Sheridan is the perfect Funny Girl...
SHeridan SMiTH is putting her own stamp on Fanny Brice in the first london revival of the musical Funny Girl in half a century. Watching the actress rehearse the role of the comedienne and singer who was one of impresario Florenz Ziegfeld’s protegees, it is more than clear that as director Michael Mayer and choreographer lynne Page put Sheridan through her paces, she owns the role.
When she sings i’m The Greatest Star and breaks into a tap routine, it is as if the audience of fellow cast and creative team members, plus a goose-bumped onlooker perched at the back of the Menier Chocolate Factory’s basement rehearsal space, are meeting Brice for the first time.
earlier, i’d watched Sheridan and darius Campbell, as her fraudster husband nicky arnstein, sing You are Woman, i am Man (let’s Kiss) and the comic dance duet that ensued was hilarious, with Sheridan’s Brice comically trying to scoot from the amorous advances of the red-blooded arnstein.
Sheridan says that producer Sonia Friedman, who controls the rights, called her with the idea.
‘i remember thinking: “Can i do that? Can i play her?” it’s a huge role,’ she tells me later as we lunch with Campbell, Mayer and Marilyn Cutts, who plays Fanny’s mother.
Then Friedman told her about the team she had assembled and that Funny Girl would run at the Menier Chocolate Factory (helmed by david Babani), a place she was well acquainted with, having appeared there in little Shop of Horrors several years ago.
‘i thought: “i’m in such good hands, i’d be mad to say no.” it’s a dream role; tragic, she’s on a rollercoaster of a journey.’ Mayer and Harvey Fierstein, who was contracted to ‘excavate’ the book, insisted that Sheridan would be portraying Fanny Brice and not imitating Barbra Streisand (who played the title role on the stage and screen) playing Fanny Brice. ‘Who can be Barbra Streisand? let’s be honest, there’s only one Babs,’ Sheridan tell me. ‘You’ve got to put your own stamp on it.
‘all the footage i’ve watched of the real Fanny Brice shows that she’s a great comic,’ she adds, noting that the show would be concentrating more on the comedy in the first half, then the tragic side of being in love with arnstein.
She believes that the story of the powerful woman in love with the wrong man resonates in every age.
And she’s aware of what a hard taskmaster showbusiness can be. ‘When Fanny says to the love of her life that she lives on stage, i understood something about that. it’s where i live at the minute.’ it’s easy to see why the Menier sold out its entire run in just 90 minutes and a transfer to the Savoy was announced before the show has even had its first preview (next Friday, november 20).
Fans wanted to see Sheridan take on a poignant, mythic role in a landmark show that had been hidden from view for decades.
The moment Mayer, a celebrated Broadway director, heard there was a chance of Sheridan doing Funny Girl, he watched videos of her in Gavin & Stacey, Cilla and clips of her performance in little Shop of Horrors. ‘You can’t say: “We’re doing Funny Girl” — and then start looking for a Fanny Brice,’ says Mayer.
‘You’ve got to have someone in mind who can deliver.’
He told me how recent U.S. productions have collapsed for a variety of reasons. Bart Sher was about to mount a version a few years ago with lauren ambrose as the star. it never happened.
lea Michele, of TV’s Glee fame, was going to play Fanny in a production set in the present day. That one didn’t happen either.
But the heirs of the original creators — Jule Styne, Bob Merrill and isobel lennart — are fully committed to the Menier version of Funny Girl and they will be travelling from the U.S. to see it.
i ask Sheridan and Mayer what happens if it’s the most astonishing hit at the Chocolate Factory and the Savoy? Will it go to Broadway?
Sheridan laughs, while Mayer chides me and says: ‘let’s get the show on here first. We’re not seeing our first run-through until this afternoon!’
it would be the most extraordinary thing for a young woman from lincolnshire to take Funny Girl back to new York City. They’d call her Wonder Girl if she pulls that off.