She's Good for a Laugh and Make Your Own Thursday Headlines

 

Courtesy Vulture.

Come claim your prize, AlienJesus. He was the only one to correctly guess that this week's spotlight would be on April 24, 2022, the day Barbra Streisand turned 80 and the Funny Girl revival opened on Broadway.

Three years ago this summer, Lea Michele finally bagged the big one. She was cast as Fanny Brice in Broadway's first revival of Funny Girl. Lea sang "Don't Rain on My Parade" more than once on Glee, but my go-to for her and that song is the 2010 Tony Awards. Make no mistake, Lea wanted Broadway to know that when it was time to crown Streisand's successor, she was ready.

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Sometimes it takes a while for destiny to be fulfilled. Not long after that performance, Funny Girl was slated to receive a Broadway revival. Our old buddy Bartlett Sher, who directed Lea Michele in Fiddler on the Roof, was set to helm the new Funny Girl. Sher's "greatest star" would be ... Lauren Ambrose, acting opposite Bobby Cannavale as Nicky Arnstein. Thanks to multiple investors pulling out of the project, a Funny Girl revival once again seemed like a "Why not?" idea. Reviewers in 2022 indicated the question should have stayed "Why?"

"Neither director Michael Mayer nor script doctor Harvey Fierstein has solved the problems of the creaky book (originally written by Isobel Lennart), which can't build Fanny's longing for offstage romantic fulfillment to match her professional success - and her eventual showbiz survivor resilience - into a robust through line. The show feels patchy and episodic and it needs a knockout, roof-raising lead to paper over the cracks." -- David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Lea Michele may be on the Funny Girl revival's cast album, but she wasn't in the show on opening night. No, on April 24, 2022, Fanny Brice was played by Beanie Feldstein. With reviews like the following, it's no wonder that Feldstein's last performance was July 31:

• "To rip the bandage off quickly: Feldstein is not stupendous. She's good. She's funny enough in places, and immensely likable always ... You root for her to raise the roof, but she only bumps against it a little. Her voice, though solid and sweet and clear, is not well suited to the music, and you feel her working as hard as she can to power through the gap. But working hard at what should be naturally extraordinary is not in Fanny's DNA." -- Jesse Green, New York Times
• "In the first act, when Brice is an inexperienced gal blustering her way into the big time, Feldstein exudes a nice mix of hard-charging ambition and surprised giddiness when she succeeds. But in song after song, Feldstein's voice lets her down. Piercing and unpleasant when it gets any higher than her chest, fading and pitchy when it descends even a few steps, it's simply not a sound you expect to hear on Broadway." -- Helen Shaw, Vulture
• "Vocally, Feldstein is strained and nasal and unable to handle power solos like "I'm the Greatest Star," "People," "Don't Rain on My Parade," and "The Music That Makes Me Dance." She also overplays the comedy and resorts to mugging. (I question how Feldstein could even be cast as Fanny in a high school or theater camp production.)" -- Matt Windman, amNY

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... Happy Birthday, Dear Barbra! Happy Birthday to You!

By many accounts, it's not easy to maintain a quality performance for eight shows a week on Broadway. Legend has it that Streisand herself was prone to trying anything she could to stave off boredom during her nearly two years in the original Funny Girl. Feldstein, to the best of my knowledge, never reached that point. More or less immediately, she began missing performances. April 24, 2022, was a Sunday, and the following weekend, Beanie left Girl in the hands of standby Julie Benko. Beanie was attending a friend's wedding.

A well-known bit of Funny Girl folklore concerns Barbra Streisand missing at least two performances due to illness. The role of Fanny went to standby Lainie Kazan, who had a list of people to notify about her debut. Once Barbra was back, Lainie was out. This wasn't the case for Julie Benko. First of all, everybody knew about Beanie Feldstein's absences and eventual early departure, so Julie probably didn't have to work hard to let people know about seeing her Fanny. Additionally, Julie stayed on during Lea Michele's run, performing on Thursdays.

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The Funny Girl revival scored only one Tony nomination, for Jared Grimes' performance as Eddie Ryan. He lost to Matt Doyle as Jamie, "Getting Married Today" in the female-led Company revival. Still, at least Jared was nominated. Voters also ignored Ramin Karimloo as Nicky, plus Jane Lynch. In yet another bit of controversy, Jane hightailed it out of Funny Girl before Lea arrived. For 2022-2023 and on the cast album, it was Tovah Feldshuh as Mrs. Brice.

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Maybe someday Beanie Feldstein will return to Broadway. If she does, and it's a project that she can lead on her own terms, then maybe she'll have the last laugh.

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Also debuting on this day:

Peter Pan, revived in 1950 at the Imperial Theatre. Jean Arthur and Boris Karloff starred in what remains the longest-running and so far last Broadway production of James M. Barrie's play. Ever since 1954, if you want to see Peter Pan on Broadway, you're likely to see it with singing and dancing.

The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, which opened in 1977 at the Longacre. Al Pacino won his second and so far last Tony for David Rabe's play about a doomed Vietnam draftee.

Steel Pier, which opened in 1997 at the Richard Rodgers. This wasn't a long-running production, but it deserves mention for being Kander & Ebb's second production of 1996-97. Steel Pier ended up dislodging the Chicago revival, which moved to the Shubert (and stayed there for nearly six years). From 1997-2011, Pier shared the record for productions with the most Tony Awards nominations and no wins, 11. The other show to "achieve" that? The original production of Chicago. Since 2011, three shows have gone 12-0 at the Tonys: Slave Play, Mean Girls, and yet another Kander & Ebb musical, The Scottsboro Boys. Pier has a happier place in the history book. It was Kristin Chenoweth's Broadway debut.

Courtesy YouTube.

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Nice Work If You Can Get It, which opened in 2012 at the Imperial. Matthew Broderick and Kelli O'Hara starred in this evening of Gershwin tunes. It scored two Tonys, for featured actors Michael McGrath and Judy Kaye.

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Cabaret, revived in 2014 at Studio 54. Over the course of 11 months, Alan Cumming reprised his Master of Ceremonies role opposite Michelle Williams, Emma Stone, and Sienna Miller. (I know that many of you expected me to shine the spotlight on this production. Stay tuned; Cabaret will have its day in the sun.)

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Waitress, which opened in 2016 at the Brooks Atkinson. Confession time -- I overlooked this production until just before writing today's commentary. I had it confused with the return enagement that played from September-December 2021 at the Ethel Barrymore. If I wasn't committed to writing about Funny Girl, this would have gotten the spotlight. Waitress' original production lasted for 1,544 performances (No. 62 on the current longest-runners list), which is not shabby for a show that went 4-0 at the Tonys. To be fair, it was the year of Hamilton. (And Cynthia Erivo won for The Color Purple over Jessie Mueller in Waitress.)

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Anastasia, which opened in 2017 at the Broadhurst. The stage version of Stephen Flaherty & Lynn Ahrens' 1997 animated musical scored only two Tony nominations, for costume designer Linda Cho and for Mary Beth Peil as the Dowager Empress.

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Good Night, Oscar, which opened in 2023 at the Belasco. Its place in history is assured thanks to Sean Hayes' Tony Award for playing Oscar Levant.

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Next week, an argument for brass bands and confetti.