Hamminess

The actors carry off this farce with the usual crude camp, semaphore gestures, shameless hamminess, and heavy ogling.

Linda Balgord brings bug-eyed hamminess and a bothersome vocal wobble to the role of aging actress Norma Desmond, almost completely missing the textured humor, intelligence, and pathos of Gloria Swanson's great screen performance.

The downside to DiFranco's maturation is that showboating can be fun--it's one reason we started paying attention to her in the first place, and why these ruminations will work better when they're integrated into her stage patter, where she can't contain her hamminess.