Scherzinger, Sunset, Sexism
For Some People, A Woman's Talent is Still Less Important Than Her Age!
Entertainment fashions change. Sometimes the change is a result of human interest waning - you were fresh, new and sexy but now someone else is fresher, newer and sexier. Or maybe your audience grew up and as much as they still love you, that love is now more measured and less vital. But what happens to the STAR when they stop being a STAR? A new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s epic musical Sunset Boulevard looks at this question when it opens later this year in London starring Nicole Scherzinger and directed by the visionary Jamie Lloyd.
Nicole Scherzinger is a STAR! She has achieved huge success as a singer, songwriter, actor and TV personality. She is still best known as the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls who achieved global domination in the Noughties but Ms Scherzinger also achieved huge theatre success, award nominations and rave reviews for her role as Grizabella in the 2014 revival of Cats.
The partnership of Scherzinger, Lloyd and Lloyd Webber is surely a GOOD THING.
But, apparently, some people are unhappy about this casting - and not because of Scherzinger’s talent but because of her age!
The show Sunset Boulevard is based on the eponymous Oscar winning 1950 movie which starred Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a former silent movie star living in glorious isolation in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills. In common with many film stars of the silent period her career was brought to a halt by the arrival of talkies. New technology meant that the Star’s light no longer shone.
Gloria Swanson was 51 when she played Norma the film star who ‘the parade has passed by’.
When Andrew Lloyd Webber cast the opening production of his musical version of Sunset Boulevard in London it featured musical theatre royalty; the 44 year old Patti LuPone in the lead role. There is a whole book to be written about Ms Lupone and Mr Lloyd Webber’s fractious relationship but that is for another day.
For Broadway, Lloyd Webber cast actual movie star Glenn Close who was 48 at the time and went on to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical - Sunset Boulevard also won best musical, best score, best book, lighting, actor, scenery and best interval refreshments (maybe!).
But back to the upcoming West End production: We have a huge STAR paired with a genius director, working on a piece that is musically, lyrically and dramatically sophisticated, elegant and beautiful. So why isn’t everyone celebrating?
According to certain theatre commentators, at 44 years old Nicole Scherzinger is TOO YOUNG to play this role. Some of this is standard Twitterati nonsense but, worryingly, some comes from ‘professional’ and ‘official’ theatre commentators who should know better and are certainly risking their regular comp show tickets!
Strangely, this is not the first time that Scherzinger has been accused of being too young to play a role. Nine years ago at the age of 35, Nicole Scherzinger played Grizabella in Cats. Susannah Clapp in The Guardian wrote that Scherzinger “is extremely implausible in her role as a has-been….Age has not even begun to get going on the withering process.” A kind of back handed compliment which also might suggest that Elaine Paige was already withered when she originated the role back in 1981 at the age of 33 - Which she most certainly was not!
Or maybe Ms Clapp feels that withering is what women should do at a certain age - clearly she has never heard of Sophia Loren!
Not one commentator, journalist or Twitterato has commented on Director Jamie Lloyd’s age (42). He is younger than Scherzinger and originally from sleepy Poole in Dorset. Nobody is questioning his lack of experience in Hollywood as a handicap in telling a totally Tinsel Town Tale. In fact, the only negativity around Lloyd is that he might make Sunset Boulevard a ‘bit minimalist’ which is a justified artistic and creative comment about his work rather than a personal comment.
I tried to work out what was driving this negativity and all I could come up with was basic sexism. There is no equivalent discussion when male actors are cast in shows. Nicole Scherzinger looks good (and why shouldn’t she?) which seems to equate to not ‘looking her age’ or appearing ‘too young’. So, on the one hand, we want people (women) to look young and filtered but, if they do, we are not prepared to accept them also being intelligent, mature, driven and able?
What the hissy Twitterati are missing though is a vital point: Nicole Scherzinger is perfect casting for this role. Think about it. Norma Desmond was a huge global star who saw her fame vanish in an instant despite all of the work, the dedication and the focus she had expended on achieving success.
Nicole Scherzinger worked her behind off to achieve success. She became a global star as lead singer of The Pussycat Dolls because she took her immense talent and relentlessly focused on nothing else but her career.
Now imagine yourself in that position. Imagine the drive, the effort and the work and imagine the fear of losing it all. Everything you did 24 hours a day for years is suddenly gone. Now transfer some of that emotion into playing the role of Norma Desmond who did lose her career and grasps at a potential way back.
Scherzinger will be able to draw from a very deep well of truth for this part: a woman who worked hard to have it all but found it taken away from her. A woman who had to answer questions because she was a woman.
Because the reality of Norma Desmond is the nightmare of successful people and a very real fear for many of us as we get older. What if we are forgotten? What if we no longer matter? Who will remember, as Norma Desmond sings, that we could change the world ‘With One Look’? And, despite progress, it is women who are still judged more harshly for their looks and age than men. Do we think that Nicole Scherzinger will not understand exactly what Norma Desmond is going through because what if it happened to her?
I predict Nicole Scherzinger will be incredible in Sunset Boulevard as an actor, as a singer and as an iconic woman who will bring new audiences to the musical theatre art form. It would be great to have a conversation based around her talent, ability and achievement rather than some old sexist cliched nonsense about a woman’s age!
Sunset Boulevard will play at London’s Savoy Theatre from September 2023 for 16 weeks only.
To find out more and book tickets use this link: https://www.thesavoytheatre.com/shows/sunset-boulevard