Starring an electrifying Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Boulevard ends its limited run at London’s Savoy Theatre on January 6. However, Deadline can reveal in its 2024 West End look ahead that the singer will lead the Andrew Lloyd Webber show to Broadway in November, according to insiders connected with the production.
Scherzinger, who won the Evening Standard’s best musical performance prize for her show-stopping turn as Norma Desmond, has indicated to producers that she will commit to a six-month season in New York, we understand.
The Sunset Boulevard revival does not at all resemble the original London production directed by Trevor Nunn, choreographed by Bob Avian and starring a breathtaking Patti LuPone. Lloyd has stripped it down to its bare essentials. Gone are big sets and Norma Desmond’s extravagant gowns.
Scherzinger appears on stage in a silk slip and simply sizzles as Desmond. The director has certainly found new ways to dream, to borrow a line from Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic film and a lyric from the show’s book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton.
Lloyd Webber’s re-orchestrated score is allowed to soar. A long-rumored screen adaptation, set to star Glenn Close who won a Tony for her interpretation, has been put on hold and there has been a lot of chatter about the possibility of Scherzinger taking on the role should a feature get the green light. Much will depend on how Scherzinger fares on Broadway.
There were rumours Streisand might play Norma - see for example this Playbill article from 2007 but as far as I can recall the only actor who was ever attached to the movie was Glenn Close, who was still talking about the movie as recently as a couple of years ago.
Personally I'm sceptical that Scherzinger will be cast in a movie version, but maybe I'm underestimating her popularity.