Interview: 'No Spiel...The Show Must Go On!' - MSMT Panel Explores FUNNY GIRL

“We battle with other theatres to get the rights for shows.  We always try to get MSMT on the national radar as much as we can and get first rights if possible, but it is very competitive,” explains Curt Dale Clark, Maine State Music Theatre’s Artistic Director, as he recounts how the Brunswick theatre managed a virtual coup for this 2024 season by becoming the first regional theatre to receive the rights to produce FUNNY GIRL after it closed its recent revival on Broadway.  “In the case of FUNNY GIRL, Concord Theatricals was holding our money for a show that we planned to produce in 2020 before the pandemic shut everyone down. Since they do not return money, they were eager for us to choose another show from their catalog and clear their books.  I agreed if they would give us the first rights to FUNNY GIRL after the Broadway show closed.”

Clark is sharing his thoughts with the audience at MSMT’s second Peek Behind the Curtain on July 3 at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, where he is joined by actors Sue Cella, Douglas Raymond Williams, and Michelle Beth Herman, as well as panel moderator, Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold.

The panel begins by pondering why FUNNY GIRL is so rarely produced and why this production is such an important one for the company. “It’s rarely performed,” notes Cella, “because it is not easy to find a young female talent who can sing like Barbra Streisand, be funny, and be Jewish. Jenna Lea Rosen [MSMT’s Fanny] makes it look easy, but the vocal range of the part is insane, and together with all the running around and being comic as well, it is one of the most demanding roles in the musical theatre canon.” Cella, who played Evita on Broadway, says that Fanny is a more difficult role than that of Eva Peron (which is sung through) “because there is singing and talking and yelling which is more difficult to do it healthily.”

Michelle Beth Herman, who plays Mrs. O’Malley and understudies Fanny, says “Fanny Brice is a monster role; it’s such a beast of a part, such a roller coaster ride emotionally and physically.  I’ve been a swing covering eight tracks on the national tour of LES MISÉRABLES, but this is more demanding.  Fanny has hundreds of lines and lyrics, and the way she speaks is a specific challenge to learn, but also a joy! And then there is the whole other show going on backstage with Jenna [Lea Rosen] doing quick [costume/wig] changes, sipping water, gobbling gummy bears for her throat; it is nonstop the whole time.”

Sullwold notes that this production of FUNNY GIRL is blessed with established veteran actors and new young artists.  Clark talks about the challenge of casting the show and how everything unfolds in the room. “I am going to say it’s easier than it looks, but it’s not.  It can be very tricky. Casting any show, you start at the top.  I had my mind made up about whom to cast as Fanny.  But Jenna’s audition was one of those rare occasions when there was absolute silence in the room after she finished.  And I said, ‘I guess that’s our Fanny,’ and everyone else agreed. And from there, it continued to unfold. I have never worked with Doug or Michelle until now, but suddenly there they were, and they were amazing!”

Williams, who comes from an opera background, observes: “I don’t have that many musical theatre credits, and yet they cast me.  I feel as if the role is a great fit for me, and I am learning so much from everyone in the room, especially Jenna, whom I play opposite.  I would happily do the role again anywhere. I have been lucky to make a living mostly in opera and classical music, but the past few years I have had the feeling I should be having more fun and let more of myself come through in what I am doing onstage.  It’s a little like Nick Arnstein who has built himself up in a world of ruffled shirts and then he meets Fanny, who is totally free, and he wants that for himself.  He wants to be seen with her and to come out in a way he has not before.”  Williams feels that for all Arnstein’s flaws, “he genuinely falls in love with Fanny. There is a co-dependence [between them]. Fanny feels she is made beautiful by being with Nick, and Nick likes Fanny because she is a star on his arm, but ultimately that can’t sustain the relationship.  Fanny calls it ‘bad casting,’ and at the end, Nick realizes his own flaws, and understands he is not fit to be in a relationship with Fanny.”

In playing Mrs. Brice, Cella says her character is aware of the difficulties in her daughter’s marriage. “I love her like crazy and want her to be happy in her career and in her personal life.  I worry that she is not too experienced with men so when she meets this handsome guy, I am a little wary.  But he wins me over too.  At the end when I come to tell Fanny that Nick is in jail, I want her to understand what her husband has been doing – not to pretend everything is OK because she loves him. I am a little harsh at the end, but I hope it comes off with love.” 

Cella dedicates these performances to her own mother who, she says, “taught me everything I know.” She recounts how her mother had always wanted to be a performer herself and came to all her daughter’s performances, sometimes identifying so much that at one performance of EVITA on Broadway, Mrs. Cella sitting in the mezzanine, threw up her arms in an Eva Peron gesture as Sue sang ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.’ “She always used to sing “Who Taught Her Everything” (Mrs. Brice’s song/dance number in FUNNY GIRL) after my shows,” Cella smiles in reminiscing.

Herman enjoys her supporting role of Mrs. O’Malley, “one of the younger card ladies.  She’s recently married, flirty, and supportive of Fanny’s career.  She feels Fanny should be given the chance to follow her dream. She represents the sense of camaraderie and community that exists on the Lower East Side.”  And speaking of Fanny Brice, Herman reminds that the character “is truly a funny girl. Fanny operates through humor, and that stems from her Jewish roots. Jews often use humor to lighten things up because if they don’t laugh, they are going to cry. As a Jewish woman and a New Yorker, I can really relate to that side of Fanny.”

The panel shifts its attention to the artistic concept and visual elements of the production.  Clark once again asserts that “it is my intention to produce a show the way the authors intended for it to be seen. In the case of FUNNY GIRL, Kenny Ingram [director/choreographer] wanted to make it a little gritty, and we used the new video to reflect those images.” Clark also notes that audience response to the new MSMT video wall technology has been overwhelmingly positive so far this season. “Everyone is blown away by our ability to morph from one scene to the next, and it has made our strike and tech process civilized.”

Cella remarks that she had never before worked with Kenny Ingram, “but it has been an absolute joy. He is one of the kindest, funniest people I have ever met. The rehearsal room was filled with joy, laughter, and love. Everyone came to work happy and ready to create.”

Asked if the panel views FUNNY GIRL as a love letter not only to Fanny Brice, but also to the world of theatre, all concur.  Clark feels that in this production is especially blessed in communicating the passion of the character and her love for the theatre. “On stage our heroine is living the part; Jenna stops existing and becomes Fanny Brice, and it is beautiful to watch.”

Sue Cella adds,” At the end of FUNNY GIRL, Fanny’s heart is broken, but she goes on stage.  It says something about people who choose this profession and why relationships don’t always work for performers.  Performing is sometimes their first love, and they can’t do anything about that. If they are in a relationship with a person who doesn’t get that, the relationship is not going to work.”

Curt Dale Clark says, ”I am lucky to be married to someone who feels the same way I do about life. Our commitment to each other is firm, but we also have jobs that demand things of us that other people wouldn’t allow to get in the way of their personal lives. At the level of our jobs and of our organizations, it is inevitable that things will interfere with our personal lives. So I am lucky enough to be married to someone who understands that and for whom it’s also true on his end.”

“Nick realizes in the end that he is married to someone who is on a different track than his,” says Douglas Raymond Williams. A performer spends a lot of life on the road. To ask someone else to deal with that is a big ask. He lets Fanny go because she is heading in a different direction. It’s the mantra of the show and the spirit of musical theatre: a performer picks up wherever he/she is that day and goes out on stage and gives the performance everything because the show must go on.”

Michelle Beth Herman points out: “Fanny has a line near the end when she says, ’No spiel that the show must go on’ and then goes out and sings ‘The Music That Makes Me Dance.’  As actors, we take our hearts and lay them out on the stage for everybody to see. We tell the story truthfully no matter what else is going on in our lives. It’s kind of therapeutic. Fanny uses that passion, anger, sadness to make the show go on.”

Photos courtesy of MSMT, Dane Whitlock, photographer

MSMT’s Peek Behind the Curtain is offered as a free program on the second Wednesday of each mainstage show at noon at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick. Remaining panels are for WHITE CHRISTMAS (July 24) and BEAUTIFUL  THE Carole King MUSICAL ( August 14)

To post a comment, you must register and login.