Sunset Boulevard, starring Nicole Sherzinger, is an amazing, dramatic and moving theatre performance. It’s dark and gritty, and completely captivating. Here’s my Sunset Boulevard theatre review.
Overview of Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. In 2023/2024, this musical was given a revival in London’s West end and on Broadway, starring Nicole Sherzinger as the lead role of Norma Desmond. This performance of Sunset Boulevard is definitely one of my favourite things I’ve ever seen in a theatre – so my Sunset Boulevard theatre review is very positive!
Sunset Boulevard follows the story of Norma Desmond. In the past, she was a star in the silent movies of the 1930s. Now, she is older and lives alone in a large mansion in Los Angeles. However, she still believes she is famous, in part thanks to her butler (Max) who shields her from the real world and creates fake ‘fan mail’ for her.
A struggling young screenwriter, Joe Gillis, accidentally ends up in Norma’s mansion and meets her. When she learns that Joe is a writer, Norma insists he stays in her home so they can work on a play together. Norma plans to star as the leading role in her re-write of the play ‘Salome’. They work on the play together for months, with Norma barely allowing Joe to leave the house.
Norma becomes increasingly possessive of Joe, and increasingly paranoid about Joe’s relationship with people outside the house. The production ends with Joe trying to leave, and Norma shooting him. When the police arrive, the now-insane Norma believes them to be her audience on a film set.
What I liked about Sunset Boulevard
This performance by far exceeded my expectations. It was dark, gritty and dramatic, with an art-deco feel about the performance. There was no set on stage and minimal costumes – all actors wore black, and occasionally some white. The stage was black, with just some white spotlights. It was incredibly atmospheric.
Nicole Sherzinger was just amazing. She really told the story of the slightly-insane woman who used to be famous. Her performance really drew you in – I was listening to every word, and completely in the world they were creating on stage. Nicole Sherzinger’s voice as Norma was misty and sensual, and just the right level of slightly-creepy. Her singing was amazing as well, with so much emotion and meaning. Her performance of ‘As if we never said goodbye’ was probably one of the single best performances I’ve ever seen in a theatre. There were times in the song where she’d be singing with so much power, and then instantly cut back to quiet emotion.
Projections
The use of projections on the screen at the back of the stage was amazing as well. Often there would be live cameras on stage, and the actors on stage would perform to the camera and then we’d see them on the screen. It allowed the audience to see the actors’ faces close up. And all the projections were in black and white as well, which added to the black and white feel of the whole show.
They used to projections to increase the creepy feeling as well. There was one particularly memorable scene, where the Butler’s face was projected via a live camera onto the screen at the back of the stage. This meant the Butler’s face was just behind Norma and Joe as they performed one of their scenes – giving the idea that the Butler was always watching in the background. Projections were also used very cleverly to show a younger Norma Desmond and also the current version, as they watched one of her old silent movies.
The beginning of Act 2 was also really memorable due to the projections. Act 2 started with Joe being filmed back stage, and the audience just saw it on the projection screen on the stage. The camera followed Joe as he walked around the dressing rooms and back stage, and then out onto the street. Joe walked through the street, and began performing one of the songs outside, before walking back inside and through the theatre to appear on stage.
I couldn’t actually work out if the scene outside was live, or just a recording. It looked live, and there wasn’t a break in the camera footage when Joe then walked back on stage. But it feels very risky to have an actor in the street outside the theatre performing live – and the audio definitely wasn’t live because there wasn’t any street noise in the audio. Either way, it was still an incredibly original and memorable way to start the second half of the show.
What I wasn’t so sure about
There wasn’t anything I didn’t like about this show – it exceeded all my expectations. I hadn’t read many reviews before going and was just expecting to see an ‘ok’ show. But it was so original and dark and gritty and memorable.
Would I recommend seeing Sunset Boulevard
I would 100% recommend seeing Sunset Boulevard. My Sunset Boulevard theatre review is super positive, so I would definitely recommend this show. But I’d definitely recommend seeing the show with Nicole Sherzinger and this specific performance – I’m not sure it would have had the same amazing impact with a different lead actor and different staging/set design. But the show I saw was just incredible – the type of show where you leave the theatre feeling like you need to sit somewhere quietly to decompress and process and emotions and everything you experienced in that room.
Hope you enjoyed my Sunset Boulevard theatre review! Check out my other theatre reviews for more shows in the West End, across the UK and the world.
