While there was plenty to admire in the Mariinsky's playing, there was no attempt to humanize the ballet's characters: the ballerina appeared uptight, the Moor cartoonishly bass-heavy.
But women didn't want to look uptight.
The Lady Tigers play the most miserly defense in the country and do not appear burdened by the recent past: the protracted battle with emphysema and death in 2005 of their longtime coach Sue Gunter; the resignation in 2007 of her successor, Pokey Chatman, who was accused of having improper sexual relationships with former players; the dispiriting string of uptight performances in the Final Four.
Cruise and Kidman are white-bread white folks but their prissy, uptight blandness is something which is all too plausible in this context - in fact, it is debatable how far the actors themselves realised how objectionable Kubrick was occasionally making them appear, particularly with touches such as Tom Cruise's black gloves, fastidiously worn outdoors.
Since then, Mr Gore has appeared more relaxed, shedding an uptight image that did him no favours in contrast to Mr Bush, who projected an easygoing charm.
Cruz is Spanish playing a Greek speaking in English in a kind of non-specific European voice; and David Morrissey (a generally excellent actor here forced into the role of uptight German officer) appears to be history's only recorded Scouse Nazi.
Then, in a truly bizarre twist, the boozy reporter appears to make a joke about Mason's uptight, clean-living attitude – he gives him a leaflet for Midnight Mass at the nearby St Louis cathedral.
I'm too uptight not to start eyeing the exit the moment a crack appears in the fourth wall, and this extravagantly interactive show demolishes it.
He has appeared in the programme for nine years as Jake Harper, the son of uptight chiropractor Dr Alan Harper (played by Jon Cryer) and nephew of Charlie Harper (Sheen).
IN "Something's Gotta Give," Diane Keaton, who plays the comically uptight 50-something playwright Erica Barry, startles Jack Nicholson, her leading man, when she appears, albeit briefly, entirely in the nude.
