Official! Lauren Ambrose to Star in FUNNY GIRL! — Page 8

Two more interesting versions of "The Music That Makes Me Dance":


Liza:

http://youtu.be/N6CGK6DdHoI


Lorna:

http://youtu.be/LWjzKdB4woc

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Unless I'm having a senior moment, the last thing we see in the movie of "Funny Girl" is Fanny singing "My Man." It's a mezermiring finish.

But while "The Music That Makes Me Dance" is sung by Fanny on stage in the show, it isn't the finale ultimo. Instead, the show ends with Fanny reprising "Don't Rain on My Parade" in her dressing room after her final scene with Nick.

If I'm right, there might be room for both songs in the show (licensing issues notwithstanding). Alternately, "The Music That Makes Me Dance" not having the sheer power of "My Man" may not be as much of an issue given that the songs don't fill the same slot in the narrative.

I'm sure that they'll come up with something. Sher and his team came up with some fresh (and very powerful) interpretations of older material for South Pacific. I'll never forget the staging and re-imagining of the Honey Bun reprise. It was a total surprise and worked so well.

If they can't get My Man (or don't even want to try), I'm hoping they can give the end of this show the power that it needs and deserves. There are plenty of highlight moments in the stage version, but the ending just sort of fizzles for me. And yes, that's by comparison to the movie, but I can't help (as others won't be able to help either) that I saw the movie first.

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Its probably worth noting too that "My Man" as Brice originally sang it was a very simple song. It was really rethought and orchestrated for Streisand in a way to make it the kind of power house vocal showstopper that it became in the movie.

I would say it's more likely we will see re-orchestrations of the existing songs or perhaps some interpolations of other STYNE trunk songs before the use of material by other composers directly associated with Brice herself.

Meanwhile, in case osme of you forgot, there was a planned revival of "Funny Girl" about ten years ago that didn't make it. At the time, the announced Fanny--with the seal of approval of Jule Styne himself--was...

Taylor Dayne.

Yes, the "Tell It to My Heart"/'I'll Always Love You" Taylor Dayne.

I have the feeling that to some of you Lauren Ambrose sounds a helluva lot better at this point, Styne's approval or not.

Oy vey the duh-rama and the duh-rama queeeeenzzzz....

There are 56 songs that Styne and Merrill wrote and discarded for Funny Girl.

You can read about them (and hear a few of them) here:

http://barbra-archives.com/live/60s/funny_girl_broadway_2.html

And the rest of that site's Funny Girl archive is also pretty fantastic.

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Styne wanted Taylor Dane for the role in the mid 80s; and by the early 90s wanted Sandra Bernhard, who I think would have been really interesting.

Bernhard would have been excellent in her prime. Now, aside from being too old, she's become a caricature of all the things that once made her thrilling and unique.

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Smaxie--that's a great website!

Does anyone know what these changes were:

It is interesting to note that the show has been revised since 1966. Lyricist Bob Merrill, in fact, contributed changes to the 1996 touring show starring Debbie Gibson. "Before Jule passed away, we rewrote two of the songs and added a completely new song to the score," Merrill told Playbill. "I did a rewrite of the book. I maintained everything that was in the show but tried to strengthen the character development."

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That website is amazing! This excerpt from the 1964 Village Voice describing the staging of "Music That Makes Me Dance" gives me goosebumps:

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In Fanny's dressing room, Mrs. Brice and Eddie told Fanny that Nick was in jail. Fanny, alone, began to sing "The Music That Makes Me Dance." After the introductory lyric, Streisand walked stage center and sang the song in front of a curtain, alone on the stage.

An April 9, 1964 edition of The Village Voice described the remarkable staging of "The Music That Makes Me Dance":

Miss Streisand is sitting at her dressing table in a white coat just before curtain time when she is told that her husband has been arrested. A follow-spot pinpoints her face. The lights go out around her. The follow-spot turns lavender. She drops the coat and walks slowly, her face floating in the darkness as she sings, down to the footlights. A curtain whispers down behind her and gradually as the song builds, the spotlight widens until we see all of her, glamorous and vibrant, the heartbroken trouper that theatrical myths are built around.

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That kind of "spotlight choreography" is exactly the kind of thing Jerome Robbins would do when he was called in to doctor shows (as he was on this one).

At the end of the Dance at the Gym in West Side Story, Robbins had a follow spot come up softly on Tony as he heard Bernardo say Maria's name. Then, as everyone exited, the lights faded on the rest of the stage and the spot narrowed to a pin spot on Tony's face. The gym set disappeared and a blue body spot picked up Tony as he began to sing "Maria," so he was bathed in the blue spot around him and the white pinspot tight on his face--and, boy, would Robbins scream bloody murder if that pinspot jerked to one side for even a fraction of a second.

The body spot/face spot combination kept the audience inside Tony's thoughts, rapt, as he crossed the stage singing "Maria" and Maria's fire escape rattled on. Then, as he finished the song, the white pinspot opened up and--magically--we had traveled with Tony to Maria's building.

That was the Jerry Robbins Touch.

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Updated On: 8/4/11 at 06:24 PM

Amazing site. I love stuff like this. Thanks for linking it up!

Years ago, someone told me that "People" was originally written for Nicky to sing not Fanny. Then Ms S. decided she wanted to sing the song. Does anyone know if this is true?