Yes, it’s a revival of a 31-year-old musical that’s based on a 74-year-old black-and-white movie. And both are as fuzzily 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 exhilarating show in years. So much energy, freshness and unrelenting intensity courses through the veins of director Jamie Lloyd’s startling production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical from beginning to end, you’d swear it was brand new. And adrenaline pumps through our bloodstream anytime the extraordinary Nicole Scherzinger, making her wondrous Broadway debut, wails a note.
She’s otherworldly as that reclusive has-been Norma. A revelation. And when the former Pussycat Doll belts Lloyd Webber’s stirring ballads, “With One Look” and “As If We Never Said Goodbye,” as haze dreamily swirls behind her, the audience all but levitates.
The entire production leaves you breathless. We’re transfixed from the moment the giant video screen — this staging’s chandelier — descends from the rafters bearing the image of actor Tom Francis’ dangerous eyes as struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis drives toward his doom. From then on, Joe and the ticket-buyers out there in the dark are sucked into Norma’s delusional fantasy — that she still is the greatest star of all; that she’ll make her long-awaited return; tha.
