

Sunset Boulevard
It is a truth generally acknowledged that 1993's ‘Sunset Boulevard’ is on the relatively select list that comprises Andrew Lloyd Webber Musicals That Are Actually Quite Good. There is, however, some debate over whether Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton’s claustrophobic adaptation of Billy Wilder’s 1950 film noir has ever really had the production it deserves, with the original Trevor Nunn-directed version largely agreed to have been propped up by its stellar leading ladies, notably Patti Lupone and Glenn Close. But maybe this will be the one! Perennially hip director Jamie Lloyd rarely misses, and did a bang-up job with ‘Evita’ at the Open Air Theatre a few years back. That his star for this West End revival will be erstwhile Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger is… intriguing, however. While she certainly has the lungpower and the fame to carry off the role of Norma Desmond, a former silent screen star losing her mind as she rots away in her Hollywood mansion, we’ve yet to see any obvious indication that she can act, something LuPone and Close did very well indeed. Interestingly, Scherzinger’s only other stage role to date is another faded Webber starlet: Grizabella the Glamour Cat in the 2014 West End return of ‘Cats’ – she was solid, but it wasn’t exactly a demanding part. The bottom line is that Lloyd isn’t an idiot, and if he thinks Scherzinger is up to the job, she probably is. Also of interest is how he tackles the show more generally: once a byword for flamboyant