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Nicole Scherzinger: "Sunset Blvd."

 I was raised on the Patti LuPone version of "Sunset Boulevard" -- and, like Jesse Green, I had problems with the scansion.


"SHE'S immortal!"

(Why would you emphasize SHE? Wouldn't you say....she's im-MOR-tal?)

"I've seen so MAN-y idols fall."

(Wouldn't you say....I've seen SO many idols fall?)

"Hers WAS the face you'd think of...."

(Why not....HERS was the face you'd think of?)

It's like Taylor-Swift-at-her-worst is writing a musical.

Fortunately, we've removed "The Lady's Paying." (That said, we lose Patti's famous rendition of "loving flannel on a man." I love flaaaanuhmah na maaaaaa!) We've also removed much of the collaborative drafting session that features Joe and Betty. This seems ripe for an SNL parody, because the two characters alter their plot in bizarre ways each time they speak. "What if the lead is an alien? What if he climbs up from Middle Earth? What if he is the ghost of Rasputin?"

I agree with Jesse Green that the new director's approach seems to be to distract the audience from the text at all times. Unlike Jesse Green, I think the approach mostly works. The show is much, much more fun than it was with Glenn Close or with Petula Clark. Nicole Scherzinger is unexpectedly hilarious; Green is right that Norma Desmond would never knowingly mock herself when talking about astrology, but the mockery is so startling, in the Scherzinger version, it seems like a worthwhile endeavor. (That said, I would hesitate to give a Tony Award to Scherzinger. It seems like a Tony winner should drum up a thoughtful, coherent portrait of his or her character, and I'm not sure that Scherzinger has pulled this off.)

A main goal of the current show seems to be this: "All will notice how clever Jamie Lloyd is." Mission accomplished! I'd certainly see another Jamie Lloyd production.

Still, it's useful to call a spade a spade -- and "Sunset Blvd." is a bit more of a mixed bag than the show the London critics seemed to think they were seeing.

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