| The director's comments, and the Peter Marks review, suggest that these perceived liabilities are earmarks of the new take: more youthful vulnerability and vibrancy, more of a survivor's self-awareness. Arguably, those traits work against the Miss Havisham-like isolation, the years of harboring bitterness from the industry's rejection. She's written -- movie and musical -- as the wounded relic of a former age, her internal struggle played out by ruling as a martinet in her empty castle-like home. Though Buckley found more strength -- her roof-raising vocals demonstrated the fire still in Norma's belly -- to me, she was close to what this director described. As was LuPone, whose Norma was infamously perceived to be too young and too strong. So oddly enough, the show comes full circle. |
