{"id":49097,"date":"2025-05-14T19:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T23:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/in-sunset-boulevard-tom-francis-writes-his-own-story\/14\/05\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T19:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T23:04:09","slug":"in-sunset-boulevard-tom-francis-writes-his-own-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/entertainment\/in-sunset-boulevard-tom-francis-writes-his-own-story\/14\/05\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018Sunset Boulevard,\u2019 Tom Francis Writes His Own Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cI just knew in an instant that was Joe Gillis,\u201d Lloyd said in a phone interview. That Francis looked more like a noir hunk than a typical musical theater actor helped. (\u201cHe wasn\u2019t in any way glossy,\u201d Lloyd said. \u201cHe looked a real guy.\u201d) And while Francis isn\u2019t naturally cynical \u2014 or naturally a baritone \u2014 he let the words and music take him there, with a voice that could go barroom smoky or church-bell clear, which convinced Lloyd and, later, Lloyd Webber.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, he\u2019s a really good singer,\u201d Lloyd Webber called to tell me.<\/p>\n

FRANCIS WAS JUST 22<\/strong> during those auditions, and 23 when rehearsals began. Scherzinger, who plays the fading star Norma Desmond, remembered meeting him and thinking: \u201cHe\u2019s so young. Then I realized the whole cast was so young. I was like, \u2018Wow, I really feel like Norma Desmond now, because I feel so old.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The show opened in London in the fall of 2023 to rapturous reviews<\/a>. Talk of a New York transfer was immediate. A month into the run, Lloyd came into Francis\u2019s dressing room and asked him if he would like to go to New York. Francis had known that Scherzinger was a lock; he hadn\u2019t thought that Lloyd would take him as well. But the chemistry between the two of them was undeniable. Offstage, this manifests as a brother-sister closeness. (\u201cHe\u2019s a good boy, and I love him,\u201d Scherzinger said.) Onstage, it\u2019s a lot steamier. Lloyd wanted them both.<\/p>\n

Francis didn\u2019t have to think about it. \u201cI was like, \u2018Hell yes, a thousand times over,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s Broadway theater, the St. James, was larger than the London one, and the outside jaunt \u2014 during which Francis sings the title number while being filmed live \u2014 trickier, though Francis insists that the crowds that gather to watch him are typically polite. (Those crowds are more rapacious at the stage door. Francis doesn\u2019t mind it. \u201cIt\u2019s quite a nice feeling knowing you\u2019ve made someone\u2019s day,\u201d he said.) But the demands of the show wore at him. He sings or speaks for perhaps 90 minutes of it. And toward the close of the show he has to scream, gutturally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a sustained note kind of scream, it needs to sound like you\u2019ve been shot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I just knew in an instant that was Joe Gillis,” Lloyd said in a phone interview. That Francis looked more like a