I’m not here to just rehash the drama. The New York theatre community has subjected Beanie Feldstein to a level of cruelty I haven’t witnessed since Elena Roger played Eva Perón (brilliantly, in my opinion) in 2012. But as much as people mocked Roger’s perceived lack of talent; at least she wasn’t unjustly blamed for declining ticket sales and forced out of the production unceremoniously — although she was effectively removed from promotional appearances, including at the Tony Awards. I was going to write something about the the casting drama when everything went down a few weeks ago, but sent that draft into the trash with everything else I’ve tried to write over the last few months. But now that I’ve seen the show, I can firmly say that Beanie Feldstein is not the problem with Funny Girl. It’s just never been a great musical.
Nearly 60 years after its premiere, Funny Girl is more known for launching Barbra Streisand into superstardom than for its actual content. The out of town tryouts in Boston and Philadelphia were poorly reviewed for everything except Streisand’s performance, and the solution the creative team wound up with was to build the entire show around her. This worked out for the original production but ended up dooming the show in the long run.
It took so long for a proper Broadway revival because if you don’t have Barbra Streisand, you don’t really have Funny Girl. The show takes elements of Fanny Brice’s life and career and shoehorns them into the A Star is Born structure. It’s a shameless star vehicle meant to introduce a new talent to the entertainment industry, tailored around Streisand’s vast set of skills rather than what is narratively compelling or historically sound.
So when Michael Mayer opened his new production at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory in 2015, he went in the complete opposite direction to avoid comparisons and again introduce a new type of star. Instead of a powerhouse belter like Streisand, he went with Sheridan Smith; a strong dramatic actress with moderate vocal capabilities and just-good-enough comedic skill. Mayer took a similar approach when the production transferred to Broadway earlier this year, this time resulting in vicious pans almost across the board.
Now, having seen Feldstein’s performance, I can firmly say that she is the single best part of the whole production. Mayer has improved the physical production since the London run, but the Follies numbers still lack the grandeur of actual Ziegfeld productions and the staging is largely lackluster. The comedic numbers (“His Love Makes You Beautiful,” “You Are Woman, I Am Man,” and “Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat”) are well-done, but the rest of the staging is flat and uninspired. Much has been written about Feldstein not being able to sell Fanny as “The Greatest Star,” but how much can you really blame her when the first half of the number is her sitting on the floor and the second half is her standing on a ladder? Feldstein’s greatest strength is in physical comedy, but her big introductory showpiece barely allows her to move.
Beanie Feldstein shines in the book scenes, giving Fanny plenty of charm and sweetness while still letting her ambition shine through. She’s hilarious both in and out of the musical numbers, despite the limitations of her voice. She sometimes loses the pitch and her upper register isn’t very strong, but I don’t think that kills the performance. More than a powerhouse singer, the show needs a strong actress who’s able to sell both comedy and melodrama; and Feldstein does that extremely well. She gives it her all the entire time, commanding attention even in the book’s weakest scenes, which remain the show’s biggest flaw.
Mayer brought in Harvey Fierstein to revise Isobel Lennart’s work for the London production and has made further changes for the Broadway run, but he hasn’t done enough to fix the show’s tiresome second act. The first act is largely the same as the original, with Fierstein’s additions mostly amounting to some Yiddish phrases thrown in for cultural authenticity. The biggest changes are in service of expanding Nick Arnstein into the show’s co-lead in act two. “Temporary Arrangement,” which was originally cut out of town, has been reinstated; he sings the title song added for the film version; and “Who Are You Now?” has been reworked from a solo for Fanny into a duet between her and Nick.
These changes add run time and put Nick in more scenes, but they don’t provide any insight into his character that wasn’t already present in the original. All they do is further push the character as a tragic, sympathetic figure even though the “fragile man mad about his wife being the breadwinner” conflict isn’t sellable to 2020s audiences, at least when presented this sincerely. It’s also not helped by Ramin Karimloo’s performance, which is very “go girl give us nothing.” His job is to stand there and be hot, Karimloo is a talented singer but not strong enough as an actor or comic to sell Nick as sympathetic.
However, even a stronger performance couldn’t make the second act work. Despite the revisions, it remains a series of largely unconnected scenes where the characters on stage discuss events that happen offstage. Fierstein could have fixed or at least mitigated this problem had his approach to the rewrites been more than minor tweaks here and there. The added sequences don’t fill in any of the gaps in the story, they just drag out existing beats that were already tiresome to begin with.
Now that I’ve seen the production, it’s even more frustrating to see Beanie Feldstein continuously singled out as the reason the show is disappointing. She’s not Barbra Streisand, but nobody is. It’s disappointing to see Broadway making the same mistakes they made with Elena Roger, blaming Feldstein for problems mainly caused by bad direction and a weak book. Elena Roger hasn’t appeared on either Broadway or the West End since Evita’s Broadway run, and I hope this pattern doesn’t continue with Beanie Feldstein. She’d be a great Sally Bowles or Ella Peterson someday.
So beautifully written!
You hit the nail on the head!!
After seeing the show (with you)💕, I can definitely see, understand and agree!