‘Sunset Boulevard’ review: Nicole Scherzinger stuns in scorching, brilliant Broadway revival

nypost.com:

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; that her whole sad life is one big movie.A damn entertaining one, at that.Anyone who’s watched Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic starring Gloria Swanson, or saw the show on Broadway in the 1990s and 2017 with Glenn Close, might worry that their glasses prescription is out of date.

Lloyd’s production is unrecognizable.Call it “No-Set Boulevard.” The director has tossed out the grand mansion with its endless staircase and left just a couple of chairs.