Nicole Scherzinger sounds like a kid desperately clinging to those last fleeting moments of summer break before school starts. She’s calling from an airport in Portugal, having recently wrapped up a beach vacation. In a few days, she’ll relocate to New York City to reprise her role as Norma Desmond in a radical reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard.”
“I have not looked at my script,” Scherzinger admits. “I have not thought about it. In the past few months, I’ve been on a break, just shutting down. Because the moment I step into the rehearsal room, this show is going to get all of me. Until then, I need to preserve my energy.”
Playing Norma, a silent film star still nursing celluloid dreams long after Hollywood shoved her aside, has been a career-redefining role for Scherzinger, best known for her work as a member of the girl group the Pussycat Dolls. The show, which debuted last year on the West End, became the hottest ticket of the season, winning seven Olivier Awards. And much of the attention centered on Scherzinger’s ferocious performance….