Fanny Brice was a Jewish actor, singer, and comedian in early 20th century New York. Funny Girl, the musical loosely based on her life, famously starred Barbra Streisand in her breakout role on Broadway and later in the film based on the show.
Streisand has owned the show ever since. Revivals...there’s been a few, but then again, too few to mention…
Until recently. In late 2015, London’s Menier Chocolate Factory mounted a hit revival that transferred to the West End before going on a national tour, during which our performance today was taped.
“That’s where I live, on stage,” says Sheridan Smith as Fanny Brice. In this knowingly theatrical revival of Funny Girl, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Bob Merrill, it’s easy to believe her. Michael Pavelka’s set frames the Broadway star inside an ever-present, tilted proscenium arch – the wonky mirror image of the one at the Palace theatre. The suggestion is that she’s surrounded by audiences on both sides, forever the performer.
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In [Smith’s] hands, the lively Brooklyn joker is an intricate tangle of competing emotions, all covered up with a big, bright, Broadway smile. One moment, she’s pulling an impressively elastic series of funny faces. The next, she’s singing a feeling-drenched rendition of People, tears cascading down her cheeks.
www.theguardian.com/…
Here’s a short taste [1:36]:
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Monday Youffraita
In The New York Times, Ben Brantley wrote,
Ms. Smith is, no doubt, aware of the stamp with which Ms. Streisand embossed these songs. And there’s not a single Streisandesque intonation in her Fanny Brice.
As she embodies Fanny’s rise from a klutzy dreamer in Brooklyn to a Ziegfeld brand name, she often substitutes a wistful, hopeful reediness for the all-conquering brass with which Ms. Streisand endowed the role. She performs “People,” the show’s best-known number, with a melting delicacy that makes it utterly her own.
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[Smith] has mastered a Brooklyn accent and a host of classic, vaudeville-style line readings, deftly presenting Fanny’s comic flourishes as an arsenal of pre-emptive weapons, deflecting pain and ridicule.
www.nytimes.com/...
Harvey Fierstein revised the book of the musical for this production, and next month a new production is slated to hit Broadway (also based on Fierstein’s revisions), so maybe the dearth of revivals is about to end.
The critics and I found Sheridan Smith’s performance to be utterly charming, and I think you will, too. She’s the Jewish girl from Henry Street, Brooklyn, who makes it big onstage but loves not wisely but too well. And she has a big, show-tune-ready voice.
And the entire show is on YouTube! Of course, you can see from this black box that you will have to watch at YT, but if you click “Watch on YouTube” it’ll take you there. BTW, be sure to watch this one full-screen. You don’t want to miss any of the terrific staging. [2:21:40]
Have fun!