EDINBURGH 2014 - BWW Reviews: FUNNY GIRL, Greenside @ Nicolson, August 13 2014

Fanny Brice is determined to be a star. At the age of nineteen, she has been performing onstage since her early teens but is informed by well meaning friends that she was cute as a child but she won't succeed as an adult as she isn't appealing to men.

Not remotely deterred by this, Fanny declares that "beautiful girls won't stay in fashion forever" and auditions for the role she wants anyway. Her performance blows everyone away and she gets caught up in a bidding war between the director and a mysterious gentleman.

As Fanny's career takes off, romance develops between herself and Nick who is a very successful businessman. The piece follows their relationship as Nick gets himself into financial difficult and Fanny becomes the more successful of the two.

This was an excellent staging of Funny Girl but my one issue was the absence of microphones. While it was a small theatre and most of the cast projected their voices well, a few lines were lost. There is a live jazz band onstage who were excellent, but there were several big numbers including Don't Rain On My Parade where the vocals were being drowned out.

The setting is fairly basic with minimal set but it wasn't necessary. The story and the music are strong and the cast performed it well.

Funny Girl runs at Greenside @ Nicolson until August 23rd.