Having seen both the "Gypsy" (from the third level) and "Follies" (from the second level) in person, I found those performances to be exacting, intelligent, and deeply moving. Someone wrote that her Rose felt pitched to the rafters, and maybe that worked well when you were sitting in the rafters, because even though we were quite far from the stage, that performance felt very intimate.
I remember when we saw the London production of "Circle Mirror" (which was brilliantly staged in an actual community center), I went in skeptical, because I doubted Imelda could set aside her movie star status to play someone as normal as Marty... and then it wound up being a revelatory evening, because she was just so real and human. It could be that she brings a magic you have to experience in the room, though if you also find her too much on film, you could indeed just not be a fan. |
