In what parallel universe is Laura Benanti "a bagel on a plate full of onion rolls"? Where are they going to find the brides that are supposed to be prettier than her for the bride number?
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
While my # choice for Fanny would be Leslie Kritzer, I'd be perfectly happy with Laura Benanti as Fanny if PATTI LUPONE can be persuaded to play Fanny's mom!
And while you're at it, Mr. Sher, please bring in a book doctor to fix the clunky libretto!
"It does what a musical is supposed to do; it takes you to another world. And it gives you a little tune to carry in your head. Something to take you away from the dreary horrors of the real world. A little something for when you're feeling blue. You know?"
Leslie is my number one choice but Shoshanna Bean is AMAZINGLY TALENTED! So it is like #1 and #1.5
"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
I agree with Madbrian, Nicole Parker should be on this list. Shes got my vote.
"I've always secretly longed for an actress to get to the top of the cherry picker and projectile vomit all over the guards below."- Wonderwaiter in the "Defy Gravity?" thread.
~~~~~~~~My dream? Sutton Foster as Cassie in A Chorus Line
People, the real question is who will fill the shoes of the great Sydney Chaplin as Nick Arnstein. Definitely not Lea Michele for Fanny though, whenever she sings a Streisand song on GLEE, it's like they're saying "Hey everybody! It's the new Barbra Streisand!"
While I love all the women listed (not saying they're all right for the role), Nicole Parker deserves the role. She looks it. She's hysterical. She's a great, well rounded actress. She's somewhat of a name but not a huge star. And she has a loud, brassy, distinct, passionate voice.
While I love all the women listed (not saying they're all right for the role), Nicole Parker deserves the role. She looks it. She's hysterical. She's a great, well rounded actress. She's somewhat of a name but not a huge star. And she has a loud, brassy, distinct, passionate voice.
My fear with Lea, Laura, Idina and most of the other musical theatre names mentioned is that many of them would go into the challenge of playing Fanny with a notion that they have to match or surpass Streisand's vocals with even more pyrotechnics of their own. I'm not sure that is ever going to happen or if it's even worth trying. An idiosyncratic actress who can sing might serve the show better and bring the piece back into the balance as a worthy 'Golden Age' show in its own right.
And there are many virtues to Funny Girl: a fantastic female star part, a good, sometimes great Jule Styne-Bob Merrill score, and a captivating underdog story about a performer who doesn't fit conventions but believes in her own abilities enough to rise to become the highest paid female star of her generation, playing against the feelings of inadequacy she fights in her twisting and turning relationship with Nicky Arnstein. And all of that played against the world of vaudeville and the Follies. Funny Girl was frantically written and rewritten on the road to Broadway. It became a hit with and eventually without Barbra, but it would be great if the new production with Bart Sher at the helm and some smart work and TLC on the material will be able to lift the profile and estimation of the show itself.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
I'd like to see many others ( Lady Rizo, Nina Arianda, Nicole Parker and Anna Kendrick) on this list. (does "someone new" also mean "none of the above but someone not completely new"?)
I was much more excited about Lea as Fanny before her pandering, embarrassing and underwhelming "Don't Rain on my Parade" appearance on the tonys; which is not to say that she wouldn't be great under Sher's hopefully expert direction. It only means that it left a sour taste in my mouth.
I agree Laura Benanti is a beautiful woman but she's also a great actress and can probably pull off to a sufficient degree a "bagel on the plate of onion rolls." Isn't that exactly what young Louise is in Gypsy?
Moreover the role has been played, and I understand with no little success, by at least one outright "Hello, Gorgeous" gal before, the young Lainie Kazan.
Does anyone know if actress/director/performance artist and Mrs. Mike Mills (director of Beginners) Miranda July sings? The reason I ask is because she looks a lot like the real Fanny Brice?
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body