Now, My Dear Gaveston,
First of all, there's no reason one can's be an ardent feminist and want to play a woman in a role one sees as written as classically pre-feminist. Actors often are drawn to people whose sexual politics are very different than their own.
Then we should ask ourselves, is Fanny classicly pre-feminist? Is Funny Girl? Is a woman who falls deeply in love, assertively goes after it, has no issues being in a marriage where she is the major breadwinner, and demands both a career and a marriage qualifies as classically pre-feminist - one can make a strong argument that she does not.
Is the attitude of Funny Girl strictly pre-feminist? I disagree. Although certainly it describes characters and situations which at sometimes make us question the roles of men and women, struggling men married to powerful strong women, and how they and the people around them saw that dynamic. My dear henrik,
We're not talking about Angela Lansbury here. (Not that Angie would take a part she thought was hateful, but she identifies primarily as an actress, i.e., an "impersonator" of characters.) Gaga has always presented a persona based on certain principles, primarily including equality for marginalized groups, including women and gays.
In the play, Fannie barely registers her opening night triumph because she's too busy mooning over Nicky. At the conclusion of Act I, she walks out on her touring job (quite unprofessionally), telling Ziegfeld words to the equivalent of "a gal's gotta stand by her man."
Of course she's forgiven because she's talented and, anyway, the book was written with, as I say, a 1950s' sensibility. In Act II we find out she's far more happy about being housewife than a theater star and then she spends the rest of the act blaming herself for emasculating poor Nicky and offering to quit show business if it will only save her marriage. The message is clear: a woman has to suppress her talents so that her fella can be secure. It's pure ANNIE GET YOUR GUN.
In other words, Fannie does NOT demand "both" career and marriage. She uses the former to support the latter, but says more than once she'll give up the theater if it makes Nicky happy. EVEN IN THE FINAL MOMENTS OF THE PLAY, while she is waiting for Nicky's arrival, she once again tells her maid that she may be retiring if that's what it takes to keep Arnstein.
What part of that is NOT "pre-feminist"?
Now, of course, I don't know Gaga and maybe she'd like to do the show as an historical piece. But while she's still selling out MSG? I seriously doubt it.
Not to mention the creaky book and the fact that there is nothing avant-garde about the concept of the show and such seems to be Gaga's bent.
(ETA I should allow that Gaga might find her own way into the material. I saw Meryl Streep play Kate in TAMING OF THE SHREW in the Park and somehow she and Raul Julia made the "submission" scene at the end seem like the beginning of a marriage of equals. But, personally, I don't see the same possibility in FUNNY GIRL, though I will gladly go see the show (and had tix to the Ambrose version).)
Updated On: 6/30/13 at 08:45 PM
