As Norma Desmond, Nicole Scherzinger is gargantuan and almost feral.
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Both these blokes rub me the wrong way.
I dared myself to come into Lloyds revival of Lloyd Webbers 1993 megamusicalSunset Blvd.with a wide-open mind.
And this production is indeed remarkable, at least on its charged-up, sweat-slicked surface.
When I saw the show, the house at the St. James was practically vibrating.
Productions of Lloyd Webbers aspirations to Puccini have long tended to put a hat on a hat.
Lloyd, true to form, runs the other way.
Theyve kept little but the fog.
Lloyd begins by theatricalizing the immovable object of Joes disillusionment before introducing it to Normas unstoppable force.
She dreams in grayscale.
(Boy does she dream, and sing about it.
But she does bring light, shadow, and torrents of atmosphere along with her.
Theres nothing floating or aloof, however, about Scherzingers performance.
She charges head first at the famous lines (I am big.
Its the pictures that got small), delivering them with a cavernous boom.
Shes not dignified shessobig that she seems to be ripping her own seams.
The pop singer in Scherzinger can also do a thrilling range of things with her voice.
When she belts, its thunderous, but theres also a mechanical buzz to the sound.
I wont spoil the details of it, but its not just a straightforward matter of firing Chekhovs gun.
When Joe and Betty sing together, were just waiting for the tidal wave of Norma to hit again.
Its a hell of an effect, and its not the only one.
Sunset Boulevardis at the St. James Theatre.
