Performer of the Week

Soap Opera Update

May  2002

Last December, Digest gave ONE LIFE TO LIVE's Gabrielle the dubious honor of being the most annoying character in soaps. And not without reason: Eternally flustered and wimpy, Gabs was naked up to the Max with heavy gesticulation and excess emotion even for daytime. That's saying something.

Fast-forward six months, and talk about a turnaround. Yes, Gabrielle is still routinely in a delicate state of collapse, but somethings changed. Fiona Hutchison has taken the character she's played on and off since 1987 and made her likable again. With her graceful accent, elfin features and expressive cat eyes, Hutchison's Gabrielle has always been an excellent damsel in distress.

She flutters around, a bundle of nerves and emotion, putting up a false front of bravado while clearly on the verge of a breakdown. But since she's been under the watchful (and judgmental) eye of Bo, Gabrielle has had a change of moral heart. She wants to be better for him --and Hutchison has picked up that ball and run with it. These days, she's underplaying Gabrielle at just the right pitch: hesitant yet tentatively assured, which makes her believable and downright sympathetic when she tells Bo, "I can't keep lying to you anymore. You've given me a second chance, and perhaps, just perhaps, I have a chance at salvaging a friendship that has become - that means a great deal to me, and I hope it does to you, too."

The white knight Bo as counterpoint to this waifish reformed scoundrel is turning into a masterstroke of story and character. From the looks of things, this new Gabrielle is on her way to becoming a heroine. And that's saying something.

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