One Night with Fanny Brice

I really wanted to like this show. It has a lot going for it. Fanny Brice had a memorable life and sarcastic, loosey-goosey stage presence. She introduced a wealth of wonderful material. Kimberly Faye Greenberg is the best thing about Danny & Sylvia, also at St. Luke’s. She has a good voice, seriously handicapped here by sound design that favors music over lyrics and underscoring to monologue. (The extreme similarity of arrangements is a disservice to the songs and the singer alike.) Greenberg looks right, can act, and delivers the kind of buoyant energy necessary to carry a one-woman show.

Unfortunately, the piece can’t decide whether it’s a concert or theater with music. An excess of abbreviated songs and often long-winded exposition limits both musical impact and empathy for the character. Greenberg seems as if she’s rushing through. Though apparently game and equipped with a sense of timing, the star’s performance is too ladylike to sell herself as Fanny Brice. Both facial expressions and dancing are reserved, unlike the rubbery, comic flailing and mugging of the original. A Brooklyn accent is vague and inconsistent. The play might fare better with none.

There’s a good show with great songs trying to get out of this production.

(Photo by Carol Rosegg)

Alix Cohen
Cabaret Scenes
April 3, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org