When I saw "Sunset" with Betty Buckley, she left at the intermission, and they simply said "Please welcome Karen Mason to the role of Norma Desmond." Mason came in and nailed "As if..." and stopped the show, cold. Buckley's act one was beautifully sung, thrillingly so, but so muted with Joe, she seemed to be playing the end. I later saw the show again, and she gave the same performance. (She never captured Norma's outre presence, only her pathos and pain, which made the ending weak. Another topic.)
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling