"ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING NIGHTS OF THEATER OF MY LIFE": I read a lot of the articles about Natasha Richardson over the last few days, and it sounds as if she was a wonderful, generous human being who was uncommonly well-loved by just about everybody who got to know her. Most of the stories also carried quotes from luminaries about what an incredible actress Richardson was. If I have ever seen a performance of hers, though, I don't remember it, so what I thought was missing from all the coverage was an explanation of how she was an incredible actress, and why people felt so deeply the loss of her as a performer (and why we should too).
To the rescue comes The House Next Door (and, again, is there any other web site that does what THND does even half as well? There may be no more valuable resource for culture criticism than that one). Sheila O'Malley's thoughts about Richardson's turn as Sally Bowles in Cabaret won't unclog my blockage about that particular medium, but it did a wonderful job explaining to this neophyte exactly what was important about Richardson's performance, and in the process filled out the picture of Richardson as a daring artist as well as an admirable human being.
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