Can we discuss Funny Girl please?

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 3:23pm

One of my new year's resolutions is to educate myself on musical classics (especially after the response I got when I said, "What's that musical about George in the park on Sunday?"), so I bought a ticket to a local production of "Funny Girl" and saw it yesterday. I knew nothing about the show or Fanny Brice going into it, and I left the theatre with mixed feelings about the show (not just related to the production aspects, which was overall not bad).

My unsettled feelings were mostly based on the fact that I couldn't discern if we're suppose to sympathize with Fanny or not. The actress who played her was charismatic and had a good singing voice, but I found the character to be quite grating. I didn't find that she had much of a personal or emotional arc in the show - even after all of her life experiences, her character doesn't change. Sure, she falls in love with Nick and gets hurt, but she's still the same bratty, self-centered kid she was at the beginning of the show, even at the end when she's remniscing in her dressing room. She seems unappreciative towards Eddie even after all he'd done for her, and her relationship with Nick seems contrived, especially at the end when he's in her dressing room (although this may be due to a lack of chemistry on the actors' parts).

Also, I was surprised (and kind of disappointed) that the closing song in the show is just a reprise of "Don't Rain On My Parade" instead of something new.

Any other thoughts on this show? (And aren't you glad this isn't a Wicked thread? Even though I'll bet this'll get buried underneath them.)

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 3:30pm

The movie is fine.

But I have never thought Funny Girl works as a stage show.

The book needs work. And some of the lyrics are fantastic, but most....not so much.

[Kelliexo90]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 3:31pm

I'll discuss Funny Girl, Tiff! I've only seen the movie, but I love it. And now that you've reminded me I'll have to watch it again this weekend.

Anyway, I really don't know what we are supposed to feel for her. She does kind of progress, she matures and her personality(in the movie anyway) does change. She starts off as you said as the bratty kid, then she becomes more serious and is two different people from on the stage and off. But then in the end she claims she still loves Nick. I don't really know. I suppose its tough to say because the movie could be completely different from the show you saw. Hmm

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 3:32pm

Rent the movie -- immmediately. Love Streisand or hate her, that one performance is one of the greatest in the history of film musicals (and perhaps, film period) and you'll completely undertand Fanny's arc and totally sympathize with her.

Updated On: 1/6/05 at 03:32 PM

[starlight2]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 3:41pm

When PaperMill did it, Leslie Kritzer was OUTSTANDING! I think it really depends on who plays the role and their comedic timing and ability. I loved the movie too, but for live theatre I thought PaperMill did a great job.

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 3:47pm

I saw "Funny Girl" on stage and hated it. Actually, I saw it twice. The second time, with Mimi Hines, was more enjoyable, but it was still a lousy show. By the way, when did "Funny Girl" become a classic show? There is really no story that you can care about, and the songs are really awful, I think. The film was a big hit, but I didn't get it. She's not one of my favorite singers (way too over-produced for me), but I can't say that I had any feeling for her one way or the other, prior to seeing her in FG. Her performance in the film, to me, is one of the worst ones in film history. Whether she's happy or sad or hurt or elated, she keeps making these goofy faces that have nothing to do with the narrative of the film. She's also never funny! She quite frequently comes off mentally retarded. That would be fine, but they didn't explain that Fanny Brice was mentally retarded. All of the songs are her typical over produced, over-the-top style, and I felt assaulted after seeing it. I couldn't wait for it to end. That year, the Academy awarded her an Oscar, which she tied with Katherine Hepburn, who played a RAWTHER affected Eleanor of Aquitaine with a Bryn-Mawr accent!!! So, perhaps the voting members were confused and gave an award for the worst performances of the year.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 4:22pm

A bit of history:
(I recently wrote about Funny Girl on another thread. I may repeat myself.)

Funny Girl is probably the biggest hit to open out of town a bomb. It was not so much written as rewritten. The book which has never really worked, was constantly being fiddled with and the last scene between Fanny and Nick had 40+ drafts and the last one was being rehearsed on stage behind the curtain as the audience came in for opening night on Broadway.

Funny Girl had about five songs thrown out on the road and thousands of dollars of scenery.

In an age when Hello Dolly and Fiddler came in at a cost of $375,000 each, Funny Girl ended up costing twice that much.

A few more stats: a 4 week delay of the opening night which was set and reset for seven different dates, 8 weeks on the road in Boston and Philly (including a 2 week extension in Philly where they had to switch theatres!), plus about 3 weeks of previews in town at a time when big shows played a week of previews at most, two directors and a not-so-secret tryout affair between the two leads.

The only thing that always worked was a certain 21 year old dynamo, so when something didn't work, something else was written for Barbra. Fanny is onstage for all but 20 minutes of playing time with about 10-12 costume changes and 3-4 hairstyle changes, plus singing both the crucial Act One and Act Two curtains on stage solo. I don't know what the song count is but she sings all or part of all but about 4-5 and I know she is onstage for If a Girl Isn't Pretty and Henry Street.

Funny Girl opened to a very mixed set of reviews for the show in general, but very favorable reviews for the score (one of the best--a 'desert island' score in my book) and hosannahs for it's young leading lady with cover stories on Time, Look and Life within a month plus featured articles everywhere. She was a press agent's dream.

The film was rewritten further, but the script as a whole still doesn't really work although much of the rest of the film does and it has plenty of good moments.

Slight dish - Sydney Chaplin was bought out after about 6-8 months since being onstage with her out-of-town romance was difficult for Barbra. They hired nightclub singer Johnny Desmond who played Nick for the rest of the run (both Barbra and Mimi Hines who played the last 18 months). Johnny was put into the show by the stage manager, but Barbra directed him, giving him the whys and wherefores and did so on her own time. He was an instinctive actor, but Barbra told him about motivations and the like. She was 22 or so at the time.

Mimi was very talented, but on the other hand was not nearly so disciplined as Barbra (or Johnny) and she and he HATED each other. One night she slugged him in a blackout because he would play along with her ad-libbing insisting they stick to the script. Literally punched him. He brought her up on charges before Equity and won.

I've said many times over the last 40 years, the book on Funny Girl has yet to be written.

[Feodor Sverdlov]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 4:48pm

What do you mean by diciplined? I would call Streisand's performance in "Funny Girl" quite undisciplined. She is better in the film. I felt like she wanted to be anywhere but in a theater when I saw it. The audience did much shifting and coughing until she opened her mouth to sing. Mimi's performance was vastly superior, in that regard. I know preference is a matter of taste, but I can't imagine anyone who saw both, as I had, think that Striesand was the better, overall Fannie.

[Parks]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 5:33pm

SticktoPriest, You know HP's production of it? That Ticket Seller seriously stole the show. Buahahahhaa...hmm...*note to self: get a better sense of humor.*

[WickedGal]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 5:39pm

I agree with Margo. You must see the film. For me, the film was one of my first introductions to musicals and it's always been a favorite of mine. I saw a regional production of the stage show about a year ago and while the actress playing Fannie was good (I can't remember her name right now), the show doesn't really work. It seemed forced so that, in my mind, I was filling in the gaps with scenes from the film.

[belterboi]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 5:41pm

I think the show and the movie are fabulous....saw a wonderful production of it last summer...wish I could be Fanny,lol
I think that sutton foster would be an awesome Fanny! :)

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 5:51pm

"I think that sutton foster would be an awesome Fanny!"

I was thinking the EXACT SAME THING when I was watching it!

I will be sure to rent the movie ASAP - I was curious to see Streisand's portrayal.

I was reading a short biography on Fanny (BTW, for anyone in the know, which parts in the show are fictional and not what really happened?) and it said in reality, when Nick was sent to jail in Leaveworth, he was never heard from again. Doesn't that seem like a better ending than him coming back and telling her he's leaving? I guess it's because she never seemed very invested in their relationship in begin with, so for him to soften the blow by telling her it's over instead of her not hearing from him again makes it difficult to be angry at him and to sympathize with her. You can't help but think, "Well, that ain't so bad." Or is that just me?

Also, I don't know if it was just this production, but do all productions of Funny Girl have several tap dancing moments? As much as I enjoy tap, it seemed sort of out of place for the show.

PS. Thanks for the trivia, WOSQ!

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 6:04pm

The big problem with casting Sutton as Fanny is that the wholesome, All-American looks that Sutton has in spades is the exact opposite of everything that FUNNY GIRL is about - an ugly, homely gawky girl who triumphs on stage only to lose the man she loves. Can she sing it, well... sure. And maybe she can even take on the Jewish vaudeville shtick that Brice (along with her contemporaries Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, and Sophie Tucker) epiomized. "If A Girl Isn't Pretty" hammers home the point that Fanny is "a bagel on a plate full of onion rolls" - whereas Sutton will always be an English Muffin! :)

I'm not saying that Fanny HAS to be played by a Jewish actress -Brice herself said that "the one dame who could play me" was the gawky Irish-American star Joan Davis -
But if you think Molina got slack for FIDDLER, double the outrage if Sutton attempts FUNNY GIRL.

Updated On: 1/6/05 at 06:04 PM

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 6:22pm

More FUNNY GIRL trivia:

The book problems were largely because its producer Ray Stark (David Merrick was supposed to have co-produced it, but withdrew in favor of HELLO, DOLLY!) was married to Brices daughter Frances, who did not want her father Nick to be portrayed as the seedy two-bit gangster he was. So in re-write after re-write, Arnstien became less of an interesting and colorful character and more of a flawed cardboard Prince Charming.

Among the songs cut on the road were "Absent-Minded Me" (included on Barbras PEOPLE album) "Hell of a Group", "Something About Me Is Different" (a Baby Snooks number, which bore the alternate title of "How Can You Tell Litle Boys From Little Girls?") a number for Eddie to sing where he reveals how own attraction for Fanny (it was staged after Eddie was used by Fanny to model one of her clothes, and he sung it in a dress after she exited the scene) and a terrific, bouncy title number which only appeared on a B-side 45 of Barbras and never included on a CD. ("A Fella loves to be with a...Funny Girl/ The evening flies when he's with a ..Funny Girl!/ Female gigglers...do better than wigglers...fa-a-a-a-an-cy dancers...are fast on their feet but slow with the answers!")

A very thinly disguised film musical on Brices life was released by 20th-Century Fox in 1939, called ROSE OF WASHINGTON SQUARE, starring Alice Faye, Tyrone Power and Al Jolson (who largely stole the show). Alice even sang "My Man", and was taught the song by Fox' music coach - Jules Styne. Brice sued Fox for ripping off her life story, and the case was settled out of court.

[Kelliexo90]

Posted: 1/6/05 at 6:53pm

Hehe the post about the Jewish accent and everything just made me remember: Last year with my choir we did a concert called "From Broadway to the Big Screen." The instructor had me be Fanny Brice and I did "I'm the Greatest Star." He even had me do the bit about "I'm a bagel on a plate of onion rolls!" Jewish accent and all! It was really fun. Hehe okay off-topic :o)