Yes, it’s a revival of a 31-year-old musical based on a 74-year-old black-and-white film. And both are as vaguely remembered by young audiences as the main character, Norma Desmond, is by cruel Hollywood.

But age is just a number, right, Norma? “Sunset Boulevard,” which opened Sunday night at the St. James Theater, is Broadway’s most exciting show in years.

There’s so much energy, freshness and relentless intensity coursing through the veins of director Jamie Lloyd’s sensational production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical from start to finish, you’d swear it was brand new.

And the adrenaline rushes through our bloodstream as the extraordinary Nicole Scherzinger, making her miraculous Broadway debut, wails a note.

She’s otherworldly, just like the reclusive Norma. A revelation. And when the former Pussycat Doll sings Lloyd Webber’s poignant ballads, “With One Look” and “As If We Never Said Goodbye,” as the haze swirls dreamily behind her, the audience almost levitates.

The entire production leaves you breathless. We are captivated from the moment the giant video screen – the chandelier of this staging – descends from the rafters depicting actor Tom Francis’ dangerous eyes as struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis rides to his doom.

From then on, Joe and the ticket buyers are sucked into Norma’s delusions in the dark – that she is still the biggest star of them all; that she will make her long-awaited return; that her whole sad life is one big movie.

A damn entertaining one by the way.

Anyone who’s seen Billy Wilder’s 1950 classic starring Gloria Swanson, or the show on Broadway in the 1990s and 2017 starring Glenn Close, may be concerned that their glasses prescription is outdated. Lloyd’s production is unrecognizable.

Call it ‘No-Set Boulevard’. The director has thrown away the large mansion with its endless stairs, leaving only a few chairs behind. There are no Hollywood lots and sound stages from the 1930s. Scherzinger wears a silky black dress (costumes by Soutra Gilmour) instead of a turban and shape-revealing scarf.

A few filler songs, such as “The Lady’s Paying,” have been removed. Good! And anachronistic dances – a la “The Robot” – have been added. Norma, who desperately wants to be half her age, sometimes speaks as if she’s filming an Instagram video.

A sensual dancer, Young Norma (Hannah Yun Chamberlain), tickles and tortures Norma with memories of her glory days. The movements of choreographer Fabian Aloise vary from seductive to chaotic.

It’s a lot. But somehow it all works wonderfully.

That’s because the tragic story of the road to fame’s demise is as true and relevant as ever. As Joe bitingly notes, “The world is full of Joes and Normas.”

At first, the frustrated Joe is just a writer who can’t get a job, until one day he’s chased by thugs in Sunset and stumbles upon the mansion of Norma Desmond – a crazy silent movie star who has been forgotten by the arrival of the film. talkies.

She hires Joe to spruce up her terrible screenplay “Salome,” which she plans to be her Hollywood comeback. With no other option, he moves into the cavernous house, ruled by her Lurch-like butler Max (David Thaxton), and together Norma and Joe face disaster.

Lloyd’s, by the way, is the first production of “Sunset Boulevard” I’ve seen in which the scenes with Joe, Betty Schaefer (a strong Grace Hodgett Young), the third party in a twisted love triangle, Artie (Diego Andres Rodriguez) and their LA writer friends are more than just boring water breaks for the actress who plays Norma.

The cinematic close-ups on their expressive faces as they fall and fall in love, set to Lloyd Webber’s stirring score, add real meat to sections that could easily slump.

At the same time, lighting designer Jack Knowles uses shadows and harsh brightness to heighten the drama with haunting images straight out of a silent film.

Francis, smoldering and velvet-voiced in his Broadway debut, walks away with the musical’s biggest talker at the top of the second act.

A feat that involves video cameras, fresh air and a mountain of logistics. It’s exciting, loads of fun… and will infuriate some people. After all, it wouldn’t be Broadway if there weren’t some whining about videos.

But the show belongs to the titanic Scherzinger, who makes a particularly proud and wild Norma. Her self-confidence and burning desire to succeed means her fall is far greater than that of a dusty hermit.

As I watched her flowing arms as she sang “As If We Never Said Goodbye,” I noticed that the actress was channeling Michael Crawford’s creepy, love-sick Phantom.

“The Phantom of the Opera,” of course, played across the street at the Majestic Theater for 35 years until it closed last spring.

Now Lloyd Webber is back on 44th Street with a bona fide new stage star, and it seems fitting. As Norma says, “back where I was born!”