Review: ‘Funny Girl’ still belongs to Barbra Streisand, but Beanie Feldstein is easy to love

Nobody might accuse Beanie Feldstein of taking part in it secure.

Starring within the first Broadway revival of “Humorous Woman,” within the function that catapulted Barbra Streisand into the stratosphere, the fascinating star of “Booksmart” has not let the worry of being in comparison with her idol stand in the best way of her theatrical goals.

Feldstein just lately performed Monica Lewinsky within the FX sequence “Impeachment: American Crime Story.” That function actually has its share of bags, however tackling Fanny Brice threatens accusations of sacrilege.

For Broadway theatergoers of a sure classic, “Humorous Woman” was the gateway drug that led to a lifetime behavior of musical comedy. Recollections of the unique 1964 Broadway manufacturing have light, however solid albums reside without end, and VHS recordings of William Wyler’s 1968 film allowed for repeat viewings of Streisand’s Oscar-winning efficiency throughout the pre-digital age.

Discovering a Fanny after Streisand hasn’t been the one factor holding again a Broadway revival of “Humorous Woman.” The present, which has an intermittently fantastic rating by composer Jule Styne and lyricist Bob Merrill, is a stage beneath “Gypsy” (for which Styne additionally wrote the music) and “Kiss Me, Kate” (one other backstage musical with extra chew).

At its greatest, “Humorous Woman” distills the sound of Broadway’s late golden age. Two hits from the present, “Folks” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” have a everlasting place within the American songbook. However tune and story aren’t completely in sync.

For all of the ups and downs on this musical saga in regards to the lifetime of legendary Jewish vaudeville star Fanny Brice, “Humorous Woman” usually leaves an impression of marking time. The draggy guide by Isobel Lennart falls into most of the cliches of showbiz biography. Think about “Gypsy” crossed with “A Star Is Born,” solely with extra sluggish pacing and sentimentality.

This new Broadway manufacturing of “Humorous Woman,” directed by Michael Mayer on the August Wilson Theatre, contains a retooled guide by Harvey Fierstein. Mayer and Fierstein teamed up for the London manufacturing of “Humorous Woman,” which starred Sheridan Smith in a revival that started on the Menier Chocolate Manufacturing facility earlier than transferring to the West Finish.

There’s solely a lot reconstruction that may occur with a present constructed round such a well known rating. Fierstein’s most vital intervention is to shift the marital steadiness of energy between Fanny and her dashing and rakish gambler husband, Nick Arnstein (Ramin Karimloo).

When the couple first meet, Nick is a complicated man of the world, and Fanny is hustling to get her foot within the door of showbiz. However as soon as Fanny’s profession takes off, she begins performing like a boss, not simply on the Ziegfeld Follies, the place she’s now a headliner, however at residence, the place she controls the purse strings.

Nick begins feeling emasculated, which ought to come as no shock for a man who prefaces his seduction of Fanny with the quantity “You Are Girl, I Am Man.” Fierstein isn’t importing something that isn’t within the unique materials, however his revision clarifies the function Fanny has within the collapse of her marriage.

Feldstein’s Fanny is most convincing as a Lengthy Island matriarch who needs every thing to run in response to her plan. As a spouse, she’s as domineering as she is insecure, lovingly beneficiant but with the understanding that the buck stops along with her.

The achieve in prosaic realism comes at a loss in fairy story magic. The character’s dazzle is diminished. Even Fanny’s bravura can appear workmanlike.

I fell in love with Beanie Feldstein within the 2017 Broadway revival of “Hey, Dolly!” with Bette Midler. That very same 12 months, the Harvard-Westlake graduate stole scenes and hearts in “Girl Chicken.” After being dazzled by her comedian grit in “Booksmart,” I tweeted that I needed to grow to be head of the Beanie Feldstein fan membership.

All of that is to say I admire Feldstein’s distinctive self and don’t have any need to carry her up in opposition to Streisand’s inconceivable customary. However “Humorous Woman” is a huge haul, and although she bravely acquits herself, she by no means makes the function her personal.

Fanny Brice was a bodily comic of genius. She might additionally sing, not like Streisand, however in a mode that made the songs as participating because the shtick.

Feldstein has a cell face and a knack for pratfalls, however she’s not but a grasp clown. And her singing is a combined blessing. She will belt “Don’t Rain on My Parade” with sufficient energy to convey the viewers ecstatically to its toes on the finish of the primary act, however her nonbelting voice not often positive factors traction.

When Karimloo provides a short reprise of “Folks” within the second act, the wealthy resonance of his singing reveals what we’ve been lacking. Omar Sharif, who starred reverse Streisand within the film, didn’t have the Broadway pipes that Karimloo possesses. He won’t even have had the peerlessly sculpted abs that Karimloo exposes in a shirtless scene by which he’s sporting solely pajama bottoms.

Karimloo doesn’t attempt to match Sharif’s elegant mystique, however the gratuitous flaunting of his male magnificence solely throws into reduction the distinction with Feldstein’s zaftig Fanny. Why couldn’t Nick have been reconceived with a contact extra realism too?

A lot fuss is remodeled Fanny not being conventionally stunning. Nobody want remind this “bagel on a plate filled with onion rolls,” as she places it, that she’s no Follies showgirl.

When Florenz Ziegfeld (Peter Francis James) casts her in his present, she turns the finale right into a sight gag by singing “His Love Makes Me Lovely” with a pillow below her wedding ceremony robe to make it seem like she’s pregnant. If audiences are going to snicker, she needs to be the one telling the joke.

Feldstein’s Fanny is often good for amusing, however extra within the vein of a humorous sidekick. The expertise behind the character’s meteoric rise is one thing we have now to tackle report. Granted, the humor of Fanny Brice’s act could also be misplaced within the sands of time. However Feldstein doesn’t fairly have the theatrical confidence to persuade us that this hoary music corridor enterprise might actually kill.

Mayer’s manufacturing is most alive in these moments when Broadway virtuosity breaks out within the supporting solid. The faucet-dancing of Jared Grimes, who performs Eddie Ryan, the dance coach who raises Fanny’s sport, injects the revival with a resuscitating dose of theatrical pleasure.

As Fanny’s saloon-owner mom, Jane Lynch doesn’t at all times appear to belong to this hardscrabble New York Jewish milieu, however she performs up the feminine solidarity with Fanny, one sturdy unbiased lady to a different. Toni DiBuono as Mrs. Strakosh and Debra Cardona as Mrs. Meeker assist convey the Henry Avenue neighborhood to life with their gossipy curiosity in each flip in Fanny’s fortunes. In his portrayal of Florenz Ziegfeld, the impresario who rapidly acknowledges the gold mine he has in Fanny, James exudes a sublime authority.

David Zinn’s scenic design transitions with brisk effectivity from city tenement to suburban mansion, with colourful highway tour stops alongside the best way. Susan Hilferty’s costumes go to extremes of glamour and bagel-adorned zaniness, so it’s virtually a reduction when Fanny is given one thing flatteringly easy to put on.

Feldstein’s Fanny is at her greatest when most vulnerably herself. “You suppose stunning women are gonna keep in type without end?” she says to one in every of her early naysayers. “I ought to say not! Any minute now, they’ll be out! Completed! After which it’ll be my flip!”

Her prediction proves right in her case, however Feldstein deserves a giant Broadway break higher tailor-made to her presents. What she deserves is a brand-new musical comedy that may do for her what “Humorous Woman” did for Streisand.