeps the man she keeps.

At a professional dead end, Joe is unable to get a project off the ground and is too disillusioned to accept the offer of smart young script editor Betty Schaefer (Grace Hodgett Young, mesmerizing) to collaborate on an adaptation of one of his short stories. He's on the run from the loan shark when his car pulls into the garden of Norma's mansion, where he and his devoted butler Max (David Thaxton, what a voice!) are about to bury his pet chimp, mistaking him for an undertaker.

A mention of Joe's profession and Norma catches the idea of ​​helping him script his epic salome. Despite knowing the project would never see the light of day, Joe agreed to the smell of easy money. Before he knew what was happening, Max had moved his belongings into a room above the garage. Norma's interest in Joe quickly grows into love; He takes her to the main house and decks her out in sharp new threads before sweeping her across the floor in a tango at a New Year's Eve party where she learns she's the only guest.

By cutting two disposable songs, “The Lady's Paying” and “Eternal Youth Is Worth a Little Suffering,” Lloyd sharpens the focus on the rest of Norma's senselessness. Cecil B. A royal return to the Paramount lot to meet DeMille (Shave Brown, seen only as a silhouetted closeup on screen) and despite her evasive response to Max's script a week earlier, she comes away convinced she'll be back in front of the camera soon.

Jack Knowles' lighting – often seen peeking through clouds of smoke – is somber mood throughout, notably his use of period-style pin spots that cast dramatic shadows. But the most striking sequence is when Norma steps onto the soundstage where DeMille is shooting and is instantly transported. When an unseen crew member atop a camera crane recognizes her from the old days, she's bathed in a golden spotlight made all the more dazzling by the show's predominantly monochrome design.

Scherzinger's joyous performance of “Like We Never Said Goodbye” adds to the magical moment, building to a shattering climax with the line “I'm finally home.” You might roll your eyes at the vocal showboating of holding the note for an impossibly long time on “Home,” but it's undeniably effective, generating massive applause between songs.

Norma's imagined victory leads her to a higher place from which to fall, her revelation hastened by the discovery that Joe has been hiding out to see Betty and work on their script. Betty is romantically involved with Joe's best friend Artie (Diego Andres Rodriguez), but when her affections shift to Joe, she is even more motivated to free herself from Norma's possession.

Placing Scherzinger in the stock-still center stage of it all — including Max's explanation of his selfless loyalty to Joe and years of tricking him into believing the mistress of the house — makes Norma witness her own humiliation.

Lloyd's staging of the ensemble numbers is less convincing than the more intimate songs, and Fabian Alois' choreography can be a bit hyperactive, like a mashup. A chorus line And West Side Story. As the final scene's panic meets fever-dream panic, it becomes confusingly frenetic, with the principals making diagonal dashes across the stage like track competitors.

The choreography works even better in haunting moments featuring young Norma (Hannah Yoon Chamberlain), who — to borrow from an expressive device fruit — haunting the stage like a ghost, occasionally breaking into Salome's “Dance of the Seven Veils.”

A sequence expanded on a concept already much talked about at the end of Lloyd's A doll's house By taking the action outside the theater, Evo Van Hove's video-saturated also recalls network. As the intermission ends, the orchestra begins, Francis peeks into his co-stars' dressing rooms, on camera, around the maze of backstage corridors and staircases.

There are silly but funny sight gags — Thaxton mesmerized by a Pussycat Dolls promotional shot tacked to her mirror; a life-size Andrew Lloyd Webber cutout; Someone in a chimp suit; A pair of chorus boys are making; Scherzinger scrawled “Crazy About Boy” on her mirror in lipstick. This eye-catching meta touches on echoes of departures from another time, such as anachronistic dance moves, the ensemble's contemporary streetwear or the laptop on which Joe and Betty's script takes shape, next to which sits a coffee mug from the Jamie Lloyd Company.

Theater and film merge to brilliant effect at the beginning of Act II, when Joe opens a door and steps out onto 44th Street. He launched into the title song, an impassioned screed about the Hollywood dream factory, as he marched around the corner to Sardi's and around Shubert Alley and doubled over before hitting the stage on the final note.

That virtuoso camera choreography on a prime stretch of Broadway real estate suggests that showbiz glory can be equally giddy in any medium. As Norma watches all of this on screen, we can almost see the cracks forming in her illusory world.

Venue: St. James Theatre, New York
Cast: Nicole Scherzinger, Tom Francis, Grace Hodgett Young, David Thaxton, Diego Andres Rodriguez, Hannah Yun Chamberlain, Chevy Brown
Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Book and Lyrics: Don Black, Christopher Hampton
Director: Jamie Lloyd
Set and Costume Designer: Soutra Gilmore
Lighting Designer: Jack Knowles
Sound Designer: Adam Fisher
Video Designer-Cinematographer: Nathan Amzi, ​​Joe Ransom
Orchestrations: David Cullen, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Music Direction: Alan Williams
Choreographer: Fabian Alois
Presented by Michael Harrison, Gavin Cullin Productions for The Jamie Lloyd Company, ATG Productions, Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals