Gone are the turban, the grand staircase, the jewels, the chandeliers, the drapes, and the viewing of Norma Desmond’s monkey in the reimagining of “Sunset Blvd.” currently running at the St. James Theatre. Norma Desmond (an incandescent Nicole Scherzinger), Max Von Mayerling (a devoted and doting David Thaxton), Joe Gillis (a failed and still failing Tom Francis), and Betty Schafer (Grace Hodgett) are still in the picture (literally) but with a black-and-white setting designed by Soutra Gilmour dressed with two wooden chairs, a large movie screen, an onstage camera crew, and a six-minute outdoor street sequence which requires the skills of sixty-two people.

This movie-inspired stage revival/reimagining of the iconic “Sunset Boulevard” is the darkest and by far the most engaging of any productions that have come before or any that might come after. Jamie Lloyd’s staging is inventive and unique. He creates a bare movie set where the four principals and the Hollywood wannabes slowly fade into the sunset (or the end) of their lives – some sooner than expected, the rest much later than anticipated.

Norma Desmond is a forty-something former silent film star who wants “to go back where she belongs” on the silver screen. She is writing a screenplay about Salome which would star her as the protagonist who has all the lines in the movie. Delusional? Norma thinks not, nor does her former director and first husband Max Von Mayerling who is now her servant/butler. Norma rereads thousands of fan letters (check the postmarks) written by Max and is convinced that once her screenplay is finished, Cecil B. DeMille will have no choice but to direct it. Meanwhile, she mourns the death of her monkey, watches her old silent movies with Max, often falls into deep depressions accompanied by wrist-cutting, and stars in a two-person fantasy world which can never be penetrated by reality.

Enter Joe Gillis from the real world of screenwriting who is “at the bottom of the barrel” and has arrived in Hollywood from Dayton, Ohio hoping to restart his career with an upcoming meeting at Paramount “along with about a thousand other writers.” He parks his car blocks from Paramount, walks to his appointment, and gets ambushed by two finance men who want to repossess his car. He escapes with the help of his sometimes girlfriend Betty and happens to run right into Norma Desmond’s mansion where Max invites him in after admonishing him to “wipe his feet.”

Fast forward. When Norma discovers that Joe is a screenwriter, she and Max convince/coerce him to help her finish her “Salome” script by leaving his apartment (and life) and moving into the room over the garage which Max has already fitted with a bed and toiletries. Norma falls in love with Joe. Joe falls in love with the opportunity to make money. The rest of the narrative is well known both from Billy Wilder’s 1950 epic film and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s (Don Black and Christopher Hampton) long-running musical. But what drives Norman, Max, and Joe down the delusional rabbit hole that leads to Joe’s death and Norma’s arrest? Why is it so important for Norma to “give the world . . . new ways to dream” throughout her acting career? Why does Max collude with Norma? Why does Joe betray Norma? The answer: hubris. Jamie Lloyd’s “Sunset Blvd.” is an extended metaphor for humankind’s arrogance and self-importance, humankind’s wont to emulate divinity, humankind’s excessive pride.

This “Sunset Blvd.” is movie within a musical within a movie. It is a stark reminder of what happens when humankind refuses to accept mortality and reach for divinity. It is a stark reminder of what happens when humankind loses its grip on reality and allows its collective ego strength to evaporate. It is a stark reminder of what can happen when the center no longer holds. It is relevant because it mirrors the hubris that is exhibited in today’s national and international leaders and leaves those of us “out there in the dark” wondering what exactly we are in store for.