Harvey Fierstein on West End-Bound FUNNY GIRL: 'I've Edited It to Make It Stronger'

As BroadwayWorld reported last night, Menier Chocolate Factory's FUNNY GIRL, starring Sheridan Smith, is skyrocketing. The Daily Mail reports that the sold-out production will transfer to the West End's Savoy Theatre beginning April 9, 2016 for a 12-week run. Tickets will go on sale next month.

Wondering how the classic has been updated now that it's back in London? Harvey Fierstein, who reworked the book for FUNNY GIRL's UK return, said he immediately cut 40 pages from the script. "There was a diamond in there and it needed to be cut out," he told the Mail. "It's not that I've cut it to make it shorter -- I've edited it to make it stronger." Fierstein added that he "reshaped the show so it's all seen through Brice's eyes."

Other changes include excising two songs, repositioning others, and adding in two previously unused tunes by Styne & Merrill -- now part of the show for the first time.

Michael Mayer directs Funny Girl, which opens on 2 December, with previews from 20 November, and runs until 5 March 2016 at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Joining Sheridan Smith as Fanny Brice are Valda Aviks (Mrs O'Malley), Natasha J Barnes (Emma/Mrs Meeker), Darius Campbell (Nick), Marilyn Cutts (Mrs Brice), Maurice Lane (Mr Keeney), Bruce Montague (Ziegfeld), Joel Montague (Eddie), Gay Soper (Mrs Strakosh); withEmma Caffrey, Matthew Croke, Joelle Dyson, Rebecca Fennelly, Luke Fetherston, Leah Harris, Kelly Homewood, Sammy Kelly and Stuart Ramsay completing the ensemble.

FUNNY GIRL returns to the London stage for the first time since its 1966 première. With music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill and book by Isobel Lennart, the Broadway smash which skyrocketed Barbra Streisand to stardom, is revived with book revisions by Harvey Fierstein. Sheridan Smith plays Fanny Brice, who rose from the Lower East Side of New York 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 now-classic songs such as "People", "You Are Woman, I Am Man" and "Don't Rain on My Parade", this brand new production promises to be a major theatrical event.

Sheridan Smith returns to the Menier Chocolate Factory to play Fanny Brice. She previously appeared in Little Shop of Horrors for the company (also Duke of York's Theatre). Her other theatre work includes A Midsummer Night's Dream (Michael Grandage Company at the Noel Coward Theatre), Hedda Gabler (Old Vic), Flare Path (Theatre Royal Haymarket - Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress, Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards for Best Actress), Legally Blonde (Savoy Theatre - Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical), Tinderbox(Bush Theatre), The People are Friendly (Royal Court) and Into the Woods (Donmar Warehouse). For television, her credits include Blackwork, The C Word, Cilla, The Widower, The 7.39,Dates, Mr Stink, Mrs Biggs (BAFTA Best Actress), Accused, Scapegoat, Little Crackers, Jonathan Creek, Gavin & Stacey, Larkrise to Candleford, Grown Ups, Love Soup, Two Pints of Larger and a Packet of Crisps, The Royale Family and Wives and Daughters; and for film, The Huntsman, Powder Room, Quartet, Tower Block and Hysteria.