Betsy's Johanna isn't mentally ill: she is not psychotic as she has a clear concept of person, time, and place; nor is her "style" of personality pathological. Nor is she a "psycho" as that usually refers to a psychopath. She is however horrendously neurotic (if she has anything, I'd bet that it'd be an anxiety disorder, though I don't think so because with GAD you have to have no clear cause for anxiety, whereas I think ANY of us would be anxious in Johanna's situation.) I personally believe that it's in the script for Johanna to be like that--why else would the romantic duet "Kiss Me" have her keep saying things like "I think I heard a click! It's the gate!" when they don't even HAVE a gate or surmising as to all of these horrible things that could keep Anthony from coming for her. And as people have said, it's perfectly understandable seeing as how she was raised by a rapist who also clearly wanted her sexually as well (and we don't know on for how long that went.) Betsy's performance was rather exaggerated, but I liked that spin on it, making Johanna less of your typical ingenue and giving her some foibles. Also, as I've said, being raised by Judge Turpin, she was bound to end up with some issues. Not to mention the intense religious environment and being cutoff from all society except for her "father" and those people he approved (who, as we all know, are either rapists themselves like the Beadle or don't care about anyone else like the ones who watched and laughed at Lucy's rape.)
As for her singing, I thought that she was decent, but it was strange how her eyes crossed whenever she hit high notes...
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
Updated On: 12/18/06 at 03:18 PM
