Yes, it is a revival of the 31-year-old musical based on the 74-year-old black and white film. And both are as vaguely remembered by young audiences as the main character, Norma Desmond, is by cruel Hollywood.
But age is just a number – right, Norma? “Sunset Boulevard,” which opened Sunday night at the St. James Theatre, is Broadway’s most exciting show in years.
The director has so much energy, freshness and relentless intensity flowing through his veins. Jamie Lloyd’s stunning production Watching Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical from beginning to end would tell you it was something completely new.
And any time adrenaline pumps into our bloodstream, the extraordinary Nicole Scherzinger, making her amazing Broadway debut, laments in one note.
She is as ethereal as the reclusive Norma. A revelation. And when the former Pussycat Doll sings Lloyd Webber’s evocative songs, “With One Look” and “As If We Never Said Goodbye”, as a dreamy mist swirls behind her, the audience is blown away.
The entire production leaves you breathless. We are stunned from the moment when the giant video screen – the chandelier of this staging – descends from the ceiling displaying the menacing eyes of actor Tom Francis as struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis heads towards his doom.
From then on, Joe and the ticket-buyers there in the dark are trapped in Norma’s delusional fantasy – that she is still the greatest star of all time; that she will make her long-awaited return; That his entire tragic life is one big movie.
It is very entertaining.
Anyone who has seen Billy Wilder’s classic 1950 film starring Gloria Swanson, or the show on Broadway with Glenn Close in the 1990s and 2017s, may worry that their eyeglass prescription is out of date. Lloyd’s production is unrecognizable.
Call it “no-set boulevard”. The director has thrown out the grand mansion with its endless stairs and left only a few chairs. There are no 1930s Hollywood lots and sound stages. Scherzinger wears a silky black dress (costume by Soutra Gilmour) rather than a turban and form-concealing shawl.
Some filler songs, such as “The Lady’s Paying”, have been cut. Good! And chronological dances – a la “The Robot” – have been added. Desperate to look half her age, Norma sometimes speaks as if she’s filming an Instagram reel.
Young Norma (Hannah Yune Chamberlain), an erotic dancer, tickles and tortures Norma with memories of her glory days. Choreographer Fabien Alois’s movements range from graceful to chaotic.
This is a lot. But somehow, it all works brilliantly.
This is because the sad story of fame’s road to ruin remains as true and relevant today. As Joe bitterly said: “The world is full of Joes and Norms.”
At first, frustrated Joe is just a writer who can’t get a job, but one day when he’s chased by thugs in the sunset he stumbles upon the mansion of Norma Desmond – a strange silent film star who was forgotten with the advent of Have talkies.
She hires Joe to polish her terrible screenplay “Salome”, which she plans to pitch as her comeback to Hollywood. With no other option, he moves into the cavernous house, where his lurch-like butler Max (David Thaxton) takes over, and together Norma and Joe head towards disaster.
Lloyd’s, by the way, is the first production of “Sunset Boulevard” in which I’ve seen scenes featuring Joe, Betty Schaefer (a strong Grace Hodgett Young), the third party in a complicated love triangle, Artie (Diego). Andres Rodriguez) and his L.A. writer friends are much more than a boring water break for the actress who plays Norma.
Cinematic close-ups on their expressive faces as they fall in and out of love, set to Lloyd Webber’s sweeping score, adds real meat to parts that could easily be slathered.
At the same time, lighting designer Jack Knowles uses shadows and intense flashes to heighten the drama with haunting images straight from a silent film.
Francis, with a smoldering, velvety voice in his Broadway debut, walks away with the musical’s biggest speaker at the top of Act 2.
A feat that involves video cameras, fresh air and a mountain of logistics, it’s thrilling, tremendous fun… and will make some people angry. After all, it wouldn’t be Broadway if someone weren’t complaining about the video.
But the show belongs to the titular Scherzinger, creating an especially proud and wild Norma. His self-confidence and burning desire to succeed make him much more than a dusty hermit.
Looking at her liquid arms as she sang “As If We Never Said Goodbye” made me think that the actress was channeling Michael Crawford’s haughty, lovelorn Phantom.
Of course, “The Phantom of the Opera” played across the street at the Majestic Theater for 35 years until it closed last spring.
Now, Lloyd Webber is back on 44th Street with a true new stage star, and it seems fitting. As Norma says, “Back where I was born!”
