Believe The Hype: Sunset Boulevard, Savoy Theatre, London
When the hype is real — watching Nicole Scherzinger as Norma Desmond in a modern and minimalist version of Sunset Boulevard, directed by Jamie Lloyd. It’s audacity and all the hype pays off. Sensational! (and some spoilers ahead, so read on at your own peril!)
Impressively, even in the cheap seats at the back (the mysterious one sided row L for example), you can pretty much see everything and hear everything. I noticed that Nicole Scherzinger admirably and deliberately plays right to the back of the theatre at points. Better still everything is staged pretty much in the centre so (apart from feet!) you can always see.
Utilising sexy Oklahoma techniques, this version of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical plays with movie themes by broadcasting characters faces on large backdrop screens at points. There’s also more dry ice than the whole of the 1980’s music theme. This is musical noire meets Gothic as lighting is effectively pointed to create lit close-ups or shadowy scenes, a throw-back to the original Golden Age cinema setting.
By using a ‘younger’ actress for Norma Desmond too, as an audience we’re forced to think about how Hollywood and Western media in general treat women aged 40 and over. Is Nicole Scherzinger’s very toned and super glamorous Norma really as haggard and aged as she repeatedly claims or is this just a social/media stereotype? It also means that when she and her husband/butler Max sing about her previous career in her teens and twenties, well, it wasn’t really that long ago. How fickle culture is!
There is a strange and unsettling start to the musical — Norma appears silently and poses behind a see through curtain. The curtain is lined (like bars). The orchestra has been tuning up during this, for me topically bursting into a Christmas carol. If you’re watching for the first time you can start to wonder if there’s been a malfunction, or Nicole Scherzinger has forgotten the words or what is going on?!! But this is scene setting and then the singing starts!
Equally impressive were Tom Francis as down-on-his-luck writer Joe and David Thaxton as grimly protective butler Max Von Mayerling. Max turns out to be Norma’s first husband, her former director and current butler as well as keeper and fanner (literally) of the fame flame of the forgotten star. In the way of Cabaret, Christopher Hampton’s writing and Don Black’s lyrics emphasise the seedy side of life — and it’s torment — as Norma begins having an affair with Joe in the house where her former husband is now her butler!
Channelling all the Eartha Kitt vibes, Nicole Scherzinger is terrific as the diva-ish Norma Desmond, exuding star quality. Her singing is stirring and glorious. Accidentally coming into the Desmond mansion, Joe is drafted in to help Norma ‘work on her script’ — only she makes him live in to do this, and become part of her life, whether he likes it or not. Max somehow gets access to Joe’s apartment and brings all his things to the ‘room of the husbands’. Before long, Norma initiates an affair, making Joe in her own image (and somewhat old fashioned in style). Yet Joe is conflicted, trying to date optimistic and determined Betty at the same time. (Betty’s also in a relationship with Joe’s friend — seeing the theme yet?!) Frankly, all Joe wants to do is flee from all the strangeness, and yet he feels compulsion to stay with starry Norma. Given the lighting, lyrics and amount of smoke, it’s all going to end badly…
And it does. Only it’s brilliantly staged — highlighting the tragedy of the situation even more. Joe starts singing by unzipping himself from a body bag at the beginning. With jarring lighting (harshly switched on and off) we see Norma shoot Joe at the end, and caked in his blood, she poses not for Mr De Mille, but the frenzied media pack seeking a story. Here we see the extent of her delusion, fed by Max and to some extent, Joe. Yet, we still feel for her — this Norma is only older, not aged and yet society and media culture make her redundant and worthless. We feel the injustice of this much more, and yet sympathise with Joe’s desire to leave and tell the truth.
Grace Hodgett Young as Joe’s love interest Betty Schaefer is charming, dynamic and believable, giving the stars a run for their money. She’s equally powerful and impressive a stage presence, a hopeful contrast to all the dourness at Sunset Boulevard.
Deep appreciation too goes to the swing cast. The dancers are fantastic. Moves are modern and contemporary, but they are slickly and immaculately in sync throughout. They even add to the weirdness of the noire musical by all donning black slips like Norma and suggesting her mental collapse in dance. Slipping in and out of scenes is Hannah Yun Chamberlain as young Norma, full of hope, promise and great expectations, who in joining with Norma in a final dance brings a tender and sorrowful moment.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Enjoy the moment of New Year celebrations, when Norma, Joe and Max all don conical party hats. Joe and Norma dance, including a Tango! Glitter is thrown over miserable looking Max at New Year. Norma has all the moves — we’ve already seen her do the splits and roll athletically across the floor in acting out her treatment of Salome.
I love too how the production avails itself of all of the Savoy theatre. At one point Joe is filmed singing, going up and down stairs, into the streets outside the theatre and in and out of back stage areas and dressing rooms. How Tom Francis does it without tripping, I don’t know — but he does! Like the rest of the staging, it’s bold and daring, with some tongue-in-cheek moments too. (Spot the chimp or the cardboard Andrew Lloyd Webber). The actors stay part in character and partly play up to the sleaziness of the story — being found in compromising situations. David Thaxton fiercely shoos Tom Francis away as he makes a phone call, while Nicole Scherzinger is mad about the boy, with a telling pistol on her dressing table.
All so engaging — even if you (like me) had never seen the musical or know the story. Get a ticket if you can for the musical is very worth all the hype!
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