Funny Girl

At the peak of her theatrical career, as a Ziegfeld Follies star, Fanny Brice was the highest-paid American singing comedienne. She was equally effective whether breaking audience's hearts with a straight-sung torch song like her signature "My Man"; putting over custom-tailored comedy numbers like "Second-Hand Rose"; or carrying off comic sketches. And all of her fans knew how she stood by her man, Nicky Arnstein, when he was imprisoned for masterminding a $5 million dollar Wall Street bonds-theft.

In 1964, thirteen years after Brice's death, producer Ray Stark (who happened to be married to Brice's daughter), brought Brice's life story to Broadway. The musical comedy Funny Girl, directed by Garson Kanin and supervised by Jerome Robbins, established Barbra Streisand as a star; Streisand went on to win an Oscar when she reprised the performance on film, and played Brice again in the film's sequel, Funny Lady. Streisand gave such a brilliant performance in Funny Girl that people sometimes failed to fully appreciate the strengths of the material she was working with; they simply perceived it as her triumph.

I've liked Funny Girl since I saw it in its original Broadway run. The show has a great deal to offer—a richly varied, tuneful, and often witty score by Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics), and a strong, taut book by Isobel Lennart. Yes, Lennart takes some artistic liberties—compressing/combining incidents, and putting the best possible spin on Arnstein's criminal activities—but it's all too the good. The story is told clearly and economically; we are able to sympathize with both Brice and Arnstein. And the songs—whether expressing the feelings of the characters or served up in splashy Ziegfeld-esque production numbers—are well integrated into the story.

This is a big, entertaining musical comedy. I'm glad that the Westchester Broadway dinner theater is presenting this musical. It's not revived that often, and even a far-from-ideal production—which I'm sorry to report this is—offers plenty of rewards, beginning with Stein/Merrill songs like "People," "The Music That Makes Me Dance," "If a Girl Isn't Pretty," "Sadie, Sadie," and "Don't Rain on My Parade." (As a bonus this production also includes one of Brice's own great vintage numbers, "I'd Rather Be Blue Thinking of You (Than Be Happy with Somebody Else)"—by Fred Fisher and Brice’s future husband, Billy Rose—plus a snippet of "My Man," neither of which were included in the original Broadway score.)

However, this production, directed by Donald E. Birely, is not particularly well cast. The two leads are barely adequate. Jill Abramovitz (pictured) simply does not have the authority, the presence, or the star quality needed to portray Brice. She's too eager to please. So when she sings "I'm the Greatest Star," it's just not convincing. (And it does not help when this production puts her in a Baby Snooks child's dress when she has to defiantly belt out the final number, "Don't Rain on My Parade." The child's dress—which Brice wore as an appropriate sight gag in some comedic stage appearances but never while singing a serious song—undermines the power of the show's finish.) And Grant Norman feels too much like a contemporary sensitive/vulnerable leading man to play the irresistible bad boy that the script suggests Brice is falling for. He doesn't imbue the role of Arnstein with enough strength or rogueishness. Kilty Reidy is far more successful as Brice's congenial sidekick, Eddie Ryan, and Louisa Flaningam has some likeable moments as Brice's mother.

Sometimes Westchester Broadway offers productions that are impeccably cast from top to bottom; their productions of, say, Cabaret, "ypsy, and Barnum come quickly to mind; and you wind up with a Broadway-quality show. This production falls far short of the ideal. And yet, despite the shortcomings of this particular production, the script and score are so entertaining that I had a good time. I wish they could have found a stronger star to portray Brice. (Leslie Kritzer was a dynamo in Funny Girl at Paper Mill a few years back.) But this is still a good, big, right, colorful amily musical. And Westchester Broadway is offering some special deals, some nights, to make things more affordable in the current recession.

Chip Deffaa
Cabaret Scenes
May 16, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org