The singer and actress performed with dancers from the musical Sunset Blvd
Nicole Scherzinger flashed back to 2005 at the 2025 iteration of Broadway Bares, an annual charity event hosted in New York City with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit organization Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The singer hit the stage at Hammerstein Ballroom to perform the Pussycat Dolls single “Buttons” with dancers from the musical Sunset Blvd., in which she stars as Norma Desmond.
“Please give it up for my beautiful cast of Sunset Blvd,” Scherzinger said on stage. “Happy Pride, baby!” This year’s Broadway Bares theme was “Come Out, Come Out,” with visual and musical references to the Wizard of Oz and performances from hundreds of dancers.
“Buttons” fit right into the tone of the burlesque event. The hit single arrived two decades ago as Interscope Records hoped to reinvent the image of the Pussycat Dolls, which had roots as a burlesque troupe. “This could be Moulin Rouge meets the Spice Girls,” Jimmy Iovine told The Chicago Tribune in 2006.
Lately, Scherzinger has laid down impressive roots on Broadway. Earlier this month, she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. “Look, y’all know this Broadway schedule is hard core, I gots to keep it real … I am so proud to be honored to be recognized alongside these exceptional warrior women in this category, I wanna thank all of you,” she said at the time. “To our extraordinary cast, crew, producers, creatives, I’m forever grateful to you. We killed that matinee today, OK, literally. It’s no joke, this schedule.”
Broadway Bares welcomed other special guests throughout the night. Tony Award winners André De Shields, J. Harrison Ghee, and Alex Newell were in attendance as well as Olivier Award winner Lesli Margherita, RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Peppermint, and The Lion King actor Bradley Gibson.
