From Pussycat Dolls to Broadway triumph

[Scherzinger, from E1]

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NICOLE SCHERZINGER performs hits from her repertoire at Royal Albert Hall in London on Oct. 6.

(RACHEL SOHO)

Your gig here was you saying, “Put me in, Coach.”

Basically I was telling people, “Hey, can I audition for this movie musical? Can I audition for this live TV musical?” People wouldn't even give me a shot — they only knew me from the pop side. So I was like, OK, let me educate everyone on who I am and what my real love language is, which is the stage.

Give me an example of something you weren’t allowed to audition for.

They wouldn't see me for “Cats.” But that ended up being a blessing.

You're talking about the crummy movie version from 2019.

That was God protecting me.

I recently talked to Josh Groban, who told me about the difference between the Grammys and the Tonys. He said the Grammys are all about competition but that everyone at the Tonys is genuinely supportive of one another because they all know how hard live theater is.

I couldn’t have said it any better. I'll still try to. Broadway is not for the faint of heart. You're not doing it for a camera or a post — you're just working your ass off literally every night for the passion and the love and for those couple thousand people in the theater. The music industry is dog-eat-dog — you're just trying to stay relevant. The Broadway community, they don't give a s— about relevancy. They give a s— about art and about your work ethic.

Take me back to your final “Sunset” performance in July.

Other than my mother’s two successful open-heart surgeries, that was the greatest day of my life.

Better than winning the Tony?