Nicole Scherzinger’s Star Power Carries a Thinned-Out Pussycat Dolls Reunion
Three Dolls launched a fraught comeback in Birmingham: Nicole Scherzinger led nearly two hours of hair-flipping spectacle after pandemic, legal disputes and cancelled US dates.
Programme
- The Pussycat Dolls opened their comeback tour at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham with only Nicole Scherzinger, Ashley Roberts and Kimberly Wyatt from the original lineup.
- The reunion was first announced in 2019, cancelled after the pandemic and a legal dispute, and relaunched as a 53-date world trio tour; poor ticket sales cancelled the US leg.
- The group scored six UK Top 3 hits in their initial 2005-09 run; Scherzinger recently won a Tony for Broadway's Sunset Blvd.
The Pussycat Dolls launched their long-delayed comeback tour at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham with just three of the original members – Nicole Scherzinger, Ashley Roberts and Kimberly Wyatt – after a run-up marked by a pandemic, a legal dispute and a cancelled US leg.
The tour was first announced in 2019 with all but one of the group's original members on board. The pandemic and then a legal dispute led to its cancellation. After several years of silence, Scherzinger, Roberts and Wyatt announced plans for a 53-date world tour as a trio. Poor ticket sales scrapped the US dates, while former member Jessica Sutta, a Maga supporter, alleged she was excluded from the reunion because she was viewed as "a liability". The group did not comment on the claim.
The central question hanging over the Birmingham show: does a girlband ostensibly created as a dance troupe work as a trio? Scherzinger's voice pushed the group into pop stardom – they scored six UK Top 3 hits during their initial 2005-09 run – but their appeal rested largely on fierce group choreography. Reduced to three, that signature mass spectacle inevitably shrinks.
On stage, the trio give it their best go. The nearly two-hour show is a whirlwind of hair-flipping, booty-shaking and synchronised strutting. Scherzinger remains on lead vocals throughout "When I Grow Up", "Beep" and "I Don't Need a Man" – predictably so after her recent Tony award-winning run on Broadway in "Sunset Blvd".
Roberts and Wyatt get their moments. Their solos amid the clacking pots-and-pans percussion of "Wait a Minute" feel pointed, as if to say that, yes, their mics are on.
The verdict from Birmingham: a decent spectacle, dominated by one voice. With the US leg already gone and original members absent, the tour's future rests on whether audiences across the remaining dates accept the Dolls as a vehicle for Scherzinger's star power rather than the ensemble act they remember.
Source: Guardian Music
