Get ready, Mr. DeMille.
The London revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Sunset Boulevard,” starring Nicole Scherzinger, will arrive on Broadway later this year, a spokesman for the production said on Thursday.
The sensational Scherzinger, of the Pussycat Dolls, will be back, alongside her talented West End co-stars: Tom Francis as Joe Gillis, Grace Hodgett-Young as Betty Schaefer and David Thaxton as spooky butler Max.
The otherwise vague announcement made no mention of what theater the show based on Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic movie will play at or when it will start, so I’ll help them out.
Sources told The Post that “Sunset” will open in November at the St. James Theater on 44th Street.
In a four-star review, I called director Jamie Lloyd’s imaginative revival “jolting” and “absolutely gut-wrenching,” and added that Scherzinger “stops you in your tracks” with her “breathtaking” turn. A few weeks after writing that, I went back to see it a second time.
The acclaimed show is just what Lloyd Webber needs to recover from the one-two punch of “Phantom of the Opera” closing after 35 years and his “Bad Cinderella” flopping after just a few short months.
Everybody on Broadway has been jetting over to the UK to watch his electric “Sunset,” which takes its final bow in the West End on Saturday.
And that begs the question: Why isn’t the musical coming to New York sooner when it’s the hottest show out there right now?
Big hits like “Rent” and “Hamilton” smartly seized upon their off-the-charts demand off-Broadway and zoomed uptown inside of three months. “Rent” made the leap in only one.
Waiting too long can be perilous.
Sources said the holdup has to do with some Norma Desmond-sized egos.
The Shubert Organization actually offered the show a spring slot at the Barrymore Theatre, where Barry Manilow’s “Harmony” is struggling to fill seats, sources said.
It’s a relatively small theater, but comparable to “Sunset”’s London house, the Savoy. And Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” which plays the even more intimate Hudson, grossed nearly $2 million there last week.
(“Sunset” cost $2.5 million in the UK and will cost about $17 million in New York, a source said.)
But director Jamie Lloyd turned the Shuberts down. Usually it’s the producers who do that, but, an insider said, “Jamie is calling all the shots.”
Added a wag: “He’s parlaying a sure smash winner into a non-event.”
And he’s being undermined by his own collaborators — the Ambassador Theatre Group.
Sources said ATG, the British company that now owns the St. James, the August Wilson and others, was against “Sunset” going head-to-head with its incoming revival of “Cabaret” at the Tony Awards or at the box office and wanted to push it into next season.
ATG, conveniently, is also one of “Sunset”’s producers, alongside Michael Harrison, Gavin Kalin and Wessex Grove.
The new, darker “Cabaret,” which also hails from London, is hugely expensive — $24 million, according to BroadwayJournal — and its star Eddie Redmayne is only committed to six months of performances. A few Tonys would put some pep in their step.
The trouble is that while “Sunset” could’ve taken down everything, “Cabaret” — which will be haunted by Americans’ fond memories of Sam Mendes’ groundbreaking production with Alan Cumming — will likely lose the Best Revival trophy to the massively successful and admired “Merrily,” starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez.
Scherzinger, by the way, would have won Best Actress in a Musical this season in a walk. Easy. Next year, however, she could have some major competition.
A source said that six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald plans to star in a revival of “Gypsy” during the 2024-25 season.
Norma Desmond vs. Mama Rose? Gangway, world, get off of their runway!
