Nicole Scherzinger to star in West End Sunset Boulevard at the Savoy — Page 12

“I think it's ego and rebelliousness. "Look how provoking I am and not follow traditions.”

Its every artist’s dream to have a vanity project produced. He didn’t just put this all together on his own. Others believed in the idea and concept and here we are. Producers were involved to fund this little ego fueled rebellious showcase.

We keep glossing over how much cheaper it is to produce a show that is minimalist and contemporary than a massive period piece, which is of course the appeal to producers. You will never see a production quite like the original Sunset again. It was financially unsustainable at the time and virtually impossible in a commercial context now.

Earlier it was reported that The Lady's Paying/Eternal Youth is Worth A Little Suffering have been cut, which seems wise to me.

BrodyFosse123 said: "Producers were involved to fund this little ego fueled rebellious showcase."

Who are easily persuaded if it doesn't cost anything.

Like Scarywarhol says, perhaps minimalist shows are all we will see in the future. Blackboxes, white led light, no costumes, no sets, sterile stages and of course contemporary props, so the audiences will recognize things.

Updated On: 10/8/23 at 06:47 AM

No, but we do clearly see Betty and Joe writing their script on a MacBook Pro.

RippedMan said: "Which I don’t get? Why not just have them use typewriters? I think leaning into the black and white and nostalgia makes sense. I’m still not sure how I feel but I’d def see it."

The linear representation of modern-day symbolism would fail had they incorporated typewriters, which no one uses anymore. This takes place in an altered universe which is why it still takes place in the early 1950s yet performed in a modern-day world. I’m still baffled by how many theater savvy folks have zero understanding of symbolism.

Caught it last night and can only say that I found it gutsy and thrilling. There are a million details that one could quibble with, but for me, this production made a case for Sunset being a much, much better show than any other version I’ve seen. Unmissable. I went in thinking it might be a train wreck, but it won me over entirely.

Seb28 said: "BrodyFosse123 said: "Producers were involved to fund this little ego fueled rebellious showcase."

Who are easily persuaded if it doesn't cost anything.

Like Scarywarhol says, perhaps minimalist shows are all we will see in the future. Blackboxes, white led light, no costumes, no sets, sterile stages and of course contemporary props, so the audiences will recognize things."

Seb28, Have you seen this production to determine whether or not the minimalist approach works.

Updated On: 10/10/23 at 11:16 AM

binau said: "The tone is not so much faded silent film star literally but almost faded reality TV star or faded instagram influencer. And I think that helps bring the material well into the 21st century."

Nearly every lyric in the show is about the silent film era. "we didn't need words, we had faces", "I can say anything I want with my eyes", "no words can tell the story my eyes tell", "It's the pictures that got small, talk, talk, only words", and also many scenes, such as the whole Salome scene with the head on the plate and the Maharadja in Max' song who hang himself, etc, are all references to an era. Most scenes are also about movie sets and script writing, old Hollywood. It is the whole storyline about how Joe and Norma meet and how Betty comes in and about the history of Max.

So have they changed all lyrics?

The tone of the music is also very old hollywood. I see how the production and Scherzinger's portrayal can be modern, cool, current, sexy, but I can't really see how it matches with everything else.

You too say it doesn't always work and your mind started to wander when Norma wasn't singing, that is not comforting to hear either.

"There is absolutely no way this production or Nicole's performance could work with a lavish traditional staging. It's just not that."

Do you think this could be solved with direction, or that Scherzinger will only be able to pull it off with a modern and young and sexy interpretation? She said she was actually offended when she was offered the role first.

You also say that you don't really like Andrew Lloyd Webber and you don't like Sunset Boulevard outside of the Norma songs. So maybe you just like Scherzinger and that made the evening worthwhile while you didn't really care much for the source material at all?

I am just trying to understand these 2 completely opposite things being thrown together, resulting in half of the audience not being interested in half of it and the other half not being interested in the other half of it.

Updated On: 10/10/23 at 12:05 PM

Seb28 said: "I see how the production and Scherzinger's portrayal can be modern, cool, current, sexy, but I can't really see how it matches with everything else."

I haven't seen this version of Sunset Boulevard, but I've seen a number of opera productions, live or on video, where the setting is updated to the present-day (Tristan und Isolde with the first act set on a cruise ship, La Traviata with Vioiletta dying of AIDS rather than tuberculosis, and several others). The setting of such a production is inevitably at odds with parts of the text. The end result can be a disaster, or it can be a powerful metaphor that elucidates the themes of the work even better than a traditional production could.

binau said: "Ultimately even though the tone of the show doesn't feel like the post silent-film era/golden age Hollywood at all and feels much more modern, to your point the writing clearly does set it in the past and has not been actually meaningfully re-written to change the period. It only works if you can suspend disbelief. I find that easy to do because theatre is always about suspension of disbelief to some degree, there is a lot of 4th wall breaking and meta theatrical devices* so I didn't ever feel I was watching something that could ever be taken literally, and even the idea of a silent film star singing like Nicole (or Betty Buckley!) doesn't really make any sense if you really think about the character.

* To give an example, when Joe tells Norma that she doesn't have to be in every scene of Salome and she jokes the audience are there to see her, she says this directly to a camera that is projected to the audience and it's all a bit of a 'wink wink' that we're there to see Nicole (cue audience laugh). Nicole also directly looks out at the audience and refers to us as 'people in the dark'. So it's all very theatrical.

I think the way we are meant to be engaging with the material is basically allowing modern design choices, modern theatrical techniques including very cool abstract choreography, and modern young feeling characters allow us to better feel the emotion behind the piece that might have been lost in an alternative staging. It's more about the atmosphere and emotions. I can understand how this might have a counter-productive effect and actually take some people more out of the show than into it, but it works for me as I can really feel how the staging does create this atmosphere and these emotions. Idk kind of like when people do super weird modern interpretations of Shakespeare and can apparently still make it work (sometimes not)

"Do you think this could be solved with direction, or that Scherzinger will only be able to pull it off with a modern and young and sexy interpretation? She said she was actually offended when she was offered the role first."

I think a director could get Nicole to turn out a traditional Norma performance but I don't know why we'd want to do that, except for her voice. The production very clearly has been designed around her and is highlighting all her strengths from the very beginning to the end of the show. It just wouldn't be the same show. Even the dynamic between Norma/Joe is quite different now.

"You also say that you don't really like Andrew Lloyd Webber and you don't like Sunset Boulevard outside of the Norma songs. So maybe you just like Scherzinger and that made the evening worthwhile while you didn't really care much for the source material at all?"

I would say it's not just about Nicole - I would love to see other Jamie Lloyd Normas, and plan to see Rachel Tucker.

At the very least, I think the easiest way to understand the show and decide if it works for yourself is just to see it. I guarantee even if you hate it, you will have a story to tell about seeing this show and a lot to talk about and joke with your friends. Maybe kind of like the Oklahoma! revival lol."

Thanks binau, good points. I fully embrace suspension of disbelief, but singing "we didn't need words, we had faces" with a laptop in her hand would be a bit too disconnected for me , I think. Minimalistic, black & white, all fine, but deliberately creating impossible contradictions is not contributory/conducive.

I am also not fond of breaking the 4th wall with current times jokes, regarding the real life situation of the actress in this case (extra cringe when her understudy is on), or for example the sashimi jokes in the little mermaid.

But your are right, maybe I should see it and give an update afterwards.

Updated On: 10/10/23 at 06:51 PM

Mskuphantm said: "Started to think about this production a bit more.... as far as the re-imagining goes. Norma could easily have been a top model selling products using her body and face, then social media influencers took over and she lost her career, so now she is going back to get back what she lost in her way."

But it's not just about Norma being replaced, it's about scripts and movies, and she wants Joe to (re)write it, and that's why he is living with her, to work on the script. That's how they meet.

I mean, why deliberately change only the name of her "job" just for the sake of changing it, to make the whole script deliberately incorrect. It doesn't change the essence of the story.

Updated On: 10/10/23 at 07:06 PM

Looks like they cancelled the show tonight, not sure why but that west end board suggests cast illness - tomorrow is the opening!