(continued)

Bernadette is beautiful and alluring, in her own way, and you could easily see how young Ben would have wanted her or been drawn to her. It wasn't her looks that were the problem. He just sensed she was a needy insecure mess (betraying Phyllis, her close friend, and Buddy at the same time) and saw more dignity in Phyllis probably.

I mean, everyone is welcome to see it differently (and can I say, I'm loving this conversation!) but to me, Bernadette was great as Sally physically. Imelda might have acted it differently/better/more dynamically, but there's a reason she was cast to play The Queen. She looks like a church lady. Unless Ben is very interesting (and really, he doesn't seem to be) and open-minded and attracted to various types, I don't see how he'd give Sally more than a quick glance if she looks like a tiny grandma. He's shallow and self-involved. If he indulges this idea of loving Sally, even temporarily, it's because he sees her, gets a boner over how good she still looks, and gets off on the memories of their forbidden tryst and her undying desire for him.

That clip above of Bernadette isn't my favorite - she's overselling the crying a wee bit for my tastes. When I saw her, she was standing there and more low-key destroyed and crying/singing. There's another vid of her on YT where she sings it with fewer pauses and it's just gangbusters, and more like the performance I saw.

It's such a weird unsettling performance too. The way she barely moves her arms, as if she's physically dead or frozen or scared...the way she looks off to the wings as if to say "....what....what do I.....!?!" like she's being forced to re-enact her old number and can't leave, but can't hold it together either.

And the long drawn-out "miiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnd" which floats over the final bars. Beautiful vocal arrangement.

I really don't care for her recording of LMM on the Follies cast album because she sings the climax slightly differently than she did on stage, proving the "she mixes it up" point, I guess.

Interesting r37. What made the first night you saw her so good? Was she in better voice...or was she making stronger acting choices?

I will say it was weird seeing Bernadette play a character so...weak. Her Sally was pretty much embarrassing herself by walking around so obviously mooning over Ben and play-acting some great reunion, as Danny Burstein's Buddy stood there like "come on, dear, let's maybe call it a night" and Jan Maxwell's Phyllis looked at her like "oh...wow. Seriously? This is...so sad. Honey. No."

I should go watch the DC bootleg video to see if she was really playing Sally with more manic pep at the start. I think there was a bootleg of her in the red dress.

Can we all agree that Jayne Houdyshell SLAYED Broadway Baby, though? Holy shit - THAT was amazing!