FUNNY GIRL on Broadway - Reviews & News Thread — Page 90

TaffyDavenport said: "Current casting alert notice on SeatGeek:

"For this performance of Funny Girl, Tony and Olivier Award nominee Ramin Karimloo, Tony Award nominee Jared Grimes, and five-time Emmy Award winner Jane Lynch are currently scheduled to perform. However, due to a positive COVID test result, the role of Fanny Brice usually played by Beanie Feldstein will be played by BroadwayWorld nominee Julie Benko.""

Oddly, the notice has been removed from SeatGeek.

A problem with ticket sales, maybe? Silly people if they aren't buying because of Julie. Little do they know.

I saw Funny Girl with Benko yesterday. While I liked Benko, I was extremely disappointed overall with both the musical and the production:

https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2022/06/summer-diaries-funny-girl-how-i-learned.html

dramamama611 said: "I saw it with Beanie - and, no matter how wonderful Benko may be, I just can't bring myself to sit through it a second time. Most here will tell you it's a different show with Benko all around - but I'm not willing to find out.



Is she seeing Girl from North Country? That might be worth taking a look at. Or Off Bway Little Shop?"

I won’t highjack the thread, but my daughter is seeing Little Shop of Horrors tonight.

Auggie27 said: "Well considered and expressed. I never tire of such smart analysis of the tepid book. It begins to collapse as the show coalesces around Arnstein, never taking us closer to an actualized character than Fanny’s prism; “Nicky Arnstein!” He’s eroticized but never explored. So when the marriage begins to crash and burn, the show descends into shallower bathos. We know the outcome and must bear witness to sung codependency. The lyrics Fanny is assigned - in admittedly great Styne songs - are all doormat reflections. And in 2022 we lose patience and know she’ll be better off when she finally loses him. It’s turgid stuff with iconic melodies."

I have tried to find out more about him, just for my own interest in their stories. Other than stories about his early life - where he was an operator, there is very little from "his side" of the story. The bits and pieces about him are he was a jerk - a gambler, a womanizer, a user and all-around bad guy.

Assume Fanny met him when doing burlesque-or something along those lines. She was already divorced. They hooked up and when he was in Sing-Sing for a year, she visited him as often as possible, breaking up his marriage and sued for alienation of affection - the Funny Girl was determined and in love (lust). Soooo - the instant infatuation element of FG does make sense. It is said he lived off her mother and Fanny when he got out. She was 27 when they finally got married - 2 months before Frances was born. However, there had to be something there for both of them. The stock fraud ended it all. According to all the records I've seen, he never went back to see her again and never got into trouble with the law again either. There was something mutually destructive about the two of them together. Wish I knew more of his side. The few photos available of the two of them don't suggest to me he's a completely bad guy. There is one with the kids that is downright sweet.

Agreed. The show doesn’t have a clear point of view about Arnstein. He’s a romantic ideal - a coveted “get” that creates the end of the first act - and then he’s suddenly an obstacle to Fanny’s continued success, even as she continues to sing of her willingness to accommodate his every whim (the lyric to “Music That Makes Me Dance” render her invisible in his very presence.)

Penna2 said: "Again, what I have dug up was he wouldn't see her when he was in prison and didn't see her when he got out. She waited, then, I guess found out he was with another woman. That's when she finally divorced him. She would have taken him back. The show suggests that with their final meeting. He was just finished. Whatever the hook was, he removed it and moved on. I was mocked when I brought up astrology (it's my thing - sorry, not sorry) so I won't go into detail, I will just say their charts are very interesting and show both Fanny's obsessive nature, in general, but also their connection. Feel free to PM me if you want to know more."

Omg. You actually did the star charts for two people who have been dead for like, decades???

BrodyFosse123 said: "This is beyond messed up how much time is being wasted on dissecting a musical. Even 21 year old Streisand said in interviews back when doing press on FUNNY GIRL that the musical loosely used elements of Fanny Brice’s life. That the musical wasn’t a documentary. You guys are using FUNNY GIRL as a source of an authentic history record when the musical is mostly entirely fabricated. You guys need to close this chapter and go for a walk. Wow!"

Then move on if you want to. If some of us want to talk about it and do charts for dead people why is that a problem for you? I'm an astrologer, so what? I find it fascinating and entertaining. Maybe some others might as well. Don't read the posts if you don't like them. Is there some sort of rule about what we can discuss here? I thought it said "chat." If anyone is being offensive to people it's you.

BrodyFosse123 said: "You both are dissecting the book of a musical that is a work of fiction (Streisand even admitted to this). You guys are pointing out inaccuracies in the script to actual facts when it has been clearly stated the script is a watered-down biography with liberties taken. Though real names are being used, the storytelling is sheer fiction. FUNNY GIRL producer Ray Stark’s wife was Fanny and Nick’s daughter Frances and she monitored how her parent’s story was being told. Many have said she was very particular with how her daddy was being written. She’s the one responsible with making Nick a handsome, dashing, sophisticated dapper dan when many have said the real Nick was slimy, unattractive, and very sleazy. She was adamant on how his criminal history was used as well. FUNNY GIRL is a fictional biography musical. Stop creating these assumptions on these people based on a fictional musical loosely using elements of their lives. Astrologer or not. The people in FUNNY GIRL are characters based on real people. Nothing else. Heck, Florence Ziegfeld Jr. discovered Fanny singing in a burlesque house. Over Frances’ dead body was THAT going to be used in a musical about her mom. "

Nothing “beyond messed up” about the real detail of Fanny’s life. It points out what could have been used to make the show relevant if a creative team was given full reign. The book and Harvey’s revisions are so trivial they don’t give the actors anything to work with so your left with the legend of Fannys life that no one really knows about and some glorious songs and the legend of how Streisand made audiences not care how bad the actual show was. The stuff that is being discussed here would be good subject matter for a Ryan Murphy mini- series - Beanie and her handlers should have gone in that direction and a creative director like Marianne Elliott should have taken a shot at a Funny Girl stage revisal

The reason we're discussing the real life Fanny Brice is because there was undoubtedly a more interesting musical that could have been made if Fanny's relatives had allowed any shades of gray into their portrayals. The desire to completely whitewash the lives of Fanny and Nicky means that they are flat, uninteresting characters and that's why the musical doesn't work.

So much ink has been spent on how miscast Beanie is, but I think even if she had amazing pipes, the built-in weaknesses of the musical are still unsurmountable.

A good example is the I Want song of Funny Girl. "I'm The Greatest Star" is a good tune but does it tell us anything about Fanny that we don't already know?


Think about some other I Want songs and how much they draw the audience into the character. For example, "What Baking Can Do" in Waitress -- when Jenna says "I Can Fix This," all of a sudden we want to watch Jenna "fix this." Our picture of Jenna thus far has been so meek and sad that to see her full of confidence and optimism is a revelation.

Funny Girl is simply lacking in those character-building moments.

KFC1991 said: " If anyone could make him work the shows problems would be solved."

That was Ms Brice's problem as well...she couldn't get him to work.

bryan2 said: "it is very disappointing and telling that they are not doing anything on the Tony Awards.

They could have done Who Taught her everything or just bit the bullet and had Julie sing on the show since 90 percent of America do not even know who Beanie is. We waited 50years for a revival, this is what miscasting does for a show that required a powerhouse singer

"

Possibly something in Beanie’s contract that she must appear at the Tony’s or nobody does? I’d love to hear Julie belt one out tonight, but what would they say? Awkward. Bruised egos.