Funny Girl

Now chiefly remembered for the 1964 film starring Barbra Streisand, but with interest renewed by a 2022 Broadway revival, “Funny Girl” is the semi-biographical story of Fanny Brice, a cabaret performer in New York around the time of the First World War.  In his programme note, the director was very clear about his objectives for the production: to make it something unique, something more than just a star vehicle, and to use the design to help tell the story. I think it would be fair to suggest that he succeeded on all counts.

While the leading actor gives a complete performance as Fanny Brice, the quality of the ensemble is equally impressive.  The show was very well cast, from the principals with key roles to play in Fanny’s life, through the show dancers to the company members providing colour and context.  The confidence born of a clear vision and exhaustive rehearsal was evident throughout.  The musical director’s almost obsessive attention to detail was reflected in the accurate, well-balanced part-singing of the chorus, and the choreographer’s inventive and challenging routines were well executed.

The stripped back design was also very effective.  By simply using a few key properties or pieces of furniture – a dressing table, a table with a few chairs, a pile of luggage – the director was able to provide context without taking the focus away from the principal characters and their interactions.  The gauze helped to bridge between the present and Fanny’s memories of the past, while the revolving stage facilitated some memorable and powerful moments.

As always, the chorus work showed that the talent pool here is incredibly deep.  Every incidental role was played with confidence and conviction, with heads up and without hesitation.  Background contextual activity was well judged, and even the traditional challenge of promenading across the stage without looking self-conscious was met with ease.  The balance in the singing was good thanks to the impressive strength of the tenors and basses, and the male dancers are fast catching up with their female counterparts.

The sixteen-strong band played with characteristic energy and precision.  There was plenty of showbizzy wind and brass on hand for the showpiece numbers, while the string section delivered emotion, and the solo piano was suitably melancholic.  The deep pit at the Playhouse ensured that the sound balance between the performers and the band was pretty good overall.

The production looked a treat thanks largely to excellent costumes: the glitz and glamour of the show outfits, often drawing on distinctive colour palettes, was complemented by the starchy formality of the upper class’s evening wear, and the period details evident in the day wear – such as the cut of the men’s trousers and the lines of the ladies’ dresses.  The black box staging meant that there was plenty of scope for the lighting design to establish place and atmosphere; the smoke in the roof highlighted the intense light patterns upstage which, when backed by the star cloth, provided an appropriate theatricality for the show numbers.

The production, probably wisely, avoided confronting some of the social issues raised in a work, itself over fifty years old, which depicts the world as it was over one hundred years ago.  Some of the opinions about a woman’s proper role, about the supposed necessity for her to have a man in her life, or about whether or not a woman accepting an expensive dinner implies consent to her becoming the dessert, were left unexplored.  But this production didn’t seek to examine changing attitudes and behaviours, or to present a “Funny Girl” modified to accommodate more modern, enlightened attitudes.  It achieved what it set out to do: to offer something unique, a star vehicle but simultaneously so much more than that, and it told the very human story at the heart of the musical with insight and sensitivity.

 

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