Nicole Scherzinger sounds like a kid desperately clinging to those last fleeting moments of summer break before school starts. She’s calling from an airport in Portugal, having recently wrapped up a beach vacation. In a few days, she’ll relocate to New York City to reprise her role as Norma Desmond in a radical reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “ Sunset Boulevard .”

“I have not looked at my script,” Scherzinger admits. “I have not thought about it. In the past few months, I’ve been on a break, just shutting down. Because the moment I step into the rehearsal room, this show is going to get all of me. Until then, I need to preserve my energy.”

Portraying Norma, a silent film star still clinging to her celluloid dreams long after Hollywood discarded her, has been a career-defining role for Scherzinger, best recognized for her work as a member of the girl group the Pussycat Dolls. The production, which debuted last year on the West End, became the most sought-after ticket of the season, winning seven Olivier Awards. And much of the attention focused on Scherzinger’s powerful performance. The full-bodied intensity with which she depicted Norma’s defiance and desperation had London audiences, typically averse to standing ovations, rising to their feet mid-show after she delivered one impactful musical number after another.

“This is what I’ve been yearning for my entire life, what I’ve been hoping for,” Scherzinger says, “and I’m going to give it my all, every single night, and go for it with everything I've got.”

By the end of the show, Norma has murdered her lover and lost all connection with reality, leaving Scherzinger standing center stage, drenched in sweat, tears streaming down her face, and covered in blood. “She is utterly without vanity,” says Jamie Lloyd , the show’s director. “It can be hard to see where Norma begins and Nicole Scherzinger ends. The two become so blurred together.”

Yet when Lloyd approached her about playing Norma, Scherzinger hesitated. Gloria Swanson's powerful performance as Norma in Billy Wilder's original 1950 film loomed large, and Scherzinger, at 46, wasn't certain she was the right fit for a character representing fading talent. “I can’t say she was flattered — there are many roles Nicole always dreamed of playing, and this was not one of them,” Lloyd admits.

But Lloyd made it clear that he wasn’t interested in depicting Norma as a predatory, washed-up figure, fixated on a younger man. He sought to expose the entertainment industry's ageism, highlighting how its obsession with youth suffocates careers when many performers are still at their peak. This was something Scherzinger understood all too well.

“The unfortunate reality is that I am at my peak,” Scherzinger says. “I’m stronger than ever and my voice has never sounded better. But the industry doesn’t see that. They only see your age. So they cast you aside and dismiss you.”

This production also offers a fresh perspective on the dynamic between Norma, a middle-aged woman, and Joe, a screenwriter in his 30s she hires to revise a script, their relationship eventually turning romantic. In the film, Joe is presented as a reluctant gigolo, accepting Norma's advances because he's facing financial hardship. In Lloyd's revival, however, Norma is not the exploiter - she's the one being manipulated. “Jamie is all about shifting your perspective,” Scherzinger says.

When "Sunset Boulevard" debuted on Broadway in 1994, the onstage drama was eclipsed by offstage turmoil – specifically, a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by Patti LuPone against the producers after her dismissal and replacement by Glenn Close. Headlines also focused on the show's massive (for the time) $13 million budget, which funded lavish sets including Norma's ornate mansion, along with a car chase featuring an actual vehicle. Lloyd, known for stripped-down productions of classics such as last year's "A Doll's House," eschewed all that. This "Sunset Boulevard" utilizes minimal sets and props, emphasizing the performances and Lloyd Webber's haunting score.

"Our starting point was simplicity – what is the bare minimum needed to map out the characters' journey?" Lloyd explains. "It turns out we don't require much. This allowed us to refresh the piece and rediscover it anew."