‘Funny Girl' proves it's adaptable after all

Boston Globe

06-02-2025

Layers of myth began to accumulate around 'Funny Girl' as years, then decades, passed without a Broadway revival — almost unheard of for a show that popular. It took an astonishing 58 years for a 'Funny Girl' revival to land on Broadway.
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Along the way, plenty of other actors got to put their stamp on roles originated by legends, from Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois ('A Streetcar Named Desire'), to Tevye ('Fiddler on the Roof'), Momma Rose ('Gypsy'), Willy Loman ('Death of a Salesman'), and Dolly Levi ('Hello, Dolly!')
But Streisand owned the role of Fanny Brice. It's worth noting, however, that even as an enormously gifted young performer, she didn't always bring her 'A' game to the task.
In 'The Season,' William Goldman's classic chronology of a year on Broadway, he describes a performance of 'Funny Girl' where Streisand 'mugged like Jerry Lewis, and except when she was singing, sounded like him.'
'She was dying of boredom and very clearly didn't care about her performance, and it very clearly didn't matter to the audience, who loved her,' Goldman wrote.
Shankman's approach at the Opera House is anything but blasé. A belter par excellence, she delivers the kind of full-throttle performance that captures Fanny's outsize personality. In the show's Act One closer, 'Don't Rain on My Parade,' Shankman virtually rattles the theater's rafters.
But she also sharply delineates the differences between Fanny onstage and Fanny offstage. Professionally, nothing fazes Fanny, communicated early in the show by her cocky 'I'm the Greatest Star.' Personally, it's another matter, and Shankman expertly dials it down in scenes of emotional anguish.
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Stephen Mark Lukas in "Funny Girl."
Matthew Murphy
Most of that is brought about by Nick Arnstein, Fanny's lover, then husband (played by the impossibly suave Omar Sharif in the movie.) Stephen Mark Lukas acquits himself well as Nick; it's a convincing portrayal of a carefree gambler and playboy who entrances Fanny, and, then, later, of a desperate man whose every financial decision just accelerates his downward spiral. (Fanny's nonchalant reaction to Nick's loss of $68,000 does not ring true.)
Director Michael Mayer shows a facility with the old-fashioned material that you wouldn't necessarily expect from the guy who helmed 'Spring Awakening' and 'American Idiot' on Broadway.
As Eddie Ryan, a dancer who becomes Fanny's confidant, Izaiah Montaque Harris brings a lively spark to the production whenever he is onstage, including his execution of a show-stopping tap number choreographed by
But the musical's limitations are fully evident as well. Some of the songs by Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics) are gems; others are not. Harvey Fierstein was enlisted to punch up the book (i.e. script) by Isobel Lennart, but it remains creaky, a weak point in 'Funny Girl.' Too much stage time is afforded Fanny's mother (
Content warning: Attending 'Funny Girl' means you'll have to listen to 'People.' Shankman sings it about as well as it can be sung, but you'll still be subjected to lyrics like 'People who need people/Are the luckiest people in the world.' They would be luckier still if that song was excised from the score.
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FUNNY GIRL
Music by Jule Styne. Lyrics by Bob Merrill. Book by Isobel Lennart. Revised book by Harvey Fierstein. Choreography by Ellenore Scott. Tap choreography by Ayodele Casel. Directed by Michael Mayer. Presented by Broadway In Boston. At Citizens Opera House, Boston. Through Feb. 16. Tickets start at $40.
Don Aucoin can be reached at