Lea Michele to star in Broadway revival of FUNNY GIRL (....on GLEE) — Page 3

Murphy is a brilliant pilot man, and a terrible show-runner. An anthology show like AHS allows him more leeway to do his thing. However, he can only do so much. The first season had a consistent feel. The second one devolved into "throw everything together and see what sticks."

The third, on the other hand, felt like a debut season for a brand-new show. It wasn't AHS at all, it was Coven.

Sally, I do respect your opinion and I'll have to listen to the title song written for the film again. I just downloaded the film soundtrack; I've never owned it before (as opposed to the OBC album), I've just seen it a lot on cable.

IIRC, the song "Funny Girl" makes a nice transition from "Sadie" into the more dramatic last act ("last" in film terms meaning "third"). As the lyric says, "It ain't so funny, funny girl."

"Who Are You Now?" serves a similar purpose in the play and I've never met a Jule Styne tune I didn't like. But "Are you warmer in the rain?" Seriously? Is that really an image Fanny Brice would use to sum up her marriage? I just find the lyrics hopelessly goopy.

As for "My Man", at least as the history is now told, it was originally Ray Stark's intention to do the entire score with actual songs sung by Fanny Brice, but it soon proved impossible to get the rights to the numbers. (Bootleg tapes reveal they did go ahead and close the show with "My Man" on Streisand's last night.)

I much prefer "My Man" to "Parade" (the latter another great Styne tune, but Jesus Christ: Merrill throws everything but the kitchen sink into that lyric!). Dramatically, however, I'm not sure what to make of Fanny singing the song at the end of the film. Nicky has just told her they will never work it out, so what am I to make of her vow to love him "forever more"? Still, the lady sings the hell out of the song.

In any event, "Who Are You Now?" ain't the last song. No wonder Rachel was so nervous! It was opening night and she wasn't even off book yet!

Just to be clear, I wasn't objecting to the entrance applause. Everyone knows it's a star part and I'm sure her friends helped get it going.

But I don't believe they waited until Scene 3 to start it...

I also found the comment about "making the role her own" hilarious. And the newspaper nonsense.

SMASH was by no means good, but I find GLEE much less tolerable. At least SMASH sometimes had compelling original material.

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