Nicole Scherzinger arrives in the makeshift dressing room in a flurry of silk and nervous energy. She takes off her dark glasses: no makeup. “This is me in work mode,” she says.
But her skin is flawless, her eyes clear and piercing, eyebrows arched over high cheekbones, a toned stomach glimpsed under her loose, gold-patterned shirt. It is midsummer and she is getting ready to perform at Britain’s Henley Festival, an event that transforms a verdant bend in the river Thames into a hubbub of tents around a floating stage.
She’s the star attraction but admits she’s anxious. “I am always picky about sound,” she says. But she’s eager to discuss the subject at hand, which is her Broadway debut in an incendiary new version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard.“I am 46, and I’ve dreamed of going to Broadway my whole life,” she says, smiling. We’ve moved to her trailer, sitting amid white leather cushions and sipping coconut water. “It has taken a long time, but it feels really special because I get to do it as Norma Desmond.”