Tony First-Timers: Sunset Boulevard's Nicole Scherzinger Sharpens Her Knives and Abandons Her Ego for the Role of a Lifetime

“As a little girl in Hawaii, and then growing up in Kentucky, coming from really humble beginnings, I always wanted to be a singer and do musicals,” Nicole Scherzinger said through tears in her 2024 Olivier Award acceptance speech for her star turn in Sunset Boulevard. “I dreamed of so many roles that I wanted to do. And honestly, this role—Norma Desmond—was not one of those roles.”

With her statuesque presence and preternatural comfort sitting in sincerity, it’s easy to forget that Scherzinger is also a thoroughbred musical theater ham. She can cry, thank God and get the laugh all in the same breath. Just watch her.

In retrospect, it seems obvious that Norma Desmond—the camp centerpiece of Billy Wilder’s film noir and the subsequent musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton—would be the role to break Scherzinger as a stage star and land her the first Tony nomination of her career. But looks, at least initially, were deceiving.

As she recounts to Broadway Show host Tamsen Fadal, when director Jamie Lloyd approached her with the idea for his revival, she only had Gloria Swanson’s film performance in her head. Swanson was only 51, but painted as aged and delusional, Scherzinger thought, “My time will come for that later down the line.”

Lloyd’s response: “Don’t watch the film, just read the script.” The commonalities—Desmond, an out-of-fashion silent-film actress in the era of talkies; Scherzinger, a former Pussycat Doll pigeonholed as an erstwhile pop star—were undeniable. “That’s how my director roped me in,” Scherzinger says. “I understood what it's like to be in an industry and then to feel disposable. To feel like you are discarded or you've gone out of fashion and your time is up.”

Norma Desmond has always been a character to charge through those feelings like a bull, but Lloyd’s production is confronting in new and relentless ways. His leading lady is sent on stage barefoot, costumeless (not counting her single black slip) and accompanied by cameras that close in on her face with reckless disregard for her “good side.”

“What it's taken is just a lot of trust to get me here,” says Scherzinger. “A lot of abandoning my old self, my old patterns, my own fears, my old insecurities. Abandoning the ego completely.”

“I need you to be brave” was Lloyd’s constant refrain throughout the show’s development. Scherzinger would say to him, “I'm doing everything you're asking. You've taken me out of all of my comfort zones. What more can I do?" Lloyd would respond, “You are being brave. Now I need you to be braver."

Forged in fire, Scherzinger’s Norma is now unbreakable. “I am just a weapon out there,” she says of her famously blood-soaked performances on the St. James stage. “I have been working towards this, fighting towards this, preparing for this for over 30 years. I've never been stronger mentally, physically, spiritually. This is my time to create meaningful art.”

GET TO KNOW THE TONY FIRST-TIMERS
Left to Right: SADIE SINK (John Proctor is the Villain) | JUSTINA MACHADO (Real Women Have Curves) | DARREN CRISS (Maybe Happy Ending) | CONRAD RICAMORA (Oh, Mary!) | NICOLE SCHERZINGER (Sunset Boulevard) | JEB BROWN (Dead Outlaw)

Watch the June 4 episode of The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal, highlighting all six of our first-time Tony nominees, and flip through the complete gallery of photos from our exclusive Broadway.com photo shoot.

The Broadway Show Credits: Directed by Zack R. Smith | Producers: Paul Wontorek and Beth Stevens | Senior Producers: Caitlin Moynihan and Lindsey Sullivan | Videographers: Eddie Lebron, Nick Shakra, and Ryan Windess
Photo Credits: Photography by Emilio Madrid | Photo Assistants: Eric Hodgman, Farley Schilling and Leandra Worth | Location: Corner Studio