Someone thought she was "a scream" in TRIUMPH OF LOVE? Noting in TRIUMPH was a scream to most of us, least of all the otherwise gifted, but ill-used, Ms. Buckley. Betty's strength is finding the soft underbelly, and/or neurotic subtext, in a character. I've no doubt that she could bring that sort of interpretation to Nellie Lovett, particularly the obsessive love for Sweeney; I fear it would so dominate as to make the character considerably less entertaining, and miss the black humor. It simply isn't her strong suit, as many of us -- her biggest fans -- might deduce.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling