Funny Girl engagements in L.A. and Broadway postponed — Page 4

There is no way in hell any revival of a musical especially Funny Girl should cost $12 million dollars.

For example: On a clear Day and Promises Promises cost 9 million.
Why should Funny Girl need more? It doesn't have more sets or
orchestra. They don't even have the star caliber of Harry Connick, Sean Hayes or Kirsten Chenowith involved in this Funny Girl. That's where the extra money usually goes.

I'm sure Anything Goes didn't cost 9 million.

What "new book"?

Did I miss something?

Thtas too bad. I was really looking forward to this revival. Certainly more than Godspell or JCS.
Hopefully when and if they do mount it they wont replace Ms. Ambrose with that shrill voice from Glee.

There were substantial changes planned for the book and there were a couple of songs they were exploring adding to the score from Styne's 'trunk' - including one song cut from the original Broadway production.

Gavesto2, Michele's voice is not the problem. Her tone is far too colorless for my taste, but I'm sure she would meet the demands of the score just fine. The reason she could never pull off the show in a million years is because she's not. funny. The entire show rests on the fact that Fanny is a dynamite comedienne with a completely unique, heightened comedic presence. Michele may be a lot of things, but a comedienne is not one of them. At all. Ever. Even beyond that, she's also playing a high school student on television for a reason- she still reads as if she's a teenager. Streisand may have been 21 when she originated the role on Broadway, but she always read significantly older (probably because of her larger-than-life presence.) I wouldn't ever buy Michele as a woman who's lived "alotta years," as Fanny says.

This isn't the type of role that can be pulled off by a good voice with an interesting look. It requires a once-in-a-lifetime superstar. I think that has just as much to do with the show's struggle to break out of Streisand's shadow as the legend of her performance does- it's a tough task to have someone sing a song called "I'm The Greatest Star" and have an audience believe it. Just because she's a Jewish girl with success on a television series who likes to sing Streisand doesn't mean Michele could ever or should ever do this role. If she did, which she very well may, the results would be disastrous. Just watch her rendition of "Don't Rain On My Parade" from the Tonys as a perfect example. The key task required of this role is that the entire thing look absolutely effortless, and yet Michele is constantly making you aware of how hard she's working, no matter what she's performing. It's too much. It comes off just... bizarre.

I also find it pretty hilarious how emphatically Michele has been claiming to have been a devoted worshiper of Streisand her entire life in the press lately. When Glee first started, I distinctly remember a contest they had where the winner got to attend a screening of the FUNNY GIRL film with Michele and Ryan Murphy. Murphy spoke about how the whole thing came up because he was shocked to learn while filming that pilot that Michele had never seen the movie. Now yes, she could have always loved Streisand's voice and never seen the film (though that would be hard to believe for someone who loves Streisand as much as she claims to,) but the hero-worship she now professes and the reason she continues to sing Streisand song after Streisand song is a complete social construction by Ryan Murphy. He wanted to "create" the next Barbra. In the process, he created a monster.

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Updated On: 11/6/11 at 06:40 AM

This new production was going to have a 23 piece orchestra!

Thank you for the clips, somethingwicked, because I enjoyed both very much. (I'd seen them before, of course, but in the case of the Streisand, not for decades.)

But I think you have inadvertently "rigged the evidence" by choosing a Streisand clip that is particularly laid back (probably to appeal to the vanilla tastes of a mass TV audience).

It's easy to forget now that we are so used to her, but while certainly precocious, Streisand was seen as mannered to the point of affectation when most of us first became aware of her. I still remember laughing myself silly when she first opened her mouth in the film of HELLO, DOLLY! (my first exposure). But of course her phenomenal voice (and sheer determination) eventually wore down the resistance of almost everyone.

But the link you provided is much subdued relative to the way Streisand performed the same songs on the OBC album and in the 1969 film version. In fact, both of those renditions are much closer to Lea Michelle at the Tony Awards (who, to her credit, chose to sing "...Parade" not as a pop song, but as it is usually sung to conclude Act I of the show).

I'd go see Michelle in the role in a minute. But then I was very much looking forward to seeing Ambrose.

"While Streisand was certainly always ferocious in the commitment with which she attacked her material, she was never anywhere near the histrionic level Michele is always operating on."

I'm curious Somethingwicked, have you ever seen The Owl and The Pussycat?

I think thats a good point SomethingWicked and I agree, though of course the question does have to be asked, is it really worth spending $12 million on a revival mandating a star role, so unique to one performer (Streisand) playing another (Brice) who is (outside of FUNNY GIRL) not much remembered anymore?

My point being if we have a unique Streisand-level talent today, wouldn't she be better served by having a new musical crafted specifically for her talents instead?

If Lauren Ambrose is indeed talented enough to pull off FUNNY GIRL, imagine what she could do if someone wrote a show specifically for her gifts.

Michael Bennett, I completely agree, but I think you can argue that the legend of Streisand gives FUNNY GIRL the same cultural relevance that the legend of Fanny Brice did when the original was produced, even though the latter is no longer as prominent within mainstream culture.

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I agree that those limitations are totally viable factors, Gaveston, but I think the video of what White does with the scene and score negate the fact that it can't be successfully interpreted outside of the Streisand mold.

The audience was clearly on board with (and thrilled by) her radically different interpretation of the material, even if some of them were probably inclined to enjoy it given the precipice under which the evening took place.

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Updated On: 11/9/11 at 06:26 PM

"Streisand has a finesse of interpretation that Michele simply doesn't. But we can agree to disagree."

Somethingwicked, we completely agree on that. Where I disagree with you was that Streisand has never given a histrionic performance. There are few performances I know as histrionic as Barbra's in The Owl and The Pussycat. It's a performance, I know many, including Pauline Kael, loved. Perhaps you do as well. If so I, on the one hand, and you and the late great Ms. K., on the other, can agree to disagree on that.