The high-tech production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical proved to be a star vehicle for the pop singer.
“Sunset Boulevard” won the Tony for best musical revival. The production has proved to be a star vehicle for Nicole Scherzinger. Credit: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
By Michael Paulson, June 8, 2025
A radically reimagined production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard,” with no turban and lots of technology, won the Tony Award for best musical revival on Sunday night.
The production, which began performances at Broadway’s St. James Theater last September and is scheduled to run only until July 20, is the brainchild of its director, Jamie Lloyd, a 45-year-old British auteur who prioritizes dialogue and psychological depth over furniture and props. Lloyd’s production first ran in London’s West End, where it won last year’s Olivier Award for best musical revival.
The show proved to be a star vehicle for its leading lady, Nicole Scherzinger, who in her 20s achieved fame as the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, and then spent years as a judge on television talent shows before landing this role, which has reintroduced her, at age 46, as a powerhouse performer.
In the musical, Scherzinger plays Norma Desmond, a onetime star of silent films who has vanished from the limelight but delusionally dreams of returning to the big screen. The show, set in Los Angeles in 1949 and 1950, is based on a 1950 Billy Wilder film; Lloyd Webber wrote the stage production’s music, while the book and lyrics are by Don Black and Christopher Hampton.
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