{"id":31366,"date":"2025-10-31T04:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T04:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/31366\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T04:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T04:20:13","slug":"nicole-scherzinger-on-sunset-boulevard-and-the-pussycat-dolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/31366\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicole Scherzinger on ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and the Pussycat Dolls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Four months after she won a Tony Award for leading actress in a musical for her blood-soaked portrayal of Norma Desmond in \u201cSunset Boulevard<\/a>,\u201d Nicole Scherzinger is sitting in the room where she willed her triumph into being.<\/p>\n

\u201cI manifested it right here,\u201d she says as she waves an arm around the cozy cabaret tucked inside the Sun Rose hotel on \u2014 where else? \u2014 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the singer and actor best known as the leader of the Pussycat Dolls put on a series of intimate concerts at the Sun Rose designed to showcase the musical-theater skills she\u2019d been honing since she was a kid growing up in Louisville, Ky. Word got around the entertainment industry, and soon Scherzinger was cast as the star of a radically stripped-down revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s early-\u201990s melodrama about a washed-up (and murderous) movie star.<\/p>\n

The musical, directed by Jamie Lloyd as a kind of blunt-force digital nightmare, played London\u2019s West End before moving last year to Broadway for a 10-month run that brought Scherzinger rave reviews along with theater\u2019s highest honor. Ahead of a concert scheduled for Thursday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, the 47-year-old looked back on the experience as she sipped hot water and munched discs of raw ginger. She wore a Gucci sweatsuit and heels.<\/p>\n

Your gig here was you saying, \u201cPut me in, Coach.\u201d
Basically I was telling people, \u201cHey, can I audition for this movie musical? Can I audition for this live TV musical?\u201d People wouldn\u2019t even give me a shot \u2014 they only knew me from the pop side. So I was like, OK, let me educate everyone on who I am and what my real love language is, which is the stage.<\/p>\n

Give me an example of something you weren\u2019t allowed to audition for.
They wouldn\u2019t see me for \u201cCats.\u201d But that ended up being a blessing.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re talking about the crummy movie version<\/a> from 2019.
That was God protecting me.<\/p>\n

I recently talked to Josh Groban, who told me about the difference between the Grammys and the Tonys. He said the Grammys are all about competition but that everyone at the Tonys is genuinely supportive of one another because they all know how hard live theater is.
I couldn\u2019t have said it any better. I\u2019ll still try to. Broadway is not for the faint of heart. You\u2019re not doing it for a camera or a post \u2014 you\u2019re just working your ass off literally every night for the passion and the love and for those couple thousand people in the theater. The music industry is dog-eat-dog \u2014 you\u2019re just trying to stay relevant. The Broadway community, they don\u2019t give a s\u2014 about relevancy. They give a s\u2014 about art and about your work ethic.<\/p>\n

Take me back to your final \u201cSunset\u201d performance in July.
Other than my mother\u2019s two successful open-heart surgeries, that was the greatest day of my life.<\/p>\n

Better than winning the Tony?
Believe you me, I wanted that Tony. And I worked for it \u2014 I sacrificed everything for Norma Desmond in that production. But the Tony was out of my hands. Doing the show \u2014 I mean, what a blessing to be able to reveal all of you \u2014 your most vulnerable, your ugliest parts. Only in the theater can you do that. You can\u2019t do that in the music industry.<\/p>\n

Jamie Lloyd told<\/a> Variety that you were \u201cutterly without vanity\u201d in the show. Accurate?
My God, did you see what the hell I looked like? From Day 1, I was showing him what heels I wanted to wear, what specific leopard print I wanted for my bedazzling caftans. And when he introduced the cameras, I was like, \u201cNo, no, no \u2014 you have to only do this side. Do you want greatness or mediocrity?\u201d But all that had to go out the door. I had to chip away at all of that vanity so that people could see the truth. That\u2019s when art matters. And I loved it. There\u2019s so much freedom in not giving a s\u2014 about what you look like.<\/p>\n

Onstage, sure. But you\u2019re also a famous person walking around the world. How do you preserve that mindset at Ralph\u2019s?
It\u2019s called sunglasses and a hat.<\/p>\n

Your success in \u201cSunset Boulevard\u201d clearly vindicated that feeling you had when people weren\u2019t taking you seriously for musicals. But what if you\u2019d taken this role about a Hollywood has-been and the show flopped?
It would never have flopped. That\u2019s not how I work.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t control everything.
Say it didn\u2019t go over. It doesn\u2019t matter because we knew \u2014 Jamie and I and that company \u2014 we knew what we had uncovered. I knew when Jamie said, \u201cJust read the script \u2014 read the lines on the page.\u201d As out-there and as character-y as Norma seemed to everyone else, she made complete sense to me. And I felt like her story hadn\u2019t been told in the way that I could tell it. I wanted to bring a real human aspect whereas maybe in the past, especially with Gloria Swanson, it had been told from someone else\u2019s perspective: \u201cOh, she\u2019s crazy, bewildered, far-fetched.\u201d I was like, \u201cNo, she\u2019s misunderstood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cSunset Boulevard\u201d thinks pretty deeply about celebrity and what it does to a person. Did it make you think about how celebrity has changed since you got in the game?
It\u2019s so different \u2014 there\u2019s no mystery. And it feels like anybody can be a celebrity now. You don\u2019t have to have real art or craft to be famous or even revered.<\/p>\n

Is that good? Bad? Neither?
I don\u2019t think it\u2019s great. The phone changed everything. There\u2019s just too much noise out there \u2014 too many distractions.<\/p>\n

The phone also changed the access people have to the famous.
It\u2019s an all-access pass. And you feel like you have to join that or else you\u2019re not gonna be a part of it because somebody else next door is willing to give it all, show it all, tell it all.<\/p>\n

The hubbub last year<\/a> over the Russell Brand photo illustrates that, right? He posted a red Trump-style hat that said \u201cMake Jesus First Again,\u201d and you asked where you could get one. Backlash ensued.
I think that\u2019s just horrible. I\u2019ve said it before: I wish you could cancel cancel culture. I\u2019ve never been a political person, and boy, did that bite me in the butt. The only time I\u2019ve been political is when I campaigned for Obama [in 2008].<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not nothing.
But it\u2019s not my forte. I\u2019m not educated. It just feels so divisive to me.<\/p>\n

Couple questions about the Pussycat Dolls. What\u2019s the status of your legal dispute with Robin Antin, who founded the group, over a proposed reunion?
Our lawsuit is settled. That should have never happened. That was an unfortunate mistake on someone\u2019s part \u2014 not mine. However, time heals things, and grace is always beautiful in life. I\u2019m very positive and, dare I say, excited for the possibilities to come on the horizon.<\/p>\n

In some ways, the group strikes me as the epitome of early-2000s pop. I don\u2019t know that you could have the Dolls today.
You couldn\u2019t and you shouldn\u2019t. People have evolved, and there\u2019s so much more freedom and inclusion and acceptance. The original conception of the Dolls, it came from a time when women would dress up and be pretty for the men. That\u2019s what was sexy, right? Today, sexiness is to be sexy for yourself. Strength means accepting yourself, not pretending you\u2019re strong for someone else.<\/p>\n

If I was gonna do the Dolls again, it would have to make sense to me now, and I can\u2019t go back to what things were before. I actually wrote a song about it called \u201cNever Going Back.\u201d I\u2019ve come way too far to go backwards, and I\u2019m not just a puppet anymore. I\u2019m 87 years old now, and I know my f\u2014 s\u2014, OK?<\/p>\n

Sounds like a reunion would mean a total overhaul. In that case, why bother?
Because the songs are too good. That\u2019s what\u2019s so great about nostalgia. If I had the time, I\u2019d be the first one to go to a New Kids on the Block concert. \u201cThe Right Stuff,\u201d \u201cPlease Don\u2019t Go Girl\u201d \u2014 those songs!<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

What was the Pussycat Dolls\u2019 finest musical moment?
\u201cStickwitu.\u201d That gave us a Grammy nomination.<\/p>\n

Best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals. This was the 2007 Grammys. You lost to the Black Eyed Peas\u2019 \u201cMy Humps.\u201d
Which was written for me.<\/p>\n

Will.i.am has said he offered you a spot in the group.
Will is my brother in this industry. He was there when I auditioned for the Pussycat Dolls, and before the Dolls he asked me to be a part of the group. It just didn\u2019t feel right, and it wasn\u2019t meant to be because Fergie was the perfect Pea and I was meant to lead the Pussycat Dolls. But he wrote that song for the Dolls.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve put in a lot of time as a judge on singing shows: \u201cThe Sing-Off,\u201d \u201cThe X Factor,\u201d \u201cThe Masked Singer.\u201d
Even now: \u201cBuilding the Band.\u201d<\/p>\n

You ever worry that work might dull your skills as a performer?
Jamie Lloyd, when he got me in the studio the very first week, he said, \u201cYou are one of the greats, and I never want to see you on one of those shows again.\u201d I was like, \u201cWell, honey, I take care of my family, and I ain\u2019t come from no money.\u201d They pay the bills.<\/p>\n

If you were to make a Nicole Scherzinger album right now, what kind of record would it be?
I\u2019d love to do a musical theater album because of these concerts that I\u2019ve been doing \u2014 just songs that I love, songs that have always spoken to me, roles that I never had the opportunity to play. But I\u2019ve also been writing a lot, and so I pretty much have that album.<\/p>\n

And?
It\u2019s pop, but it\u2019s pop with edge. Some of it\u2019s more dance, some of it\u2019s more singer-songwriter. If I were to call it right now, I\u2019d call it \u201cWarrior.\u201d It\u2019s a lot of empowering anthems.<\/p>\n

Do you sense an audience for that?
The entire world! Who doesn\u2019t want music that makes a change? Who doesn\u2019t want music that\u2019s gonna inspire you through the dark times? One of the biggest things in the world right now is \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d Listen to the lyrics of those songs and what they\u2019re saying \u2014 it\u2019s all uplifting. It\u2019s not cheesy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d is a little cheesy.
No, that is cheesy \u2014 that\u2019s full-on global-phenomenon Swiss cheese. We all want a slice of that. What I\u2019m saying is that my music isn\u2019t cheesy. It\u2019s not preachy \u2014 it\u2019s real s\u2014.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need me to tell you that pop is not an industry built for a 47-year-old woman.
It wasn\u2019t an industry built for when I turned 30.<\/p>\n

Is that daunting?
No, because I\u2019m smart \u2014 I\u2019m not stupid. Meaning that I would never put a record out to try to compete with the 5-year-olds out here. You know what my dream is? With the music that I\u2019m writing, my dream is to create my own musical. My superpower is being able to tell stories through songs \u2014 stories that grab your heart and your soul and your balls. I\u2019m not trying to chase what I had years ago. I want to have a baby. And I want to keep creating singular moments like \u201cSunset Boulevard.\u201d<\/p>\n

We are in something of a theater-kid moment. You think of Ariana Grande in \u201cWicked\u201d or Lady Gaga in \u201cA Star Is Born.\u201d
I\u2019ll never forget when Gaga was opening for the Pussycat Dolls on tour. She didn\u2019t have a set or anything, so sometimes she would do her transitions and just fall to the floor as if we didn\u2019t see her. We\u2019re like, \u201cYou\u2019re laying on the floor \u2014 we see you.\u201d Then she\u2019d come up as if we were in a new world. It didn\u2019t make any sense, but it made complete sense to her. And it actually made sense to me.<\/p>\n

I used to say to my team, \u201cI want the Dolls to be more theatrical because this is where I come from.\u201d Gaga\u2019s telling a story \u2014 she\u2019s taking people on a journey. And they would be like, \u201cWe don\u2019t do skits.\u201d Robin said that: \u201cYou\u2019re not gonna do skits.\u201d But I was coming from a youth performing arts school where I was in a French play and then \u201cA Cambodian Odyssey,\u201d about the Khmer Rouge. I was 14, and that was my introduction into the arts. Bringing these worlds together, it\u2019s what I\u2019m here for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four months after she won a Tony Award for leading actress in a musical for her blood-soaked portrayal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[17876,22891,7244,22890,48,52,51,47,50,49,19619,22894,592,22889,1860,10390,22888,1058,315,22893,22892],"class_list":{"0":"post-31366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-concert","9":"tag-dolls-today","10":"tag-group","11":"tag-jamie-lloyd","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-headlines","14":"tag-la-news","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles-news","18":"tag-music-industry","19":"tag-nicole-scherzinger","20":"tag-people","21":"tag-pussycat-dolls","22":"tag-show","23":"tag-song","24":"tag-sunset-boulevard","25":"tag-theater","26":"tag-time","27":"tag-tony-award","28":"tag-ugly-part"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}