Why Sheridan’s the perfect Funny Girl
SHERIDAN SMITH is in the middle of ‘sensitive’ discussions about her re-imagining one of the biggest roles in the musical theatre canon: Funny Girl. Barbra Streisand portrayed the exuberant Ziegfeld Follies comedienne Fanny Brice on Broadway in 1964, and it made her a star. Ms Smith — an award-winning actress on stage and the small screen — hasn’t fully made up her mind about playing the lead in the musical at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Southwark. Later today she will meet with director Michael Mayer, who is travelling to London from New York, where he has collected honours for his stagings of Thoroughly Modern Millie, American Idiot and Hedwig And The Angry Inch (which is still running in Manhattan). If the meeting goes well, the production will progress to the Chocolate Factory. If not, the show will be shelved. But Ms Smith should grab this role with both hands. The New York Times review of the Streisand production, 51 years ago, observed that underneath the clowning, Barbra was able to convey ‘a note of honest emotion’. And that’s something I know Smith can do. That’s why she won an Olivier for her heartbreaking performance in Trevor Nunn’s production of Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. It’s why audiences adored her in Legally Blonde. Funny Girl deals with Brice looking back over her rocky marriage to businessman Nick Arnstein. The hit numbers by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill include People, Cornet Man and Don’t Rain On My Parade. Streisand played the role in the West End in 1966, but it hasn’t been done in London since. It’s early days, but — and I don’t want to be corny here, folks — we’d be the luckiest people if Ms Smith agreed to do Funny Girl at the Menier. Because I bet it won’t end there. With her at the heart of it, the show would be sure to transfer to the West End and, I’m guessing, Broadway. Ms Smith’s agent was not available for comment, and her publicist did not return my call.