totally bleh.... the original Funny Girl graphics were terrific! Why is it that branding/advertising art for the theater is so boring these day? For all the technical advancement, they just don't make them like they used to.
"Why is it that branding/advertising art for the theater is so boring these day?"
Because there's very left creative genius and savvy left in today's world of processed mass media. This logo tells us nothing about the show, and pales in comparison to the original. And to think that the person who designed that probably just got a nice $18,000 paycheck.
Ah yes - the original logo featuring a very 1960's looking girl with long hair (which neither Brice or Streisand had), on roller skates (even though there was no roller skate number by opening night).
Why not do a logo with her dressed as an Indian, or Baby Snooks (neither of which appear in the play)?
Haha.. Right, Jon. I always thought the rollerskate thing was funny (also the hairdon't). As for this logo looking like "Merrily".... 95% of the contemporary public audience would not have any any any remembrance of that logo....Gee...or the show. It actually looks more like some GYPSY logos I've seen and seen and seen.
There IS, however, an interesting element to the wisdom behind the logo (even if the rendering isn't spectacular). The production team has indicated they are trying to make the show the "star". The logo says that rather bluntly. It also has a less-cutsie concept without an out-of-period "Girl"...because if the show is to be done right at all, it really AIN'T cutsie. It's darker than that, and the "Funny" is supposed to be ironic. As for the no-girl image -- it is, I think an option taken so's NOT to relate the show to a particular performer -- and after all, this NICK is being played by an actor with as much or more audience face-recognition quality as this FANNY.
I never liked the original 1960's logo of FUNNY GIRL, and I always found it funny when it was chopped up to fit marketing materials for stock, regional and dinner theatres. Check out how the original logo was mangled for a stock revival of the show with Mimi Hines.
I think the original logo was done when the show was out of town and still had a roller skating number, the hair is another story. It's very Marlo Thomas in THAT GIRL.
I worked with Mimi Hines a couple of years ago and she smelled just fine, thank you very much. And she can still sing "I'm the Greatest Star" like it's 1967!
But, yeah, she would have been 48 in 1981. More than a bit old for Fanny.
In all fairness to Ms. Hines, she turned 48 years old during the run of FUNNY GIRL at Melody Top. I wasn't there to see her, but I think she probably did just fine with Fanny in her forties. Thirty years ago the show would not have been produced without a "star" in the title role. She received excellent reviews, too:
"The diminutive songstress-comedian keeps the audience in the palm of her hand whether she is cracking wise or warming hearts with a melting performance of the song 'People.' Unlike too many performers who star at the summer music theatre in roles they've never seen before, Miss Hines has made the Fanny Brice role her own, on and off Broadway. It makes a whale of a difference."
I spoke briefly with Ms. Hines during a performance of NUNSENSE a few years ago, and she was thrilled to see younger fans in the audience. The woman can still sell a long, and she sounded great!
I worked with her at the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies about 4 years ago. She was as much beloved by the cast and crew as by the audience.
She can still sing the Funny Girl songs--including the big belt numbers--and she is an all-around lovely human being.
And those (like my husband) who remember her "Till There Was You" from 1950s TV practically melt into puddles when she sings it just as touchingly today.
She is quite literally one of my favorite stars I've ever worked with, on-stage and off.