Funny Girl at Lincoln Center?- Page 2

[alliez92092]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 6:46pm

If they do do this, it better be Julia Murney playing Fanny and I would see it in a heartbeat.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 6:55pm

"Nancy Anderson!"

For Fanny Hill...yes! For Fanny Brice...NO!!! I cannot picture Nancy Anderson in Funny Girl. She does the bubbly blonde thing far too well.

Posted: 4/5/07 at 7:37pm

It's too bad Funny Girl is so dependant on a star who can make people forget Babs--it's a pretty great show (it always feels to me like the lesser sister to Gypsy--both based on real showbiz types, Jerome Robbins choreography, Styne, I dunno I wouldn't be surprised if Funny Girl was instigated partly as a sort of followup--it is too bad they got Merrill to write his odd lyrics instead of a Sondheim :P)

And deserves re-evaluation away from its star

[Sykes24]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 7:46pm

I think Nancy Anderson would make a terrible Fanny. Amy Spanger on the other hand...

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/5/07 at 7:54pm

I don't know if I could see Amy Spanger in the role either. Fanny has a pretty big range with some really low notes, and Amy is a soprano.

[Piercemn]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 2:24pm

Funny Girl was actually written for Kay Ballard. She even did an album of her nightclub act, which I bought on CD last year, Kay Ballard Sings Fanny Brice. When it was determined that they wanted a younger actress for the role, and when Streisand came along with such an unusual personality, she graciously dropped out and let Streisand have it.

If Lincoln Center does it, they could at least cast Ballard as either Mrs. Brice or Mrs. Strakosh.

[madbrian]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 2:30pm

Didn't Ballard played Mrs. Brice in the actor's fund concert? While Kritzer was good at the Papermill, I'd love to see Ana Gasteyer in the role.

Or, whoever that is in the ad for Anne of Green Gables???

Posted: 4/6/07 at 2:35pm

Ana Gasteyer or Leslie Kritzer!!!!

[landryjames]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 2:35pm

Well, I don't know how true the above story about Kay Ballard is. I am not saying it is not true at all, but I do know that during out of town try outs many songs were added into the score FOR Barbra Streisand specifically. Maybe a few of the first songs written were for Ballard.

Come to think of it, I have never heard of the Ballard casting (again--not saying it isn't true). I am quite certain that the two main women up for the role before Streisand took it by storm were Anne Bancroft and Carol Burnett.

New York City Opera has been considering a Funny Girl revival for the past few years actually. Who knows what will happen when the new General Director takes over, but I do know it has been strongly considered for the past year or two. One of the reasons the show wasn't picked up to replace Ragtime was a rights issue.

As far as current casting, I don't have any clue--star or otherwise--who could begin to match Streisand or was born to play the part like her.

I love the quote that states: The question is not whether Barbra Streisand was born to play Fanny Brice, but rather was Fanny Brice born to be played by Barbra Streisand.

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 2:39pm

RACHEL YORK. (I know, predictable for me, but still...)

The pipes, the comedy, the acting - and she can downplay her beauty as witnessed in "Dessa Rose."

I have heard her sing "Don't Rain on My Parade" and it is phenomenal. She can also do dialects well.

Also, when she did that Ziegfeld-like bit in the "Lucy" movie, falling down the stairs all decked out with a huge head dress and big globes around her waist, I immediately thought of her as Fanny Brice. "Your Love Makes Me Beautiful"...OMG.

lc

[glimpseofstocking]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 2:43pm

I've been convinced for about a year or so that Julia Murney needs to play Fanny Brice. She would really just be fantastic. I do love the idea of Rachel York though. Then again, she's fantastic in anything.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 2:46pm

The way she tells the story in her recent biography, it sounds more like Kaye Ballard pitched the idea of a musical about Fanny Brice to Ray Stark who told her no and then turned around and created FUNNY GIRL as a vehicle for Anne Bancroft. I don't think Ballard was ever formally involved as an actual candidate for Styne' musical.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 3:00pm

Somewhere between Anne Bancroft and Barbra, Fanny was to be played by Mary Martin or maybe Mary was first choice followed by Anne. [Get out your cast recordings of Oliver and read David Merrick's long bio on the back. Among his future shows is Funny Girl and I think it says Mary Martin. This would have been 1961. Merrick left the show and Ray Stark brought it in alone.]

Jule Styne who often thought with things other than his brain, at one point announced that Taylor Dayne was going to play Fanny in a major US tour and then a Bway stand. This would have been 1980 something.

I think Kaye Ballard's Fanny Brice project and Funny Girl were two different shows. Kaye's never got off the ground although she did do a Fanny Brice album and probably did some of the material in clubs for years.

Of the names tossed around on this thread so far, only Ana Gasteyer really seems like a good choice to me. However she is 40.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 5:01pm

Take Ballard's version of this story with a heaping grain of salt. Streisand had been Styne's pick since he saw her at the Blue Angel and as Miss Marmelstein. The producers felt she wasn't enough of a name for it and went after Carol Burnett and Ann Bancroft instead. Styne rewrote the songs he had completed for the score at that point, tailor-making them for Streisand and her enormous range. When they auditioned, neither Bancroft nor Burnett could even get through the songs without cracking -- the range required was so enormous that the high notes were too high and the low notes were too low no matter what key he played them in for them, so they were out and Streisand was in and the rest is history. Ballard never entered in to the picture.

And Sandra Bernhard? As what? Mrs. Brice? Sandra's 52 years old (and Fanny's in her late teens when the show opens). She'd have been an interesting pick 20 years ago (she was dying to play the role then and actually underwent serious vocal studies for years and hounded several producers in hopes of getting a revival produced starring her), but it's too late now. Gasteyer, at 40, is also pushing it more than a little.

Murney could sing it, but I don't know if she has the comedy chops (or a big enough name) for it. Kritzer would be great, but her name means zilch at the box office.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 5:26pm

I know Stephanie J. Block wants to do it. And she did a GREAT job in Witchita as Fanny.

Honestly, I'd rather see a GOOD mounting of "Mame" and "Best Little Whorehouse" though.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 5:45pm

I have a feeling age isn't going to that much of an issue in casting these "Summer Star Series" -- they are after all glorified concert versions - and the idea is to give stars a chance to play roles they are "perfect" for but never had the chance to do.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 5:47pm

The Actor's Fund did an all-star benefit concert of WHOREHOUSE just a few months ago. I don't remember much (if any) buzz coming from that about a more full-scale revival of the show happening in the near future.

And the Weisslers tried in vain to try to move MAME from the Kennedy Center last year, but that fell through when the financials just didn't add up (it's an expensive show to mount properly on Broadway these days -- $10+ million). It would probably only happen if a much bigger name than Baranski were to become attached.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 5:52pm

Honey, we just had GYPSY two years ago! The whole project is just an excuse for stars to do musical theatre in the city. If they can get Reba or Bernadette or Betty or Glenn or Hugh or any of them interested - I imagine they'll be able to do whatever show they want - even if it just closed last week on Broadway.

[Zachary Goldfarb]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 5:57pm

Nancy Anderson is far from Jewish.

Julia Murney, Ana Gasteyer, and Rachel York are way too old.

Stephanie Block is interesting, but doesn't seem quite right to me.

Leslie Kritzer is it.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 6:01pm

Im in the minority, but I thought Kritzer was pretty bad in the role at Paper Mill. It was like watching the high school star in her school play. Maybe she'd be better now.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 6:10pm

I think Kritzer is one of the few who has all the skills and elements necessary to be a great Fanny Brice (voice, comedic timing, vulnerability, charm, fearlessness, the right agae and physicality etc..), but she needs a very strong and savvy director who knows how to help shape and guide her overall performance. It's a very demanding, multi-faceted killer role that took even Streisand months to master even though everything about it was precisely tailored to suit her talents (she was almost fired a couple of times while the show was in rehearsals and later out of town). Again, she's not enough of a name at this point to be entrusted with a $10+ million revival, but if somehow this came to pass, I think she very well could knock it out of the park.

Updated On: 4/6/07 at 06:10 PM

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 6:18pm

I like the idea of Kritzer. 45 people would buy tickets for it.

[D2]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 6:52pm

I'd be one of them.

Posted: 4/6/07 at 7:32pm

" [Get out your cast recordings of Oliver and read David Merrick's long bio on the back. Among his future shows is Funny Girl and I think it says Mary Martin. This would have been 1961. Merrick left the show and Ray Stark brought it in alone.]
"

Wasn't Oliver 63 or 64?

[Piercemn]

Posted: 4/6/07 at 7:37pm

I was wrong about it being written for Ballard, but I do know that she had hoped to do a musical about her called "My Man" which was to be produced by David Merrick. She did a nightclub act as Fanny Brice and recorded the material, which was quite good.

According to Ballard's autobiography, How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years, pages 115-117, Ray Stark thought Kay Kendall should play Brice, but of course, she died in the early 1960s (she was married to Rex Harrison at the time and that's another fascinating story). Evidently Stark asked Bancroft, who went to Ballard for information on Brice. Evidently, though, Ballard and Streisand were friends and would have dinner on occasion. She did get to play Mrs. Brice in 2002.