Fully agree that the show works best finding some reality in these characters, eschewing farce. Chenoweth was seemingly so ideally cast all she had to do is show up and deliver the score. But I agree: Ellis pushed her into near caricature which robbed her of an adult sexuality. There was something oddly bloodless in that staging that kept me at arm’s length. I had only seen Kaye, who may not have been the farceur that Kahn was but felt palpably human.
