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    ‘Sunset Boulevard’ Starring Nicole Scherzinger Wins the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival

    The high-tech production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical proved to be a star vehicle for the pop singer.A radically reimagined production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard,” with no turban and lots of technology, won the Tony Award for best musical revival on Sunday night.The production, which began performances at Broadway’s St. James Theater last September and is scheduled to run only until July 13, is the brainchild of its director, Jamie Lloyd, a 45-year-old British auteur who prioritizes dialogue and psychological depth over furniture and props. Lloyd’s production first ran in London’s West End, where it won last year’s Olivier Award for best musical revival.The show proved to be a star vehicle for its leading lady, Nicole Scherzinger, who in her 20s achieved fame as the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, and then spent years as a judge on television talent shows before landing this role, which has reintroduced her, at age 46, as a powerhouse performer.In the musical, Scherzinger plays Norma Desmond, a onetime star of silent films who has vanished from the limelight but delusionally dreams of returning to the big screen. The show, set in Los Angeles in 1949 and 1950, is based on a 1950 Billy Wilder film; Lloyd Webber wrote the stage production’s music, while the book and lyrics are by Don Black and Christopher Hampton.The original Broadway production won seven Tony Awards, including best musical, in 1995. That production starred Glenn Close, who returned to play the role again in 2017 in the only previous Broadway revival of the show.The current production is characterized by its heavy use of technology adapted from filmmaking and its minimalist, modern aesthetic. The actors are dressed mostly in black and white; Scherzinger performs much of the show barefoot, and she and her co-star, Tom Francis, end the show drenched in blood.Because the story is about, and set in, Hollywood, Lloyd opted to integrate and interrogate cinematic devices — much of the onstage action is filmed by performers holding movie cameras and is projected onto a huge screen behind the actors. One of the production’s highlights is a coup de théâtre at the top of the second act, when Francis, playing a writer named Joe Gillis, performs the title number while walking through Shubert Alley and along 44th Street, with the action visible to audience members onscreen.The revival is being produced on Broadway by companies controlled by Lloyd (the Jamie Lloyd Company) and Lloyd Webber (Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals), and by ATG Productions, which operates the theater where the show is playing, and by Gavin Kalin Productions. The show was capitalized for up to $15 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission; it has been selling more than $1 million worth of tickets most weeks, but it is not yet clear whether it will recoup its capitalization costs. More

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    Nicole Scherzinger Wins the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical

    In “Sunset Boulevard,” Scherzinger plays Norma Desmond, a former screen star who descends into madness.Nicole Scherzinger won the Tony Award for best actress in a musical for her performance in a revival of “Sunset Boulevard,” a high-tech, minimal-scenery staging from Jamie Lloyd about a washed-up silent film star, Norma Desmond, who haunts a grand, ghostly Los Angeles mansion. This is Scherzinger’s first nomination and win.This latest run of “Sunset Boulevard” — based on the 1950 film by Billy Wilder — is dramatically scaled back compared to previous revivals of the Andrew Lloyd Webber show. Instead, the show relies on technology to modernize it for a new audience. It is the type of show that demands vocal and choreographic athleticism, something that Scherzinger — the former lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls — takes on with confidence.It first opened in London in 2023, winning Scherzinger praise and an Olivier. It then moved to Broadway last fall, and Jesse Green, the chief theater critic for The New York Times, wrote that Scherzinger delivered an “exciting yet exceptionally weird and counterintuitive performance.”Speaking to The Times in 2023, Scherzinger described her turn as Norma as “grueling.”“But for many years I have been saying I am using a fraction of my potential, and now I feel I have really tapped into that,” she said.Before joining the show and after the Pussycat Dolls disbanded in 2010, Scherzinger pursued a solo career with modest success — dropping two solo albums and working as a judge on “The X Factor” and “The Masked Singer.”She later performed “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” (from Lloyd Webber’s “Evita”) as part of a TV special celebrating Lloyd Webber, who, along with the director Trevor Nunn, asked her to join the cast of the 2014 revival of “Cats” in the West End. More

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    ‘Maybe Happy Ending’ Wins the Tony for Best Musical

    The musical, about a budding romance between two outdated robots, won six Tony Awards on Sunday night.“Maybe Happy Ending,” an original musical that is outwardly about a budding romance between two outdated robots, but fundamentally about contemporary themes of social isolation and the transformative power of connection, won a stunning victory as best musical at the Tony Awards Sunday night.The show’s triumph defied all the odds — it has a mystifying title, a subject matter that some find off-putting, and zero brand recognition in an industry often dominated by well-known intellectual property and well-liked celebrities. But “Maybe Happy Ending” has gradually won over audiences since opening last fall, and overtook several better-known, and better-funded, titles to win the award that traditionally has the biggest financial impact on the shows that receive it.The story concerns two discarded “helperbots” — humanoid robots previously used as personal assistants — living across the hall from one another at a robot retirement home in a near-future Seoul. The helperbots, played by Darren Criss and Helen J Shen, strike up a friendship and embark on a road trip, racing against their own expiring shelf lives as they seek meaning and magic, at first from the outside world, but then from each other.The show is written by two Broadway newbies, Will Aronson, who was born in the United States, and Hue Park, who was born in South Korea; it is directed by Michael Arden, a Broadway regular who won a Tony Award in 2023 for directing “Parade.”The score has a midcentury pop and jazz sound. The cast is remarkably small for a Broadway musical, with just four onstage actors. But the production feels big, because it has an unusually elaborate and high-tech set, designed by Dane Laffrey with video design by George Reeve, that is one of the most complex and sophisticated seen on Broadway.“Maybe Happy Ending” had a long and nontraditional path to Broadway. It had productions in South Korea and Japan, as well as a prepandemic run at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, before making its way to New York, where it opened in November to unanimously positive reviews. In The New York Times, the critic Jesse Green called it “astonishing,” writing, “Under cover of sci-fi whimsy, it sneaks in a totally original human heartbreaker.”The show began performances on Broadway last October and continues with an open-ended run at the Belasco Theater. A North American tour is scheduled to begin in Baltimore in the fall of 2026.The Broadway run is being produced by Jeffrey Richards and Hunter Arnold; it was capitalized for $16 million, and it is not yet clear whether it will recoup those capitalization costs, although the Tony will likely help. More

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    Darren Criss wins the Tony Award for best actor in a musical.

    The cast of “Hamilton” on Sunday returned to the room where it happened, at least metaphorically.To mark the 10th anniversary of the show’s opening, 28 members of the original cast — the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, along with the other stars, ensemble members, swings and standbys — gathered onstage at Radio City Music Hall and performed a medley of some of the musical’s biggest songs: “Non-Stop,” “My Shot,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “Guns and Ships,” “You’ll Be Back,” “Yorktown,” “The Room Where It Happens” and “History Has Its Eyes on You.”They dressed not in the show’s period costumes, but in an array of high-fashion evening wear — all black with a few character-driven accents (Lafayette got a Frenchman’s beret; Burr a dueler’s cape; and King George the one splash of color: royal red).They didn’t say a word, but Cynthia Erivo, this year’s Tony Awards host and in 2016 the only musical performer to win a Tony for any show other than “Hamilton,” hailed the production.“Hamilton reinvigorated the American theater and changed not just Broadway, but how Americans views their own history,” Erivo said, before adding wryly, “or so I’m told.”“Hamilton” opened on Broadway on Aug. 6, 2015. The following spring, it was nominated for a record 16 Tony Awards, and then, in a Tonys ceremony at the Beacon Theater, it won 11 prizes, including best musical. (The event was memorable for many reasons — among them, it took place hours after the deadly Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, which led the “Hamilton” cast to drop the use of muskets in its production number, and prompted Miranda to give his “love is love” acceptance speech.)The show quickly became the biggest phenomenon Broadway had seen in quite some time, and in the decade since, it has only gotten bigger, spinning off touring companies, streaming a live-capture film on Disney+, grossing about $3 billion in North America, and still going strong.The production has been celebrating the anniversary for months, calling it “Hamilten.” (Ten is a special number in the “Hamilton” universe, because Alexander Hamilton is featured on the $10 bill.)The Sunday night reunion performance was designed by the quartet often described as the “Hamilton” cabinet: the director Thomas Kail, the choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, the music director Alex Lacamoire, and Miranda. Given the passage of time, Blankenbuehler relaxed some of the dance steps.Among those who took part in the performance were the show’s Tony-winning cast members, Leslie Odom Jr. (Aaron Burr), Daveed Diggs (Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson) and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler), as well as Miranda (Alexander Hamilton), who won Tony Awards for writing the show’s book and score. Also, the show’s other Tony-nominated performers: Jonathan Groff (King George), Christopher Jackson (George Washington) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton).Even the ensemble was stacked: It included Ariana DeBose, who was a member of the original “Hamilton” company, and who then went on to win an Academy Award for “West Side Story” and to host the Tony Awards three times.Several of the show’s alumni are back on Broadway this year.Groff is starring in a Bobby Darin biomusical, “Just in Time,” that opened in April and is selling tickets through January. The actor was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in “Just in Time,” and won a Tony Award last year for “Merrily We Roll Along.”Jackson last week began a run as the protagonist’s father in “Hell’s Kitchen,” the Alicia Keys musical. And Odom is planning to rejoin “Hamilton” on Broadway later this year, reprising his performance as Burr from Sept. 9 to Nov. 26.Miranda and Goldsberry both had brief stints on Broadway during the season that just ended, performing staged readings as part of the rotating cast of “All In: Comedy About Love.” And Miranda is now working with Eisa Davis on a musical adaptation of the film “The Warriors”; a concept album (called simply “Warriors”) was released last year. More

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    Trump is barely mentioned at the Tonys.

    The cast of “Hamilton” on Sunday returned to the room where it happened, at least metaphorically.To mark the 10th anniversary of the show’s opening, 28 members of the original cast — the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, along with the other stars, ensemble members, swings and standbys — gathered onstage at Radio City Music Hall and performed a medley of some of the musical’s biggest songs: “Non-Stop,” “My Shot,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “Guns and Ships,” “You’ll Be Back,” “Yorktown,” “The Room Where It Happens” and “History Has Its Eyes on You.”They dressed not in the show’s period costumes, but in an array of high-fashion evening wear — all black with a few character-driven accents (Lafayette got a Frenchman’s beret; Burr a dueler’s cape; and King George the one splash of color: royal red).They didn’t say a word, but Cynthia Erivo, this year’s Tony Awards host and in 2016 the only musical performer to win a Tony for any show other than “Hamilton,” hailed the production.“Hamilton reinvigorated the American theater and changed not just Broadway, but how Americans views their own history,” Erivo said, before adding wryly, “or so I’m told.”“Hamilton” opened on Broadway on Aug. 6, 2015. The following spring, it was nominated for a record 16 Tony Awards, and then, in a Tonys ceremony at the Beacon Theater, it won 11 prizes, including best musical. (The event was memorable for many reasons — among them, it took place hours after the deadly Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, which led the “Hamilton” cast to drop the use of muskets in its production number, and prompted Miranda to give his “love is love” acceptance speech.)The show quickly became the biggest phenomenon Broadway had seen in quite some time, and in the decade since, it has only gotten bigger, spinning off touring companies, streaming a live-capture film on Disney+, grossing about $3 billion in North America, and still going strong.The production has been celebrating the anniversary for months, calling it “Hamilten.” (Ten is a special number in the “Hamilton” universe, because Alexander Hamilton is featured on the $10 bill.)The Sunday night reunion performance was designed by the quartet often described as the “Hamilton” cabinet: the director Thomas Kail, the choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, the music director Alex Lacamoire, and Miranda. Given the passage of time, Blankenbuehler relaxed some of the dance steps.Among those who took part in the performance were the show’s Tony-winning cast members, Leslie Odom Jr. (Aaron Burr), Daveed Diggs (Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson) and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler), as well as Miranda (Alexander Hamilton), who won Tony Awards for writing the show’s book and score. Also, the show’s other Tony-nominated performers: Jonathan Groff (King George), Christopher Jackson (George Washington) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton).Even the ensemble was stacked: It included Ariana DeBose, who was a member of the original “Hamilton” company, and who then went on to win an Academy Award for “West Side Story” and to host the Tony Awards three times.Several of the show’s alumni are back on Broadway this year.Groff is starring in a Bobby Darin biomusical, “Just in Time,” that opened in April and is selling tickets through January. The actor was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in “Just in Time,” and won a Tony Award last year for “Merrily We Roll Along.”Jackson last week began a run as the protagonist’s father in “Hell’s Kitchen,” the Alicia Keys musical. And Odom is planning to rejoin “Hamilton” on Broadway later this year, reprising his performance as Burr from Sept. 9 to Nov. 26.Miranda and Goldsberry both had brief stints on Broadway during the season that just ended, performing staged readings as part of the rotating cast of “All In: Comedy About Love.” And Miranda is now working with Eisa Davis on a musical adaptation of the film “The Warriors”; a concept album (called simply “Warriors”) was released last year. More

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    A Brooklyn teacher receives the excellence in theater education award.

    The cast of “Hamilton” on Sunday returned to the room where it happened, at least metaphorically.To mark the 10th anniversary of the show’s opening, 28 members of the original cast — the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, along with the other stars, ensemble members, swings and standbys — gathered onstage at Radio City Music Hall and performed a medley of some of the musical’s biggest songs: “Non-Stop,” “My Shot,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “Guns and Ships,” “You’ll Be Back,” “Yorktown,” “The Room Where It Happens” and “History Has Its Eyes on You.”They dressed not in the show’s period costumes, but in an array of high-fashion evening wear — all black with a few character-driven accents (Lafayette got a Frenchman’s beret; Burr a dueler’s cape; and King George the one splash of color: royal red).They didn’t say a word, but Cynthia Erivo, this year’s Tony Awards host and in 2016 the only musical performer to win a Tony for any show other than “Hamilton,” hailed the production.“Hamilton reinvigorated the American theater and changed not just Broadway, but how Americans views their own history,” Erivo said, before adding wryly, “or so I’m told.”“Hamilton” opened on Broadway on Aug. 6, 2015. The following spring, it was nominated for a record 16 Tony Awards, and then, in a Tonys ceremony at the Beacon Theater, it won 11 prizes, including best musical. (The event was memorable for many reasons — among them, it took place hours after the deadly Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, which led the “Hamilton” cast to drop the use of muskets in its production number, and prompted Miranda to give his “love is love” acceptance speech.)The show quickly became the biggest phenomenon Broadway had seen in quite some time, and in the decade since, it has only gotten bigger, spinning off touring companies, streaming a live-capture film on Disney+, grossing about $3 billion in North America, and still going strong.The production has been celebrating the anniversary for months, calling it “Hamilten.” (Ten is a special number in the “Hamilton” universe, because Alexander Hamilton is featured on the $10 bill.)The Sunday night reunion performance was designed by the quartet often described as the “Hamilton” cabinet: the director Thomas Kail, the choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, the music director Alex Lacamoire, and Miranda. Given the passage of time, Blankenbuehler relaxed some of the dance steps.Among those who took part in the performance were the show’s Tony-winning cast members, Leslie Odom Jr. (Aaron Burr), Daveed Diggs (Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson) and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler), as well as Miranda (Alexander Hamilton), who won Tony Awards for writing the show’s book and score. Also, the show’s other Tony-nominated performers: Jonathan Groff (King George), Christopher Jackson (George Washington) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton).Even the ensemble was stacked: It included Ariana DeBose, who was a member of the original “Hamilton” company, and who then went on to win an Academy Award for “West Side Story” and to host the Tony Awards three times.Several of the show’s alumni are back on Broadway this year.Groff is starring in a Bobby Darin biomusical, “Just in Time,” that opened in April and is selling tickets through January. The actor was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in “Just in Time,” and won a Tony Award last year for “Merrily We Roll Along.”Jackson last week began a run as the protagonist’s father in “Hell’s Kitchen,” the Alicia Keys musical. And Odom is planning to rejoin “Hamilton” on Broadway later this year, reprising his performance as Burr from Sept. 9 to Nov. 26.Miranda and Goldsberry both had brief stints on Broadway during the season that just ended, performing staged readings as part of the rotating cast of “All In: Comedy About Love.” And Miranda is now working with Eisa Davis on a musical adaptation of the film “The Warriors”; a concept album (called simply “Warriors”) was released last year. More

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    Lin-Manuel Miranda and Original ‘Hamilton’ Cast Reunited for a Tonys Medley

    Marking the 10th anniversary of the show’s opening, the creator and cast reunited to perform “My Shot,” “The Schuyler Sisters” and other notable songs.The cast of “Hamilton” on Sunday returned to the room where it happened, at least metaphorically.To mark the 10th anniversary of the show’s opening, 28 members of the original cast — the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, along with the other stars, ensemble members, swings and standbys — gathered onstage at Radio City Music Hall and performed a medley of some of the musical’s biggest songs: “Non-Stop,” “My Shot,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “Guns and Ships,” “You’ll Be Back,” “Yorktown,” “The Room Where It Happens” and “History Has Its Eyes on You.”They dressed not in the show’s period costumes, but in an array of high-fashion evening wear — all black with a few character-driven accents (Lafayette got a Frenchman’s beret; Burr a dueler’s cape; and King George the one splash of color: royal red).They didn’t say a word, but Cynthia Erivo, this year’s Tony Awards host and in 2016 the only musical performer to win a Tony for any show other than “Hamilton,” hailed the production.“Hamilton reinvigorated the American theater and changed not just Broadway, but how Americans views their own history,” Erivo said, before adding wryly, “or so I’m told.”“Hamilton” opened on Broadway on Aug. 6, 2015. The following spring, it was nominated for a record 16 Tony Awards, and then, in a Tonys ceremony at the Beacon Theater, it won 11 prizes, including best musical. (The event was memorable for many reasons — among them, it took place hours after the deadly Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, which led the “Hamilton” cast to drop the use of muskets in its production number, and prompted Miranda to give his “love is love” acceptance speech.)The show quickly became the biggest phenomenon Broadway had seen in quite some time, and in the decade since, it has only gotten bigger, spinning off touring companies, streaming a live-capture film on Disney+, grossing about $3 billion in North America, and still going strong.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Eureka Day’ wins the Tony for best revival of a play.

    The cast of “Hamilton” on Sunday returned to the room where it happened, at least metaphorically.To mark the 10th anniversary of the show’s opening, 28 members of the original cast — the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, along with the other stars, ensemble members, swings and standbys — gathered onstage at Radio City Music Hall and performed a medley of some of the musical’s biggest songs: “Non-Stop,” “My Shot,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “Guns and Ships,” “You’ll Be Back,” “Yorktown,” “The Room Where It Happens” and “History Has Its Eyes on You.”They dressed not in the show’s period costumes, but in an array of high-fashion evening wear — all black with a few character-driven accents (Lafayette got a Frenchman’s beret; Burr a dueler’s cape; and King George the one splash of color: royal red).They didn’t say a word, but Cynthia Erivo, this year’s Tony Awards host and in 2016 the only musical performer to win a Tony for any show other than “Hamilton,” hailed the production.“Hamilton reinvigorated the American theater and changed not just Broadway, but how Americans views their own history,” Erivo said, before adding wryly, “or so I’m told.”“Hamilton” opened on Broadway on Aug. 6, 2015. The following spring, it was nominated for a record 16 Tony Awards, and then, in a Tonys ceremony at the Beacon Theater, it won 11 prizes, including best musical. (The event was memorable for many reasons — among them, it took place hours after the deadly Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, which led the “Hamilton” cast to drop the use of muskets in its production number, and prompted Miranda to give his “love is love” acceptance speech.)The show quickly became the biggest phenomenon Broadway had seen in quite some time, and in the decade since, it has only gotten bigger, spinning off touring companies, streaming a live-capture film on Disney+, grossing about $3 billion in North America, and still going strong.The production has been celebrating the anniversary for months, calling it “Hamilten.” (Ten is a special number in the “Hamilton” universe, because Alexander Hamilton is featured on the $10 bill.)The Sunday night reunion performance was designed by the quartet often described as the “Hamilton” cabinet: the director Thomas Kail, the choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, the music director Alex Lacamoire, and Miranda. Given the passage of time, Blankenbuehler relaxed some of the dance steps.Among those who took part in the performance were the show’s Tony-winning cast members, Leslie Odom Jr. (Aaron Burr), Daveed Diggs (Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson) and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Angelica Schuyler), as well as Miranda (Alexander Hamilton), who won Tony Awards for writing the show’s book and score. Also, the show’s other Tony-nominated performers: Jonathan Groff (King George), Christopher Jackson (George Washington) and Phillipa Soo (Eliza Hamilton).Even the ensemble was stacked: It included Ariana DeBose, who was a member of the original “Hamilton” company, and who then went on to win an Academy Award for “West Side Story” and to host the Tony Awards three times.Several of the show’s alumni are back on Broadway this year.Groff is starring in a Bobby Darin biomusical, “Just in Time,” that opened in April and is selling tickets through January. The actor was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in “Just in Time,” and won a Tony Award last year for “Merrily We Roll Along.”Jackson last week began a run as the protagonist’s father in “Hell’s Kitchen,” the Alicia Keys musical. And Odom is planning to rejoin “Hamilton” on Broadway later this year, reprising his performance as Burr from Sept. 9 to Nov. 26.Miranda and Goldsberry both had brief stints on Broadway during the season that just ended, performing staged readings as part of the rotating cast of “All In: Comedy About Love.” And Miranda is now working with Eisa Davis on a musical adaptation of the film “The Warriors”; a concept album (called simply “Warriors”) was released last year. More