So interestingly she came to Australia this week. There were three concerts in Sydney (at about a 1100 seat theatre), the first two were about 75-80% sold and the last one abysmal (maybe around 30-40%). Indeed, she has been telling the same jokes (including selling her house) for years and singing the same songs for even longer.
While I would throw away some of her songs immediately, particularly her awful rendition of "Let Me Entertain You", I must say I am absolutely convinced that "Bernadette Peters has no peer" in being able to sell vulnerability in a song. She acted the SH*T out of the FOLLIES songs and "Send in the Clowns", and was giving performances quite close to how she performed them on stage.
I've never heard any other performance of "In Buddy's Eyes" with an arc so clear that by the end of the song she is unhappy. Bernadette's "Losing My Mind" seems even more intensely depressing now than it was in the show. I realise people criticise the tears but it is just so thrilling to see her descend into a complete mess on stage. At one of the "You said you loved meeeee"s she repeated the word "me" under her breath and then stood there in a brief moment of silence before resuming the song. Self-indulgent to the extreme and I loved every single second of it!
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.