Funny Girl is a Broadway classic since its debut in 1964 with Barbra Streisand as the title character. She also played the part in the 1968 film version. The Isobel Lennart’s book is based on real-life star Fanny Brice and her tempestuous marriage to suave gambler Nicky Arnstein. It’s also one of the three musicals taking the Festival Theatre stage this season at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-On-the-Lake.
In short, it’s a marvelous production with the homespun heart, glamour, romance, joy, heartbreak, and resiliency that is part of the human condition, particularly if you’re a spunky girl from the New York City tenements with big dreams. Fanny Brice the entertainer had all of that and Sara Farb in this role captures this from each of her 36 expressions (“Six more than all those Barrymores put together”) to her versatile song styling. There were a few moments in her character singing when the character took over a wee bit too much, but oh my, her resonant voice in the all-too-familiar “People” Act 1 and powerful “The Music That Makes Me Dance” at the end of Act II soared and was rich with passion.
She’s surrounded by a stellar cast, too. Her mom’s poker playing neighbor Mrs Strakosh (Janelle Cooper) and Nicky Arnstein (Qasim Khan) are the standouts for sure, with the sounds and sass and sophistication their roles command. The vocal strength of the entire ensemble and Paul Sportelli’s orchestra (yes, there were a couple keyboards, but there were plenty of musicians in that pit under Sportelli’s baton) created exquisite music and did composer Jule Styne’s score proud.
The whole Shaw Festival experience is here: the costumes were color-rich but muted shades except where the Ziegfeld show costumes dropped pops of gilt glamour. The contrast was lovely. There was a lot going on with the set, which was mostly bare accented by moving pieces that relied on dramatic lighting which delivered. Two scenes in particular grabbed me: the opening where Fanny looked in the mirror with possibly the best opening line ever, “Hello, gorgeous” and the visual effect and time-hop that two faux mirrors delivered was breathtaking, and the penultimate scene where Fanny is on a black stage with a circle light and spotlight cutting across the darkness. This is theatre magic at its very best.
There’s always so much to love about Show Festival productions: it’s top shelf in every way possible and paging through the program to see the cast names repeating across shows is a testament to the talent this program attracts and the reverence it commands from the theatre community.
If you’re only used to the film, you’ll note some differences: there’s no “My Man” (which Brice herself performed as early as 1921), and Arnstein’s choice of rose is yellow in the film and white on stage, and the hilarious “Swan” number is absent.
Don’t let the summer go by without a few trips across the border. Funny Girl runs two and half hours with a 15-minute intermission. Find the full schedule and ticket information here.
buffalotheatreguide.com 