Posted: 6/23/15 at 4:42pm
"I mean, like Lea or not, her performance of My Man was prettty spectacular: https://youtu.be/v174jK3BSVE
Cinders, they are talking about Hello Dolly."
It was amazing. The best performance on that show. Period. In my opinion.
Posted: 6/23/15 at 4:47pm
I liked Lea Michele on 'glee' but she wasn't laugh out loud funny on it...ever. That honor (as far as the women on that show) goes to Jane Lynch, Heather Morris and Naya Rivera.
Updated On: 6/23/15 at 04:47 PM
Posted: 6/23/15 at 7:29pm
""I mean, like Lea or not, her performance of My Man was prettty spectacular: https://youtu.be/v174jK3BSVE
Cinders, they are talking about Hello Dolly."
It was amazing. The best performance on that show. Period. In my opinion."
Close ups are not kind-Lea Luna [Park].
Posted: 6/23/15 at 7:34pm
Posted: 6/23/15 at 8:23pm
>I thought Ben Brantley was gay?<
And what would lead you to have doubts about that?
Posted: 6/23/15 at 8:23pm
>I thought Ben Brantley was gay?<
And what would lead you to have doubts about that?
Posted: 4/17/17 at 1:43pm
Bumping this thread with all the revival discussion happening. Would love to see this being brought back with Stephanie J Block in the lead. Yes, I know, she's not a big enough star but she's the only one I can think who's not otherwise booked already for next season and can do the role better than anyone else I have seen live.
Posted: 4/17/17 at 1:58pm
Next season is far too packed for this. Stephanie is incredible, but this is no longer her part and I'm actually pretty sure that she said this herself. Wait for spring of 2019 for a production with Jessie Mueller.
Posted: 4/17/17 at 2:24pm
fantod: "and the score is not Styne's best by a long shot."
Are you serious? It's posts like yours that totally baffle me. First off, next to GYPSY it has one of the best overtures in Broadway history.
And for the songs:
PEOPLE.....one of Styne's best selling singles (if not his best)
THE MUSIC THAT MAKES ME DANCE....my all time favorite Styne song
WHO ARE YOU NOW?...lovely melody
I'M THE GREATEST STAR...the perfect female star opening number
DON'T RAIN ON MY PARADE....a Streisand classic and perfect Act One closer
CORNET MAN....an excellent period piece
YOU ARE WOMAN...I WANT TO BE SEEN WITH YOU TONIGHT...WHO TAUGHT HER EVERYTHING
So "by a long shot"...please tell us what you consider to be Styne's MUCH BETTER scores?....THE RED SHOES, BAR MITZVAH BOY, SUGAR, PRETTYBELLE, DARLING OF THE DAY, HALLELUJAH BABY!, SAY DARLING, TWO ON THE AISLE, HAZEL FLAGG, HIGH BUTTON SHOES, LOOK TO THE LILIES?
Even though I enjoy the scores to BELLS ARE RINGING, GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, FADE OUT-FADE IN and DO RE MI, they are by no means IMHO any better than FUNNY GIRL. And once again there's his incredible GYPSY score....his most revived show.
Posted: 4/17/17 at 2:43pm
CarlosAlberto said: "...and I would love it to be done and whoever does it to be successful because frankly I am just so sick and tired of hearing the old excuse, "No one can do it because Barbra blah, blah, blah..."
That's absurd because I've read Mimi Hines kept the show running for quite awhile after Streisand left the show, so there's proof that there are other actresses that could handle the role of Fanny Brice and be successful in it.
I seem to recall that she did more performances on Broadway than Streisand.
re a prior comment, I think the score is top drawer Styne. I think his only better scores are Gypsy and probably Bells Are Ringing. I say probably because, among the gems, there are some real stinkers, e.g., The Midas Touch, Salzburg by the Sea (or whatever its title is, the title song). The real issue is the book in Act 2, which is very melodramatic and humorless... they'd have to figure out a way to shorten the drear. A comical production number would help...maybe the Chicken Lake Ballet from the movie.
Posted: 4/17/17 at 10:31pm
Found this absolute gem on the stars before they were stars thread (or was it the high school production thread?). Well anyway, here's Heather Headley in Funny Girl way back in 1992/93. She was probably 17 or 18 then.
icecreambenjamin - Stephanie is definitely getting old, I wish someone had the sense to cast her Fanny a few years ago.
Posted: 4/17/17 at 10:37pm
There IS a comic production number in Act II. It's called "Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat" and Fanny Brice plays "Private Schwartz from Rockaway" who vows to "get" the Kaiser single-handedly. It's also a big tap number. That's not the problem with the act.
If anything, a bigger problem with the book (especially today, but even somewhat in the 1960s) is that Fannie spends most of Act I fighting to be a star, then announces she's willing to throw her career away to be with Nick. In Act II, she might as well be Miss Marmelstein the way she talks about having "to go to work". Is a 21st century audience going to applaud a woman who blames herself for her husband's gambling problem and offers to give up her work for him? I hope not.
As for the score, Styne only wrote half of it. The other half consists of Merrill's lyrics: "and ten American beauty TOES". Even in "His Is the Only Music that Makes Me Dance" (my favorite Styne ballad, too), the lyric fights the tune: there's nothing about the song that suggests anybody is dancing.
For the most part, Styne was better served when he worked with Comden and Green. ("The Midas Touch" is SUPPOSED to be bad. It's what a dentist might write.)
