Review: Funny Girl by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione

 

If you know nearly nothing about Barbra Streisand, it's still likely you will be aware she is an icon.  Maybe you'll have heard she has a full-scale private mall in her basement. Streisand is one of only twenty-one E.G.O.T. winners (an artist who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). She's among the best-selling recording artists of all time, the only artist to have a number-one album in each of the last six decades. These are just a few of her many accomplishments. Add to them  France’s Légion d’Honneur, the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

 

And it all began with her first leading role as the titular Funny Girl in both the long-running Broadway versions (she completed more than 1,300 performances) and the blockbuster movie that followed. Both were rousing successes, and both were plagued with a multitude of mini-controversies. Streisand, though not yet an icon, was (reputedly) considered the other four-letter word: a diva.

 

She vetoed Frank Sinatra from taking the role of Nicky Arnstein. She plagued the film director on every aspect of production to the extent that he referred to the project as “the first movie she ever directed." This, on top of her notorious habit of being late and demanding multiple reshoots.

 

Her friendship with Omar Sharif (who performed opposite her as Arnstein) contributed to both the end of her marriage and the banning of the film in Egypt. Many indignant Egyptians called for Sharif’s Egyptian nationality to be revoked.

 

The stage production was also far from unscathed.  Both Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse resigned as directors before the musical opened because of "creative differences." Garson Kanin eventually accepted  the assignment.

 

The play is based on the life of Jewish Hungarian immigrant Fanny Brice, who rose from burlesque revues to become a nationally acclaimed star of film, stage, and radio. Unsurprisingly, the Broadway version of her story wasn't exactly faithful to history. The play opened and was plagued with technical difficulties. Even Streisand eventually recanted and wished Robbins would return to director. None of this stopped the production from achieving huge success. Though it seemed obvious to many that title role in the movie would go to Streisand, it was first offered to Carol Burnett and Shirley MacLaine.

The audience may not know the fiery origins of Funny Girl, but they attend the current national touring production, but the tribulations of the principal character still resonate deeply. It starkly contrasts with the last major production starrimg Debbie Gibson, which ended quite abruptly after an "injury."

 

 

The touring production doesn't land in either diva nor icon territory. It's pretty much 100% The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Billed as “musical comedy heaven!” the production had recouped all its $16.5 million capitalization a month before it closed, so the takings from this tour are basically all gravy. It exists in an interesting reverse time capsule; Streisand’s pro-Israeli stance adversely affected profitability of the original (largely due to the then-recent Six-Day War). This one starring Hannah Shankman has managed to scoot under the political radar with the notable exception of the hullabaloo about the initial casting as Fanny Brice of non-Jewish actor Katerina McCrimmon . McCrimmon performed only from September 9, 2023, to September 24, 2024, before being replaced by Shankman.

 

 

 Funny Girl features some of Broadway’s biggest hits including “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star,” and “People.” It's a classic, timeless rags-to-riches story that appeals as much today as when it debuted more thanb sixty years ago. This production hits all its marks with tight pacing, exuberant performances, and masterful conducting by Elaine Davidson.

 

As the overture began with the curtain still closed, in traditional style, a wave of nostalgia hit many of the more seasoned patrons in the crowd. My mind immediately drifted back to Broadway’s zanier days when The Pirates of Penzance and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum ruled the boards. The perforrmance begins subtly with a solo silhouette in a doorway. It soon explodes into a more carnival atmosphere with the simple but effective background of a brick wall with the Ziegfield logo painted on it. The rapid exchange of one-liners and seemingly spontaneous bursting into song encapsulates all of the joy of watching a Marx Brothers movie—with a bevy of tropes and stereotypes,  including tap-dancing bathing beauties, a circle of charismatically harsh Jewish Mamas, and the oft-repeated assertion that if a girl isn’t pretty, she'd best be funny. Failing that, she should just "go home to her fella and have his babies."

 

 

Shankman embraces the role and does a stellar job, with outdated witticisms, Hollywood cliches, and all. She sells all her lines with gleeful abandon. “I’m a bagel on a plate of onions” and “Another comment like that, and I won’t be able to get my hat on.”  She knows they're going to hit even before she even releases the bow string. As Brice, her overt comedic device is playing herself as  a self-knowing unsexy woman who over-compensates by being overtly sexual (that's the device on which Jack Black has based much of his career).

 

 

Modern audiences weaned on teen rom-coms like She’s All That may be expecting a moment in which Brice discovers she really is beautiful after all, but they'll be sorely disappointed. Funny Girl and Shankman’s performance of her are no more than a superficial story that inspires rousing laughter and heartfelt sighs. Christine Bunuan, Melissa Manchester, and Cheryl Stern as the circle of critical matrons nearly steal the show in every scene they’re in; they provide comic relief to a story that is itself sustained comic relief. Stephen Mark Lukas as Nick Arnstein gives a delightfully campy and audience-engaging performance that would make Bruce Campbell proud. The classic nasal inflected 1920’s-radio-announcer voices are used so often in the show that it never manages to shore up the fourth wall. But that's not what the audience is here for.

 

Funny Girl is, in effect, the Rosebud of classic Broadway musical: a guilty childish pleasure never intended to be taken out of context.

 

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Funny Girl
by Jule Style, Bob Merrill
touring company

March 4 - 9, 2025

Tues – Thurs at 7:30 pm | Fri at 8 pm | Sat at 2 & 8 pm | Sun at 1 & 6:30 pm

Bass Concert Hall | 2350 Robert Dedman Drive | Austin, TX 78712

TICKETS:    Start at $35. Tickets are available at texasperformingarts.org and BroadwayinAustin.com, by phone at (512) 477-1444, or from the Texas Performing Arts ticket office at Bass Concert Hall. 

For groups of 10 or more, call (877) 275-3804 or email Austin.groups@broadwayacrossamerica.com