Review: FUNNY GIRL National Tour at Durham Performing Arts Center

Funny Girl is a semi-biographical musical that follows real-life actress, singer, and comedian Fanny Brice. The story explores her humble beginnings as a struggling stage performer who dreams of making it big with the famed Ziegfeld Follies as well as her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nick Arnstein. Through it all, Fanny defies the odds and becomes one of the greatest stars of her generation. Following out-of-town tryouts in Boston and Philadelphia, the original production starring Barbra Streisand opened on March 26th, 1964 at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway.

Despite mixed critical reviews, the show received 8 Tony Award nominations (including Best Musical), but ended up losing to Hello, Dolly!. Nonetheless, Funny Girl still proved to be a commercial hit, ending its run on July 1st, 1967 after 1,348 performances. A film adaptation directed by William Wyler with Barbra Streisand reprising her role as Fanny Brice was released in 1968, receiving 8 Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture). On April 24th, 2022, the very first Broadway revival of Funny Girl finally opened, recently ended its run on September 3rd after 599 performances, and is now on tour.

This revival features a revised book by Harvey Fierstein. I’ve never seen a stage production prior to this national tour. So I can’t really speak to how Fierstein’s revisions compare to the original book by Isobel Lennart. Although it was interesting for me to watch this because biographical showbiz dramas have become much more common within this past century on both the stage and screen. Funny Girl may have been one of the earlier examples, but it still runs into some familiar tropes. While not necessarily a bad thing, those who’ve seen hundreds of biographical showbiz dramas may not find much new territory here.

With that being said, I didn’t mind at all how this musical handled those tropes. The bookends of the plot focus on Fanny Brice in her dressing room as she prepares to star in the Ziegfeld Follies. In between them, the audience is treated to her backstory presented with such lively direction by Michael Mayer. At multiple points in the show, he crafts such stunning images on stage. A lot of the credit for that should be given to Kevin Adams for his vibrant lighting, David Zinn for his elaborate sets (consisting of painted backdrops and physically built walls), and Susan Hilferty for her colorful costumes. Not to mention that there’s also some wonderful choreography by Ellenore Scott.

One of Fanny Brice’s first big numbers in the musical is ‘I’m the Greatest Star,’ which has a lyric that goes “but no one knows it.” In that coveted role, Katerina McCrimmon is a name you’re definitely gonna want to know after seeing this. Her performance allows her to show off a spunky personality, perfect comic timing, and amazing vocals. Plus, she really nails Fanny’s character arc. Just as both the original Broadway production and film version catapulted Barbra Streisand into stardom, I hope this tour does the same for McCrimmon. Stephen Mark Lukas makes for a very charismatic Nick Arnstein. Some of his highlights include songs in Act II that were cut from the original production, but restored for this revival. Which are a dance number called ‘Temporary Arrangement’ and a solo titled ‘You're a Funny Girl/Beekman Call.’ Without giving too much away, the arc Fanny and Nick’s relationship goes on results in a heartfelt conclusion at the end of the show. Izaiah Montaque Harris is such a scene stealer as Fanny’s friend, Eddie Ryan, who gets to show off killer tapping (choreographed by Ayodele Casel) multiple times. Barbara Tirrell as Fanny’s mother, Rose Brice, leads a memorable Greek chorus along with her friends, Christine Bunuan as Mrs. Meeker and Eileen T’Kaye as Mrs. Strakosh, as they comment on some of the action that happens offstage throughout.

The first act is pure musical comedy while the second act enters into more serious territory. Luckily, there’s plenty of other pleasures to enjoy here. Among them are a terrific musical score by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill as well as a moving story. If you’ve never seen Funny Girl before, don’t let anything ‘rain on your parade’ to prevent yourself from seeing a star-making performance by Katerina McCrimmon in this national tour.

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