Funny Girl
Opening Night: November 20, 2015
Closing: March 5, 2016
Theater: Menier Chocolate Factory
With music and lyrics by Bob Merrill and Jule Styne and book by Isobel Lennart, Styne and Merrill, the Broadway smash which skyrocketed Barbra Streisand to stardom, is revived with Olivier and BAFTA award winner Sheridan Smith (previously at the Chocolate factory in “Little Shop of Horrors”) playing Fanny Brice, who rose from a Brooklyn saloon singer to become one of Broadway’s biggest stars under producer Florenz Ziegfeld. While she was cheered onstage as a great comedienne, offstage she faced a doomed relationship with the man she loved. With a score featuring the classic songs “People”, “You Are Woman, I Am Man” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, this new production directed by Michael Mayer (“Hedwig” & “Spring Awakening” on Broadway) promises to be the theatrical event of the year.
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February 15, 2016
“When you’re gifted, then you’re gifted,” sings Fanny Brice in the hit revival of “Funny Girl,” currently enjoying a sold-out run at the small but mighty Menier Chocolate Factory before transferring to the West End in April. Since Fanny is portrayed by Sheridan Smith in Michael Mayer’s dutiful production of this 1964 biomusical, no one is likely to challenge such a self-assessment. A reigning sweetheart of British theater and television, who has won awards for her work in both a drama (“Flare Path”) and a musical (“Legally Blonde”), Ms. Smith is an actress of remarkable facility, versatility and charm. All these assets are deployed so eagerly in “Funny Girl” that you can’t help wishing that she were more comfortably wedded to her character. It’s impossible not to like Ms. Smith as Fanny; it is equally difficult to believe her.
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