So who will play Fanny?- Page 2
So who will play Fanny?
#26So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/2/11 at 11:07pmYeah, Nina Arianda can sing, it's just a matter of how well. I doubt she's good enough, but who the hell knows.
chewy5000
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/1/09
#27So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/2/11 at 11:10pmSomeone give Ellyn Marsh her much deserved big break. She is SOO hilarious. Updated On: 7/2/11 at 11:10 PM
#28So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/2/11 at 11:49pmI heard it's going to be shared between Marla Mindelle, Natalie Weiss, and a tape recorder with a wig on it.
#29So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/2/11 at 11:55pmShrekster- I was in the front row at Sister Act. There were no nuances. There was no subtlety. There was nothing.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
#30So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/2/11 at 11:58pmI think it should be Jan Maxwell, so she can maximize her chances of putting a Tony in her bag.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
#31So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/3/11 at 12:16amI'm praying it's Leslie Kritzer. But I'd be fine with anyone other than Idina or Lea for that matter.
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henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#32So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/3/11 at 10:09am
I agree that anyone other than Lea or Idina would be something to cheer about.
But I'm curious:
No one seems to agree with me that Anna Kendrick would be great as Fanny? As this is a discussion thread, I'm really curious why that is. Polite responses welcome.
#33So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/3/11 at 10:22amNicole Parker. Tony Yazbeck as Arnstein. Andrea Martin as Rosie.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#34So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/3/11 at 12:51pmIs Ana Gasteyer too old for this part? She would be great!
#35So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/3/11 at 1:27pmI think Nina Arianda is the best suggestion thus far (assuming she can sing).
#36So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/3/11 at 3:41pm
I have never understood why everyone seems to hate Lea Michele? What's wrong with her?
Her vocals are amazing - as shown by numerous un-autotuned performances, and her acting in Spring Awakening was great, I thought.
Besides the fact that she looks like she could be Barbara Streisand's daughter, and the publicity that it would get from her singing most of the score on glee, this seems perfect, no?
#37So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/3/11 at 8:05pm
"Is Ana Gasteyer too old for this part?"
Gasteyer is 44, far too old for Fanny. In fact, if they went with a young Fanny, Gasteyer could play her mother.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#38So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/4/11 at 12:03am
So Arianda can actually sing? If she can sing, they need to cast her in this, even if she doesn't have the belt of say Stephanie J. Block or even Kritzer herself, she would act the hell out of the part in such a way that no one's gonna notice her vocals. Can you imagine her during "Sadie, Sadie" or "I'm the Greatest Start"? She'd be a knock-out.
I love the Anna Kendrick suggestion actually, I hadn't thought about that but she'd be pretty great, IMO.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#39So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/4/11 at 12:38am
I suggested Nina in one of the earlier threads, but did anyone read the profile of her in the Times before the Tonys? It sounds like Billie Dawn gave her a lot of vocal troubles with the speaking, so even if she's secretly sitting on a killer belt, I don't know if something as hard to sing as Fanny would be the next step.
HOWEVER, I would probably be giddy with excitement if she played the role anyway.
Some people paint, some people sew, I meddle.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#40So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/4/11 at 9:29am
I don't hate her, at all. but beside the fact that I was embarrassed by her performance of Don't Rain on My Parade on last years tonys, I find obvious casting to be a bore.
So, once again, for your consideration. Anna Kendrick.
Hilarious, strong-voiced, oscar-nominated, tony-nominated star on the rise, like Fanny in the business since knee high to a grasshopper, not exactly an American beauty rose, not an obvious choice but merely an ideal one, Anna Kendrick.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#41So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/4/11 at 9:30am
I don't hate her, at all. but beside the fact that I was embarrassed by her performance of Don't Rain on My Parade on last years tonys, I find obvious casting to be a bore.
So, once again, for your consideration. Anna Kendrick.
Hilarious, strong-voiced, oscar-nominated, tony-nominated star on the rise, like Fanny in the business since knee high to a grasshopper, not exactly an American beauty rose, not an obvious choice but merely an ideal one, Anna Kendrick.
Trish2
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/20/06
#42So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/4/11 at 11:02am
in Sunday's NY Times.....
Curtain Down, Heads Up: Readers Cast ‘Funny Girl’
#43So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/4/11 at 1:03pmI vote for Sally Struthers-now and forever.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#44So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/4/11 at 1:11pm
Parphrasing J. K. Rowling on The Simpsons:
"Who will play Fanny in Funny Girl... (sigh) You will. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
appleric
Swing Joined: 11/16/04
#46So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/4/11 at 4:19pm
Am curious as to how many people out there have actually seen FUUNY GIRL on stage? Have seen a few productions of it, and can I find it to be pretty flimsy material without a powerhouse in the title role. The material outside of Fanny's songs is just not that interesting - at least to me.
Just saw parts of the film the other day on TCM and felt that the producers of film cut almost everything not having to do with Fanny directly. So it sort of comes off as a one woman show.
Which sort of poses the question - why revive this show at all?
Side note - most producers who have done this show on a professional level have always seemed to have an actor in mind for Fanny before announcing show.
Any chance revival's Fanny is already cast and all this "searching" is to built interest in project.
Any thoughts?
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#47So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/4/11 at 4:26pm
I believe the original producers did have a star in mind. Anne Bancroft, who turned it down.
Being that as it may, I think you are absolutely right. Funny Girl is certainly not a bad show, and has a few charming moments without Fanny, especially when there is a good Mama Rose(ie), but it rises or fails on star power. I've seen it and was also in it once, both non-professionally.
#48So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/4/11 at 7:07pm
Unless there is a drastic rethinking of the show - adding back cut numbers for Nick, Rose, Eddie (that were taken out to focus more on Streisand), and few numbers and scenes to even out the playing field, you have a star vehicle without a star. And yes granted Streisand was not a star when she started rehearsals but who can deny the fact she was most likely after opening night?
Are there any other shows so obviously tied to one performer?
Updated On: 7/4/11 at 07:07 PM
#49So who will play Fanny?
Posted: 7/5/11 at 5:06am
Someone mentioned Linda Lavin. I guess they were trying to be funny. It isn't funny. I saw Lavin in the Tyne Daly GYPSY when Daly was away from the show for awhile. She was not good as Rose. She would not be good as Fanny's mother, either. Kay Medford in both the stage musical and the inferior movie was terrific as the mother. ( And she was absolutely hysterical in the OBC of BYE BYE BIRDIE as Albert's mother, Mae.)
FUNNY GIRL is problematic because the second act is not written very well. Scenes with Arnstein tend to be tedious because he is not an interesting character, IMO. Granted, the second act production numbers and "Don't Rain on my Parade" are superb, but there is that weak writing which can spoil one's enjoyment of the show as a whole.
"Madam Rose...and her daughter...Gypsy!"
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