Sunset Blvd.

At exactly 3 PM EDT on Wednesday, June 11, I received an e-mail with these dreaded words: “For your performance of Sunset Blvd., the role of Norma Desmond will not be played by Nicole Scherzinger. If you would like a refund or to exchange your ticket, please contact our ticketing representatives….”

Now I’m not normally sitting in my hotel room in front of my e-mail at 3 PM while in New York City, but I was tired. I had just seen the fantastic Maybe Happy Ending matinee earlier that day, and Sunset Blvd. would be my eighth show (nine if you count the Tony Awards) since Friday. It was probably good timing that I got this bad news while I was still on a high from just seeing Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen in what would be my favorite show of the year so far. I was in a good mood. So far this trip, every major performer had shown up except for Brooks Ashmanskas at SMASH, so I had been pretty lucky.

The e-mail did not tell me that Tom Francis would also be out, and it did not tell me who would be covering for Nicole and Tom. So what to do? I knew I was coming back in July, but I did not know if I could for sure see the show before it closed on July 20. After the Tony Award wins, the show was quickly selling out the good seats, and I am a seat snob. I had a good seat for this show. All the other shows I was considering that night instead of Sunset Blvd. were already pretty full. I texted a local Broadway performer with the news, and her question was, “who is covering? If it’s Mandy, she’s fantastic.” I called the Box Office to try and find out, but the Box Office was overwhelmed after sending out that e-mail. I waited on hold for 30 minutes and then was forcibly put into a voice mail box. I was leaning towards still seeing the show, as I had heard so much positive buzz about the show as I conversed with other theatre lovers at the Tony Awards and at my prior seven shows.

It can actually be very exciting to see hungry understudies getting their shot, and I would certainly rather see a hungry understudy than a sick Nicole. I ended up sticking with it, and the rows in front of me were fairly empty. I was in an inner aisle seat to the side of Orchestra (one of my favorite spots, due to the clear shot to the stage regardless of who is in front of you). I had nobody in the two rows in front of me, as so many people really did bail. The refund line at the venue was just huge.

I finally learned that Rashidra Scott would be Norma (she is the official standby for Nicole), and Pierre Marais was the understudy covering for Tom. I sent the updated cast list to a performer friend, and she responded, “Broadway veterans - enjoy!” I am thrilled to report they were both fantastic. The casting of these two was an excellent choice.

Another fun thing about seeing a standby and an understudy is that they of course urgently text all of their friends telling them to get to the theatre immediately, as they are going on! This is sometimes short notice, so these are good friends (theatre friends are of course the best). And there are plenty of seats for these good friends, due to all of the grumpy patrons bailing on the show. I’m not judging the grumpiness; for example, one woman previously saw the show earlier in the year and loved Nicole’s performance so much, she flew out again with her daughters from Arizona for them to see Nicole. She was of course crushed. She was getting refunds, as three tickets are expensive, but I did encourage her to go buy three new, now less expensive tickets, so that her daughters could still enjoy the show. I believe they still bailed.

The pre-show drama was just about over, except that people wouldn’t stop moving around trying to find better seats - even after the show started - as there were just so many empty seats! It was similar to being on an airplane with empty rows (does that happen anymore?), and everyone in middle seats going and grabbing the unclaimed aisle and window seats. It was indeed a bit annoying for the first ten minutes or so of the show.

Once the show started, I immediately knew I made the right decision to stick with seeing it. As I wrote in another review, this show wins the award for “Most Wow” in a show. It is just such a fresh and powerful production. It is unique. The music is fantastic. The vocals are fantastic. The projections should make even a projection hater say, “ok, I’ll admit that’s cool.”

There was actually only one part of the show I struggled with, so I will get that out now. While I very much enjoyed the (excessive?) use of projections, which I thought must be so great for patrons in the back of the house, it bothered me how much backstage acting occurred. I like the hybrid approach where you can always see the actor on stage, even when extreme close ups are happening on screen, and I thought it was just odd that sometimes scenes were behind the curtain and not visible on stage. And this did not happen just a couple of times; there were numerous times where the acting was not visible on stage. Those of us with up close seats want to always have the stage perspective, too, and not be forced to watch projections. Other than this, I very much enjoyed the projections, and I did not find it distracting that there was so frequently a camera operator on stage. The projections added to the freshness and to the experience, and the camera operators on stage just seemed to kind of make sense with the story. I do not always care for how a director utilizes projections in a Broadway show, but I did overall very much enjoy the projections in Sunset Blvd.

Regarding the top of Act 2, which I will not describe even though it is well known, in order to avoid any spoilers, I will say that this was one of my all-time favorite theatre experiences. I knew this was coming, and I made sure to get back to my seat early. However, I had no idea just how amazing this opening number would be. The top of Act 2 significantly exceeded my expectations, and I plan to watch it from the alternative perspective (no spoilers) the next time I am in town.

One regret I have is that I rushed to the stage door after the show ended but before the projections finished. I now wonder if I missed anything. My advice to anyone seeing this show is be patient and wait until the projections have fully finished.

I did make the decision to see this show a second time, during my trip in July, in order to hopefully finally see Nicole and Tom perform. I am also very excited to see the top of Act 2 again. I did get to see Nicole perform live at the Tony Awards, and she was fantastic, but I want to see her perform in context and up close. Since I have seen the show once before, I purchased the non-optimal seat of front row center orchestra, often too close for a musical, to get that immersive up close experience. I am very excited to see this show a second time before it closes.

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