Through Sun 3/10
Funny Girl, now at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace, celebrates vaudeville star Fanny Brice’s rise to fame via the Ziegfeld Follies in the early 1900s. If you have seen the Barbara Streisand film version, you already know the plot and probably have favorite songs.
The Cleveland Broadway series production opens with Brice looking right at us through an invisible mirror’s wood frame. We see her pump up her courage before a show by singing “Who Are You Now?” Then the story skips back in time, a time before Fanny was a star, to show how she “made it big.”
Katerina McCrimmon had the unenviable task of making us forget Streisand (never mind Lea Michelle in Broadway’s Funny Girl) and to give her well-deserved credit, McCrimmon’s Fanny did have an engaging stage personality, especially as the hugely pregnant bride in “His Love Makes Me Beautiful.” McCrimmon can belt with the best.
Funny Girl becomes less interesting once Brice becomes a big star, probably because the story line is sanitized (and kinda annoying) if you compare it to the flawed, but real, life of Fanny Brice. (I’ll let you check it out on Wiki if such gossip interests you — it did me.)
Talented dancing and singing ensemble members added pizzazz to the show. Most impressive? Izaiah Montaque Harris, as Fanny’s true friend Eddie Ryans. Ryans’ nimble-footed tap dancing and winning personality encouraged Fanny (and the audience) to fully embrace life’s joys. Later (after Fanny ignored her roots), Harris and Barbara Tirrell (as Fanny’s mother), laughed and danced about her attitude in “Who Taught Her Everything She Knows?” Their excellent comic performance demonstrated that they might have.
I have to admit that when Mrs. Strakosh (Eileen T’Kaye), Mrs. Meeker (Cindy Chang), and Mrs. Brice were playing poker and sharing womanly wisdom (“If a Girl Isn’t Pretty”), I was reminded that my granny was an ace poker player too. (Yes, back in the day all ladies did not just sit around drinking tea.)
With the exception of Ryans, men do not come off well in Brice’s story. When Fanny begins to find her comic powers, Walter Coppage’s Ziegfeld pretends to be outraged. Later, he delights in the profits she brings. More significantly, when charming conman Nick Arnstein (handsome Stephen Mark Lukas) appears in the story, he is little more than an excuse for a duet with “You Are Woman, I Am Man.” (Yeah, I too would like to think that “biology con” would not go over today — but it probably does.)
Other show favorites are there: “Don’t Rain On My Parade” and “I’m the Greatest Star,” and of course “People.” (As a plus, the audience was invited to join in the chorus of the latter during curtain calls.)
This Broadway revival with score by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, book by Isobel Lennart (as updated by Harvey Fierstein), and choreography by Ayodele Casel and Ellenore Scott is directed by Michael Mayer. Susan Hilferty’s quick change costumes also impressed. McCrimmon’s beautiful rose red dress for the finale should get separate billing.
Thanks to Brian Ronan and Cody Spencer, the sound, at least from where I sat on the lower floor, showed once again why the Connor Palace is a better venue for musicals than the larger theater next to it. An excellent orchestra, enhanced by local musicians, was conducted by music director (and keyboardist) Elaine Davidson.
Bottom Line: Not to rain on any parade, diehard fans will enjoy the show. The plot is simple. Fanny Brice wants to be a star. She makes it. Her personal life is not very happy. Many favorite songs are well done, but the music alone is not enough to overcome the thin storyline.
[Written by Laura Kennelly]
Cleveland, OH 44115