‘Sunset Blvd.’ Broadway Review: Nicole Scherzinger Evokes Sally Bowles and Carrie White

Jamie Lloyd’s revival is both minimal and excessive

Two people sit on stage while giant projected images of their faces loom over behind them.
From a dress rehearsal of "Sunset Blvd." (Photo: Marc Brenner)

The director of the new revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Blvd.” takes the final line from Billy Wilder’s noir classic – “I’m ready for my close-up!” – and repeats it ad nauseam. The line is spoken only once on stage, at the end. But from the opening of Jamie Lloyd’s ridiculously foggy and overwrought production, this director gives us close-ups not only of all the principal actors, but every chorister as well.

Putting a video camera(s) on stage and having live actors taped so that their faces can be magnified on big screens has become the most tiresome directorial crutch of this century.

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