Lea Michele to star in Broadway revival of FUNNY GIRL (....on GLEE)- Page 3

[darquegk]

Posted: 4/24/14 at 10:50am

Murphy is a brilliant pilot man, and a terrible show-runner. An anthology show like AHS allows him more leeway to do his thing. However, he can only do so much. The first season had a consistent feel. The second one devolved into "throw everything together and see what sticks."

The third, on the other hand, felt like a debut season for a brand-new show. It wasn't AHS at all, it was Coven.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 4/24/14 at 11:04am

Gaveston, I actually love "Who Are You Now" more than "Funny Girl" and could never figure out why they changed it. I also don't understand why they used "My Man" as the finale. If they're using it to be biographical, they"be already taken so many liberties it doesn't mess up the story (and I Think "The Music That Makes Me Dance" is far superior to "My Man").

Jordan, the reason Coven fell apart is because the only question left for the show was "who is the next Supreme?". After that question was answered, there was no where to go. But of course, we were then given a 30 minute epilogue full of information no one cared about. On a whole, Coven just didn't seem like a horror story. Any "Horror" that it had was killed because it was made camp. Who is going to take a decapitated Kathy Bates seriously? Or that weird massacre/racism montage? Ryan probably got flack for last season, and took it the wrong way. He didn't tie up anything in Asylum (the aliens?), so he ties everything up in Coven. The characters just had different personalities every scene.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/24/14 at 4:07pm

Sally, I do respect your opinion and I'll have to listen to the title song written for the film again. I just downloaded the film soundtrack; I've never owned it before (as opposed to the OBC album), I've just seen it a lot on cable.

IIRC, the song "Funny Girl" makes a nice transition from "Sadie" into the more dramatic last act ("last" in film terms meaning "third"). As the lyric says, "It ain't so funny, funny girl."

"Who Are You Now?" serves a similar purpose in the play and I've never met a Jule Styne tune I didn't like. But "Are you warmer in the rain?" Seriously? Is that really an image Fanny Brice would use to sum up her marriage? I just find the lyrics hopelessly goopy.

As for "My Man", at least as the history is now told, it was originally Ray Stark's intention to do the entire score with actual songs sung by Fanny Brice, but it soon proved impossible to get the rights to the numbers. (Bootleg tapes reveal they did go ahead and close the show with "My Man" on Streisand's last night.)

I much prefer "My Man" to "Parade" (the latter another great Styne tune, but Jesus Christ: Merrill throws everything but the kitchen sink into that lyric!). Dramatically, however, I'm not sure what to make of Fanny singing the song at the end of the film. Nicky has just told her they will never work it out, so what am I to make of her vow to love him "forever more"? Still, the lady sings the hell out of the song.

In any event, "Who Are You Now?" ain't the last song. No wonder Rachel was so nervous! It was opening night and she wasn't even off book yet!

[trentsketch]

Posted: 4/24/14 at 4:24pm

Who Are You Now as the finale of Funny Girl? Yikes. Way to choose the most bland ballad Fanny has and claim it's the end of the show. Did they realize Lea Michele really can't sing Don't Rain On My Parade so it wasn't even worth trying the harder reprise for the finale?

As for entrance applause, it was the wrong scene in the show, but the production I was just working on got applause every night when Fanny sat down at the dressing room mirror and said "Hello, gorgeous." Not entirely out of the question.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/24/14 at 4:29pm

Just to be clear, I wasn't objecting to the entrance applause. Everyone knows it's a star part and I'm sure her friends helped get it going.

But I don't believe they waited until Scene 3 to start it...

[trentsketch]

Posted: 4/24/14 at 4:43pm

Oh, I understood. Nothing about the production on the show made sense.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 4/24/14 at 5:00pm

I also found the comment about "making the role her own" hilarious. And the newspaper nonsense.

SMASH was by no means good, but I find GLEE much less tolerable. At least SMASH sometimes had compelling original material.