Posted: 4/28/16 at 6:27pm
Hannah Shankman posted a photo on social media of her "Funny Girl" equity agreement. Anyone else see this? I wonder if she's going to do it in the West End or NY?
Posted: 4/28/16 at 6:33pm
That's interesting. They just opened about a week ago. They wouldn't need replacements already, would they?
Posted: 4/28/16 at 6:49pm
If Funny Girl transfers Sheridan will not be there. She's not a big enough name here for it to work.
Posted: 4/28/16 at 6:58pm
Well I wouldn't be interested in seeing it with anyone but Sheridan. If she wasn't in it I'd be saving my money.
Posted: 4/28/16 at 7:36pm
I've already said this before, but Sheridan isn't good with the production team. There's bad blood there. I doubt she'd transfer if they asked her. This show doesn't need a name, either way.
Posted: 4/28/16 at 7:41pm
Did you see the photos, it looks like they spent $600 on the entire production-and it is about The Ziegfeld Follies! There are eleven (yes, eleven) in the orchestra playing that amazing Jule Styne overture originally scored for twenty-two.
If they send us that production of Funny Girl we need to send them Wicked with two pianos and a step ladder.
Posted: 4/28/16 at 7:44pm
CindersGolightly said: "This show doesn't need a name, either way."
That's like saying Gypsy doesn't need a name actress. Yes, the show has name recognition, but people expect to know the person playing the star role.
Posted: 4/28/16 at 7:54pm
That's true, I suppose, but I don't agree that this show needs a name. I think knowing what this show is, you expect to see a star being born, do you know what I mean? Every time it's been put on (or tried to be put on) in New York, it was with a newcomer.
Posted: 4/28/16 at 7:57pm
I assume all the big production numbers from the 60's original are gone from this version.
Posted: 4/28/16 at 8:01pm
Tonights performance was cancelled after 30 minutes- they said it was due to technical issues, but some on twitter are saying Sheridan Smith was drunk - sounds like quite the production!
Posted: 4/28/16 at 8:04pm
Sheridan was wonderful, though not quite full throated enough to be a completely satisfying Fanny. But this Michael Mayer production looks, at times, like a very good amateur production. It would never fly here.
Posted: 4/28/16 at 8:23pm
If you look at the pic Hannah posted, it very clearly says the Lyceum Theater. She's doing it in summer stock. Maybe look at the photo before making a thread about it.
http://www.lyceumtheatre.org/production.php?id=221
Posted: 4/28/16 at 8:57pm
This idea has been tossed around casually in Twitter, but I would pay boatloads of money to get Jessie Mueller as Fanny Brice in a revival, and she might be bankable enough to work.
Posted: 4/28/16 at 9:16pm
Mike Costa said: "Did you see the photos, it looks like they spent $600 on the entire production-and it is about The Ziegfeld Follies! There are eleven (yes, eleven) in the orchestra playing that amazing Jule Styne overture originally scored for twenty-two.
If they send us that production of Funny Girl we need to send them Wicked with two pianos and a step ladder."
I love that idea! Hahaha!!
Posted: 4/28/16 at 9:30pm
neonlightsxo said: "If you look at the pic Hannah posted, it very clearly says the Lyceum Theater. She's doing it in summer stock. Maybe look at the photo before making a thread about it.
http://www.lyceumtheatre.org/production.php?id=221
"
Yeah, I would kinda be weird to sign an AEA agreement for a production running in the UK.
Posted: 4/29/16 at 12:32am
I have been saying Mueller would be a great Funny Girl. Granted she's already had a "start turn," but you know she'd kill it. But it's also so predictable I don't know if I'd want to see it. And plus I think I want a more 'full throated' diva playing the role. I want to hear that score belted to the rafters.
Posted: 4/29/16 at 2:09am
"Every time it's been put on (or tried to be put on) in New York, it was with a newcomer."
Streisand was hardly a newcomer when she did Funny Girl. She'd already received a Tony nomination, several Grammy awards (her first album made her the best-selling female vocalist in the country), had appeared on every major TV show and was a major nightclub star including Vegas. Not exactly an unknown.
Posted: 4/29/16 at 4:05am
Saw this a few days ago, enjoyed it for what it was but agree Sheridan would not transfer well. She is a gifted comic actress, but her voice isn't strong enough for the role.
I do hope the bring People, Places & Things over though, it's outstanding in every way & Denise Gough is brilliant
Posted: 4/29/16 at 10:17am
AnnieBlack said: "Tonights performance was cancelled after 30 minutes- they said it was due to technical issues, but some on twitter are saying Sheridan Smith was drunk - sounds like quite the production!
"
The tweet was deleted and references to it have been removed from a UK message board.
Posted: 4/29/16 at 12:01pm
Tapdance2 said: "Saw this a few days ago, enjoyed it for what it was but agree Sheridan would not transfer well. She is a gifted comic actress, but her voice isn't strong enough for the role.
That's how I felt, as well. And not being British, I had no idea who she was and was a little baffled by the adoration from the audience. There's no way she'd be any kind of draw in New York.
Posted: 4/29/16 at 1:31pm
She's on an UK show with James Corden, the title of which is escaping my mind at the moment, but it's on Netflix and she's hilarious in it, as is he. So I fell in love with her through that, and then she started getting all these big musical roles. She's not bad in Legally Blonde.
Posted: 4/30/16 at 7:35am
I saw this a couple of weeks ago and was underwhelmed by both Sheridan's performance and, more importantly, the musical itself. No one in the UK has a clue who Fanny Brice is so this musical has to stand in its own right. It makes a claim in its title to be funny and it bolsters that claim by casting one of the UK's most prodigious comic actresses. But it is not funny; it is mildly amusing at best. The Jule Styne score may be great (and the scenery-change songs that don't further the plotline came across very well) but the lyrics made me wonder what I was supposed to be learning about the characters from hearing them. I'm guessing that the book was heavily rewritten in Act II to make Nicky Arnstein a more three dimensional character, which I felt helped but several of my compatriots-in-theatregoing did not. There's been a lot of criticism on this site that Sheridan looks nothing like Fanny Brice but, from the photographs of the real character in the programme I thought the warderobe and make-up artists had done an excellent job in achieving a resemblance. The only time Sheridan's own persona came through was in one or two attempts at bolstering up the lack of humour in the supposedly funny scenes and Sheridan's acting was moving particularly when the romance breaks out with Nicky Arnstein and later when she struggles to keep her composure as he leaves her. Lots of good work in the supporting cast particularly from Joel Montague as the Buttons character.
So it was okay. Which is about what I would say for my lunch at the Savoy Grill as well.
Posted: 5/1/16 at 7:52pm
Pretty in-depth Daily Mirror piece that was just posted on what happened that evening: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3568603/Revealed-Sheridan-Smith-locked-dressing-room-slurring-stage-meltdown.html
Posted: 5/18/16 at 3:46am
In related news, there will be a cast recording with Sheridan Smith: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Funny-Girl-Various/dp/B01EXWDPJ8/.
Posted: 5/18/16 at 4:17am
Yay!! A cast recording! I was hoping.
