Mickey Jo (0:01)

Oh, my God. Hey, my name is Mickey Jo. I am a professional international theatre critic and welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Today, I am very excited to be bringing you the news about the highly anticipated Broadway transfer of the bold, exciting reimagining of Angela Webber's Sunset Boulevard. Let's talk about it. Sunset Boulevard. I enjoyed that opening. Did you enjoy that opening? If you know, you know. And if you, if you don't know, maybe you'll soon be finding out because Sunset Boulevard is going to Broadway, people. So this news just broke today. I literally just received the press release. I was about to edit another video and I was like, no, this is even more exciting. Let's talk about this. Even though, if I'm being completely honest, we knew this was coming for a variety of reasons. It had been talked about, there had been speculations, Nicole Scherzinger's sister fully said that it was happening in an Instagram post. So much like Fleetwood Mac in the late 1970s, there were rumors. Now, if you don't know why this is so exciting, if you don't know anything about this revival, if you don't know anything about this musical, I'm going to break down this news for you today. We're going to read through this press release. We don't have all the details yet. We don't know which theatre this is going to in New York. We don't know exactly when this year it's arriving. And those are big questions because whether or not this is a spring or a fall show, this year is going to be a huge factor in the Tony Awards race. But even though we don't know for sure yet, we are going to speculate wildly. What we do know is a bunch of casting information and there is more that we can speculate about that as well. So stay tuned for all of my thoughts and all of the information that we currently have about the Sunset Boulevard Broadway transfer news. Now, if you enjoyed today's video and want to stay up to date with all of the latest Broadway and West End theatre news, make sure you subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel. I share news, I share reviews, a little bit of theatrical gossip and just about everything else happening within the theatre community, if that sounds like the kind of stuff that you would like to see on YouTube, make sure you're subscribed. And if you want to see me on other social media platforms, I am ickyjoetheatre on Instagram, TikTok, the app formerly known as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, go follow me on there for even more theatre themed content. Finally, I am very intrigued to hear all of your thoughts about Sunset Boulevard heading to Broadway. Have you seen this production in the West End? Are you someone who loves the original production? You're maybe a little bit skeptical of this? What do you think of the casting choices? There will be various points where I'm speculating throughout this video about where this is going, about who else might be in it. Feel free to weigh in in the comments section as well. Let's talk about Sunset Boulevard. So Sunset Boulevard, Based on a n 1950 film by Billy Wilder, all about the fading silent screen star Norma Desmond, one of the great actresses of her time. In the years since her last screen appearance, she has been forgotten until struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis accidentally stumbles upon her Sunset Boulevard mansion home. He agrees to help her edit an unruly screenplay with which she is planning to perpetrate a big screen comeback. Sorry, not comeback. She hates that word. A return. While he is hoping to continue evading debt collectors and benefit from her financial generosity, the whole thing gets a lot more complicated very quickly now. Hal Prince tried to get Stephen Sondheim to turn this into a musical starring Angela Lansbury. Let's all take a moment and imagine what that would have been like. Hal also approached Kander and Ebb about a musical version, but finally it was Andrew Lloyd Webber who adapted the show for the world of Musical Theatre in 1993. Sondheim didn't go for it because Billy Wilder told him that he thought it really ought to have been an opera rather than a musical. Sondheim agreed, and Lloyd Webber just didn't mind. The book and lyrics are by Don Black and Christopher Hampton. The original London production starred Patti LuPone and garnered a certain amount of controversy because she was contracted to reprise the role when the show transferred to Broadway. But she was replaced with Glenn Close, who later reprised her performance in a revival many years down the line and is also allegedly attached to a film adaptation of the musical that, like, she wants to get done, but it seems to be stalling. And if that's not a massive case of art imitating life, then I don't know what is. Wait, life imitating art? What did I say? Anyway, cut to 2023 when it's announced that Sunset Boulevard will be revived with a major West End production, but one that we know from the beginning is going to be substantially different. We know this because Nicole Scherzinger is announced to be playing the role of Norma Desmond, a little younger than the actresses who have preceded her. Perhaps, although technically not that far from the age that Patti LuPone was when she first played the role, but certainly a more glamorous face than we are used to seeing in that role. Another indicator of big change to come, the director Jamie Lloyd. Jamie Lloyd, whose most recent project prior to Sunset Boulevard was the Broadway revival of A Doll's House, starring Jessica Chastain. Very minimal staging, very bare set. He's gained considerable momentum as a creative force over the last couple of decades, and during that time his productions have become increasingly stark, increasingly minimal, with a big focus on the text and on the words and on microphones. He's also a big fan of Blood, for what it's worth. And so his version of Sunset Boulevard, which is literally about to finish its limited run at the Savoy Theatre here in the West End, where it was very successful, by the way. It does not feature the big staircase set piece that previous productions do. It does not feature the onstage car. We don't have grand costuming and a turban, at least not in the way that you might expect. We have minimal contemporary costuming. Everyone is in, like, black and white dancewear. Nicole is wearing a simple black slip throughout the show as Norma Desmond with her hair down. There are essentially no set pieces. What we have instead is on stage camera work and a giant cinema screen that lowers down onto the backdrop of the stage, capturing a completely live feed of the actors both on stage and backstage, something which has been done before on stage. The director, Ivo Van Hove, is a big fan of this. Broadway audiences saw this in his most recent adaptation of west side Story, which was closed by the Pandemic, but evidently a very different production of Sunset Boulevard than those that we have seen before. Now you can go and watch my review video about this production. It's a nice long review because there is plenty to talk about. My thoughts about the show evolved in an even more positive way when I went back to go and review Rachel Tucker, who is the guest star performer who's playing the role of Norma Desmond on Monday nights. More about that later, so feel free to go watch those to find out my full thoughts about this show. But I will sum up the impact that this show has had with audiences via two main things. And these are going to be spoilers for the production, so if you don't want to know about these, skip ahead. The first is the powerful performance from Nicole Scherzinger, and while many were skeptical about her being sort of appropriate for the role to begin with, there was never any doubt that she wasn't gonna sing the hell out of this score. And that's exactly what she does. Her renditions of With One look and as if We Never Said Goodbye are such powerhouse, phenomenal vocal performances. They are spine tingling, they are thrilling, they are worth the price of admission, whatever you paid. But not only that, the acting performance that she brings alongside that, she is unhinged. She is wholeheartedly committed. She has this animalistic fury. She is sprinting across the stage. She's covered in blood. She is ruthless and fragile and dangerous and phenomenal. Now, here comes the real spoiler, because there is another trick that this production has up its sleeve. This is about what happens at the start of the second act. Now, this again, is not wholly original, because another Ivo Van Hove show network managed to pull off something similar before with capturing a live feed of leading actor Bryan Cranston outside of the third theater. But what happens here is, during the entr'act we have the screen lowering down and we have a live feed of Tom Francis, who is playing Joe Gillis backstage, going into other people's dressing rooms, interacting with other cast members, sort of poking fun at their own revival in many ways, because we see Nicole wearing a turban. We see someone in a monkey costume making reference to the monkey that is still mentioned in the script but is not seen on stage, the monkey who has a funeral. It's a whole thing. But at the end of the entr'acte, it comes time for him to sing Sunset Boulevard, the title song. He walks onto the stage, crosses it, leaves via the other exit and walks out onto the streets of London, where he walks around the corner and via the help of an umbrella if he needs it, and in ears, so that he can hear the music still. And several security guards who create a safe pathway for him to walk round, approach the Savoy Theatre and Hotel and then return into the foyer and then into the auditorium, where he walks back onto the stage, he sings the whole song. He does all of this while singing the song Sunset Boulevard. It's a huge coup de theatre moment. It's become very popular with audiences, both in the theatre and outside, because people know it's going to happen, so they wait and they film it. If somehow you've gone without hearing this spoiler and you haven't seen it on TikTok or Twitter, then honestly, good for you. But it is a feat which raises significant questions about how this show is going to translate to New York. So let's talk about that. Let's read this press release. So here is the news which came today. I'm going to read you this word for word. London's show of the year. That's in quotation marks because someone said it comes to Broadway in 2024 this year. You remember that bit in Smash where Ivy, Megan Hilty is about to sing. They just keep moving the line at some sort of gala and Debra Messing introduces it by saying, this is a song from Bombshell coming to Broadway this season. That's what I get from this press release. Except it's not necessarily this season. Let's stay tuned. Jamie Lloyd's new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard to open on Broadway this year starring Nicole Scherzinger, reprising her award winning performance as Norma Desmond in her eagerly anticipated Broadway debut. She's been in the development of other shows. She was allegedly in the workshop for Death becomes her right. She's also apparently been offered Satine in Moulin Rouge multiple times and turned it down. This is going to be her final Broadway debut. Interestingly, if I'm remembering this right, she was meant to go over with the last revival of Cats when that started in London, she opened it here. And then. Did she not do it because she got a TV gig instead? Did she choose the masked singer over Cats, both equally unhinged and bizarre things in their own right. But then Leona Lewis did it on Broadway instead and she had a falling out with Lloyd Webber. But now she's doing this and they're pals again. Now I think that's the case. I could look all of this up, but I have too much other stuff to tell you. And that's just a fun little footnote. What's interesting here and what I had been told a few weeks ago is she's going to be joined by the three other leading cast members of this revival, Tom Francis, Grace Hodgett Young and David Thaxton. Let me tell you a little bit more about each of those. So Tom Francis, big rising star over here. He was in a Manchester based revival of Rent as Roger. That's the one. This was streamed online and immediately I sat up and took notice and I was like, who is that? He's got a great rock voice and just a really interesting take on the material. He then went into and Juliet in town replacing original star Jordan Luke Gage as Romeo. And now this is his really big break, playing Jo in this production and he's also had a lot of critical acclaim alongside Nicole. Then we have Grace Hodgett Young, who is having the best first year out of drama school, I think anyone has ever had because she is a graduate performer going into this show playing Betty Schaeffer. But in between this show closing in London and her opening on Broadway, she is going to be the West End's Eurydice in the London return of Hadestown. She has bagged the role of Eurydice alongside these two runs of Sunset. I mean, graduate performer, first year out of drama school, just living her best life. Now that raises questions about when Sunset is going to appear on Broadway, because this all would have been in place by the time that she signed contracts for Hadestown, I'm assuming. So what I would guess is happening here is that she has a six month out. So she's going to do Hadestown for six months in the West End. It's starting previews in Feb. So that takes us through to August, which would suggest Sunset opening on Broadway in the autumn, which is what I had suspected anyway for various reasons because a big heavyweight revival like this that wants to win Tony Awards, that's what this is about. This is going to be probably another limited run. It's not going to open in the summer. Shows open in the summer when they are back to the future, when they are going to be popular with tourists. But it's not about the awards season because that's kind of like the least powerful time to open in terms of Tony Awards momentum. Some shows have opened in the summer and still done very well. But broadly speaking, that's not in anyone's plan strategically, which leaves us with either the spring or the fall. Now it is a very crowded Tony Awards season this year, especially for revivals, because we already have the Cabaret revival going into the August Wilson. We have the Wiz returning to Broadway. Finally, we have Merrily We Roll along being this huge juggernaut in the wake of Sondheim's passing. We also have Spamalot Delighting audiences over at the St. James. There is also. What's the other One? What's the other One? The who's Tommy. The who's Tommy? Audiences are excited about that as well. There are too many revivals this season already. We do not need Sunset Boulevard. Alongside these, ATG are also involved in producing Sunset Boulevard and they're involved in producing, I believe, four out of five of those other revivals as well. So it's in their best interest to kind of spread the wealth of their current productions across multiple Tony Awards seasons. Sunset is going to come in the fall, I suspect. Finally, the other confirmed cast member we have here, David Thaxton. Now, David is an Olivier Award winning actor. He won for playing Giorgio in Passion at the Donmar Warehouse a little while ago. And for what it's worth, I think he is giving the most subtle and powerful and fascinating crafted performance on this stage in Sunset Boulevard. I think they're all terrific in their own ways, but David Thaxton's is the performance that I keep thinking about, the one that really haunted me with its quiet power. So I am excited that all four of these are going to Broadway. I think that's a real coup for these young talents. For David Thaxton, I think they're all going to do well. Do I think there is no one in New York who could have played these roles? No, I think the whole revival has been built around Nicole Scherzinger, so it was obvious that it was going to be her playing the role. And for the other roles, I think there are exceptional Broadway talents who also could have played these parts. I think all four of these are terrific, thrilled they're all going over. But I don't think it was necessarily as pivotal for the producers to send the quartet over. I think this is probably coming from Nicole, who has a lot of power when it comes to this revival. And I suspect that she wanted it to be the four of them. She's done interviews talking about how much she values their talent and their performances on stage. So I'm suspecting what happened here is that she. She championed it being the four that would all go to Broadway. And I've kind of heard as much, which would make sense because it is unusual to have three out of four British principals transferring with this production. You know, that's not happening with Cabaret. It's only Eddie Redmayne is the only Brit going over with that revival of that show. And the way that Actors Equity works, it's not the easiest thing to transfer a bunch of British actors. You have to prove that they are vitally pivotal or do some sort of an Equity exchange. Hey, maybe that's why we're getting Plaza Suite in the UK with Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker. Who knows? So it does say production dates, theatre and additional casting for Sunset Boulevard on Broadway will be announced shortly. In terms of that additional casting, there was some brilliant talent within the ensemble of the London production, but the other major name that we need to think about is potentially a Monday Night Norma Desmond. Because I do not think that Rachel Tucker will transfer with the production to Broadway. I don't think she has any interest in going over to New York when her family are here to do, like, one day a week on Broadway in the role of Norma Desmond. She does a fantastic job in the show, but I just don't think she's gonna go all the way over there to just do the one day a week and occasionally cover Nicole, who it must be said, did not miss any performances that weren't pre scheduled absences. So she had a standby who never went on. But that begs the question who might be able to be Nicole Scherzinger's Monday night alternate if she's still not doing Monday nights? And it won't be Mondays actually, because Broadway is different. Maybe it'll be a Tuesday night because they might not do a Monday in their Broadway show schedule. I don't know. Tell me what you think down below. But who do we think will be Nicole's alternate if she's still going to have one? Now Rachel Tucker is an ex Elphaba. Do we look to the many talented Broadway ex Alphabas? Stephanie J. Block has just done this role in a regional production, but it was a very different production of the show. I don't see her embodying the same kind of a performance as Nicole or Rachel gave in this very different production of the show. She has also relocated away from New York as well. So similarly I don't see her doing it just for one show a week. I'm thinking of people like Karen Olivo or Mandy Gonzalez or Jackie Burns. Shoshana Bean while we're at it. There are some very exciting options here and I'm very intrigued about who it might be. Speculate in the comment section down below if there is going to be an alternate Norma Desmond, who do we want to see doing this in New York? Now there are many more paragraphs in this press release, but try as I might, I cannot find any more indications about where this might be going. And this is the big question mark. I'm pretty sold on the idea that this is going to be coming in in like September October time towards the end of 2024. But we do not know what the theatrical landscape in New York is going to look like by then in terms of which theatres are available. There are many shows coming in in the spring that will hope to have lasted that long on Broadway, but it's a very competitive season for new musicals as well as revivals, and only one of them is going to be able to win that coveted Best New Musical Tony Award. I don't see all of them lasting through to the end of the year. So there are a few theaters whose names I have heard mentioned in conjunction with a possible Sunset Boulevard revival. At one point, the Schubert was being talked about and I'm not too sure about that one for various reasons. However, it might be the easiest to pull off the walking around the outside of the theatre gimmick because it has Shubert Alley right next to it. It's sort of an easier area a little further away from Times Square for them to be able to do this quietly. There is also the St. James, which is on the same street. Spamalot is there currently. That is a big venue. And this with some star power in a limited run. I mean, sidebar question here. Does Nicole Scherzinger carry as much weight in the US as she does in the uk? Because people have asked me this and people feel as though she means more in the UK than the US and the Pussycat Dolls were a long time ago. But, like, people still know who she is because she's been on TV and like singing at different events and she did a lot of yoghurt adverts back in the day. So I'm curious as to how this will sell, but I think the buzz that is coming with it will be helpful. We have another option, literally across the street from the St. James, I think, which is the Majestic Theatre, where Phantom of the Opera played for decades. We have been told this is going to be renovated and it is going to reopen with a different show. This would keep an Andrew Lloyd Webber show there. However, I don't see Sunset Boulevard, this production going on to become a long runner. I think this would still be a limited run, so that would just be a stopgap before whatever the next thing is goes in. Whether that's a slimmed down return of Phantom of the Opera, who's to say? But again, it's on a street corner where that walking around the outside thing, if they are going to do it the same way, it might be easier to pull off there. My first thought when people were talking about this going to Broadway was the Hudson, kind of, just because Jamie Lloyd has worked there recently. That's where A Doll's House was. And they had this similar situation with Jessica Chastain walking out the back of the theatre onto the street. And so they had a kind of a setup there, but it would be harder to walk out the back and then get round the front because it's in the middle of a block. They would have to go through the Algonquin Hotel and they'd have to do that. Which, you know, if I was the manager of that hotel, I would absolutely say yes, to that kind of a product placement. And funnily enough, the Savoy is also attached to a hotel and when he rounds the block, he gestures to it and kind of invokes it while he's singing the line, five star room service, comfortable quarters, etc. Etc. So if they were to still have a hotel element nearby, they could at least do that. If the marquee is free. They wouldn't even have to go outside because that is a theater situated inside of a hotel. And they'd probably have more license to kind of like cordon off an area and they only have to do this for like 5, 10 minutes. Basically, he's not outside for very long. So then how do I think this will do on Broadway? Do I think it will make the same kind of an impact? Because just because a show succeeds in London doesn't mean it's going to be a huge hit in New York. We have seen disparities. When the inheritance went over, it did not do as well on Broadway as it did in the West End. Even though it did well with the Tony Awards, it did not do as well with audiences. I'm kind of anticipating Cabaret possibly having a similar experience just because I know some Americans who did not love the show when they saw it in the uk And I think Jamie Lloyd productions can be polarizing at the best of times. Sunset has been a little polarizing here, but broadly it has been well liked by audiences and critics. I do think it will have a positive reception in New York. Whether or not Scherzinger is as well known over there. I think she absolutely proves herself on that stage and I think she will be in contention for awards. We really have yet to see how this production plays in an awards season because the Olivier Awards for this year haven't happened yet either. We will know a little bit more about that come March when the nominations get announced, and then come April when the winners are announced in a big televised ceremony. Because theoretically the four principal performers I've talked about in this video could all be nominated in different performance categories, with Tom and Nicole being leading and David and Grace being supporting. I do think that Sunset Boulevard is probably going to win the Olivier for best revival of a musical here in London because the also well loved critically acclaimed revival of Guys and Dolls I don't believe is eligible because it's not in a society of London theatre membership venue. But that's a different conversation for when I start talking about my awards predictions. For now, I will loosely say I think Sunset will do well on Broadway. I think it combines the nostalgic element. I mean, it's not that long since it was last there because of the Glenn Close Palace Theatre revival. But this one I think is different enough and I don't think it feels threadbare like some Jamie Lloyd stuff occasionally can. This doesn't feel sparse. I've seen that criticism from some people. They think it's cheap. I don't know how the hell you look at that screen and that technology and you get cheap from that. But I think it will be positively received. I'm going to stick my neck out and say that Sunset will do well on Broadway and I'm going to guess that it's going to be in a limited run, opening in November at the Hudson. I'm still going with the Hudson, I think. I think that could happen, especially because it is an ATG venue on Broadway. But those are just my thoughts and like I said, I am so intrigued to hear yours. Primarily, are you excited about Sunset Boulevard going to Broadway? Who do you think might be joining the cast? Who could be the alternate Norma Desmond? If there is going to be one, where do you think it's going? What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section down below. In the meantime, I hope that you have enjoyed today's news recap. If you did, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel for much more theatre news and more reviews coming very soon. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.