Well, that’s that. After all the scandals and poorly handled castings and headlines, and backstage bruisings or firings or resignations, Funny GirlIt is, as many have suspected, the musical Lea Michele was meant to direct. Broadway’s new Fanny Brice is, to put is simply and without exaggeration, a knock-out.
Michele has been in this role since early September. However, due to some cast members being sick with Covid in recent week, and to allow Michele some breathing room, recent critics have only been invited to August Wilson to witness the changes. It was worth the wait.
She sings the opening number from the moment she opens her mouth. “Who Are You Now?,” audiences relax in the assurance that this musical, for whatever its other merits – or lack thereof, and there is plenty of lack thereof – will be sung by a voice that can do it justice. Michele does the part of Fanny so well that it lifts the whole production to her level. She makes performers who were fine the first time around – Ramin Karimloo as Nick Arnstein, Peter Francis James as Florenz Ziegfeld – seem all that much better, and raises the general level of performance to such a degree that the terrific Jared Grimes, as dance teacher Eddie, now no longer seems adrift during his spectacular tap dance routines: He seems a part of the show, rather apart FromThe show.
Without unduly rehashing the summer’s unfortunate headlines, Funny Girl Opening with Beanie Feldstein playing Fanny and Jane Lynch playing Mrs. Brice, last spring. Feldstein was never as bad as the gossip suggested – she’s an amiable stage performer with a just-adequate singing voice. Alas, Funny Girl a just-adequate musical, needs a lot more from its star, otherwise there’s just way too much adequate begging for attention. Needless to mention, the star who created the show seemed to grasp the concept with all her heart, even though she knew full well that it was impossible to do so. Funny Girl Barbra Streisand is a must-have even back in the day.
While Michele has made no bones about her Barbra love over the years – it was a running joke on Glee – she delivers a Fanny Brice that only hews to the original when it’s absolutely unavoidable – line readings of jokes written for Streisand still sound like Streisand, power ballads still insist on the big, belted notes that have been Streisand’s calling card since long before Michele was born.
To suggest that Michele might be Streisand 2.0, however, would be demeaning as well as inaccurate. To my ears, Michele’s “People”It is perhaps a little more breathy than the Streisand classic and maybe a little warmer. “I’m The Greatest Star” arrives with such force-of-nature gusto that those multiple standing ovations you’ve been reading about seem absolutely spontaneous and heartfelt. And “Don’t Rain On My Parade” – in both its early can-do bravado and as the fearsome second-act pledge of survival – is returned to its rightful place among Broadway’s big, beloved showstoppers, with Michele’s crystalline, belted tones ringing out.
The new Fanny is equally at home during the non-singing segments, nailing the punchlines, such as they are, and finding a comfort level with her cast mates that Feldman didn’t always reach. Michele and Karimloo have an easy chemistry – at one point during the reviewed performance, there was a slight mishap with that famous blue marble egg that Nick gifts Fanny. The egg fell from their hands and landed on the table with a thud, prompting laughter among the audience and the stars. After a long summer of hurt feelings and rumored tensions, the smiles on stage felt like a big breath.
And Michele isn’t the only newcomer providing fresh air: Tovah Feldshuh is a gem as Mrs. Brice, a tiny ball of grit and fire and maternal devotion that makes clear just exactly where Fanny got her gumption and talent. Feldshuh, in ways that the woefully miscast Jane Lynch wasn’t, is entirely credible as the old-school saloon hoofer of yore who raised her very funny girl to survive in the world of show-biz and the world at large.
It was evident that Fanny learned some valuable lessons. Seems there’s been a lot of that going on over at the Wilson.