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 13, 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.
The original Broadway production won seven Tony Awards, including best musical, in 1995. That production starred Glenn Close, who returned to play the role again in 2017 in the only previous Broadway revival of the show.
The current production is characterized by its heavy use of technology adapted from filmmaking and its minimalist, modern aesthetic. The actors are dressed mostly in black and white; Scherzinger performs much of the show barefoot, and she and her co-star, Tom Francis, end the show drenched in blood.
Because the story is about, and set in, Hollywood, Lloyd opted to integrate and interrogate cinematic devices -- much of the onstage action is filmed by performers holding movie cameras and is projected onto a huge screen behind the actors. One of the production's highlights is a coup de théâtre at the top of the second act when Francis, playing a writer named Joe Gillis, performs the title number while walking through Shubert Alley and along 44th Street, with the action visible to audience members onscreen.
The revival is being produced on Broadway by companies controlled by Lloyd (the Jamie Lloyd Company) and Lloyd Webber (Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals), and by ATG Productions, which operates the theater where the show is playing, and by Gavin Kalin Productions. The show was capitalized for up to $15 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission; it has been selling more than $1 million worth of tickets most weeks, but it is not yet clear whether it will recoup its capitalization costs.