Fanny Brice News

Angelwalk Theatre, Toronto's premiere producer of Off-Broadway style musical theatre, is celebrating its fifth anniversary season with a special one-night gala fundraiser and performance on October 19, 2013 at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.

Jim Brochu's 'Character Man' gives audiences a rare close-up view of the many theatrical 'greats' that Brochu has known in his impressive career.

Woo-Hoo! Thanks to OC's 3-D Theatricals, Southern California wasn't deprived of a revival of FUNNY GIRL after all. And, gosh, to top it off, they've even managed to find a Fanny Brice audiences can genuinely admire: Broadway and MAD TV alum Nicole Parker. This admirable new production of the classic Jule Styne/Bob Merrill musical plays the Plummer Auditorium through September 22 then moves to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center for performances on September 27-29.

Toronto, you are in for a treat. The iconic musical FUNNY GIRL will be brought to life for 'One Night Only' this coming Monday night September 30th.Toronto's own Gabi Epstein stars as Fanny Brice in the role that catapulted a young actress and singer named Barbara Streisand to super-stardom nearly a half-century ago. BWW's Jeff Madden digs deep within Gabi to discover just how little separates Epstein from Brice from Streisand.

'That's So Raven' star Anneliese van der Pol has joined the cast of the highly anticipated industry reading of Martin and Realbuto's Ghostlight. Van der Pol will play the central role of Olive Thomas, joining previously announced Tony Award nominee Robert Cuccioli (Jekyll and Hyde), Rachel Bay Jones (Pippin), Jennifer Hope Wills (Wonderful Town), Trevor McQueen (Annie Get Your Gun), and Kimberly Faye Greenberg (One Night With Fanny Brice). The industry reading will take place on December 2nd at the famed New 42nd Street Studios. Ghostlight had a sold out and extended run at the Signature Theatre in 2011 as part of NYMF. The show has been revamped since then. Alison Holman will provide musical direction for the upcoming reading. Matthew Martin and Tim Realbuto wrote the book, music, and lyrics, and will also co-direct, the same duty they performed during the NYMF production.

Actress Nicole Parker is onstage two more weekends as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl in Fullerton, through September 22 and in Redondo through September 29.

Pippin star Rachel Bay Jones (Women on the Verge...; Hair) and Jennifer Hope Wills (Wonderful Town; The Phantom of the Opera) have joined the cast of the highly anticipated industry reading of Ghostlight, with book, music and lyrics by Matthew Martin and Tim Realbuto. Jones and Wills join previously announced Tony nominee Robert Cuccioli, Trevor McQueen, and Kimberly Faye Greenberg. The industry reading will take place on December 2nd at the famed New 42nd Street Studios.

3-D Theatriclas presents Funny Girl Sept 6 - Sept 22, 2013 at the Plummer Auditorium, and Sept 27 - Sept 29, 2013 at Redondo Beach. Funny Girl is a musical with a book by Isobel Lennart, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of Broadway, film star and comedienne Fanny Briceand her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nick Arnstein. Its original title was My Man.

Funny Girl/book by Isobel Lennart; music by Jule Styne & lyrics by Bob Merrill/directed by Michael Matthews/3D Theatricals/through September 22 at Plummer Auditorium, Fullerton/September 27-29 at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, Redondo Beach

Funny Girl is a musical with a book by Isobel Lennart, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of Broadway, film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nick Arnstein. Its original title was My Man. Check out the photos from opening night below!

Beautiful Soup Theater (Rags, Moose Murders, A Doll's Life) will present the American premiere of Craig Adams and Ian Watson's musical Lift, which made its sold-out premiere at London's SoHo Theatre earlier this year after being developed with Pitch Perfect Musicals. A concept album featuring members of the original cast is available on iTunes.

Beautiful Soup Theater returns to The TAI Group's blackbox on Sunday, September 8th at 7:00PM for an evening of songs by musical theater's brightest new voices. All proceeds from the evening will benefit Beautiful Soup's production of LIFT, an American premiere of a smash hit musical from London's SoHo Theatre.

Robert Cuccioli, the Tony nominated star of Jekyll and Hyde, will play Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. in an upcoming industry reading of the musical Ghostlight. Ghostlight, which has book, music and lyrics by Matthew Martin and Tim Realbuto, tells the true story of Ziegfeld Follies girl and silent film star Olive Thomas, her rise to fame in the Follies alongside Fanny Brice, her affair with a married Ziegfeld, her Hollywood marriage to movie star Jack Pickford, and ultimately her tragic downfall which led to her mysterious death at age 25 in Paris.

Fall is quickly approaching, which means that Broadway will soon be blowing up with brand new productions. Soul Doctor and First Date already opened over the summer, but five upcoming musicals will also be eligible for Best Musical Tony nominations next year, including: Big Fish, A Night with Janis Joplin, After Midnight, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Get the scoop on all five incoming musicals below!

No single word can adequately sum up Kaye Ballard and Liliane Montevecchi's one night appearance at the Lensic Performing Arts Center on August 8th.Their performance was engaging, entertaining, inspiring and uplifting, with a pace that never faltered and an array of talents guaranteed to keep the audience glued to their seats all the way through. In other words, it was a dose of good, old-fashioned entertainment.

Casting has been announced for the Harold Green Jewish Theatre's production of Funny Girl, being presented in concert as a fundraiser in the George Weston Recital Hall at the Toronto Centre for the Arts on September 30th at 7:30 PM.

Sally-Jane Heit will return for her 4th Annual Benefit Performance at the Guthrie Center on August 17 at 7:00pm. This year she'll bring something entirely new to the stage, or entirely old depending how you look at it; Vaudeville - A Valentine to an Old Theatre Art Form. Sally-Jane fell in love with vaudeville when, as a young child her mother would bring her to vaudeville performances performed between the movies at theatres in New York. By the time she embarked on her long career in theatre, television, and movies, vaudeville was dead. She says, 'Before it was eaten alive by television, Vaudeville was the place anyone with a dream could test their wings.'

Group Theatre Too's new production, Yankee Wives, opens August 29th at the Hudson Guild Theater. The company, celebrating its ten-year anniversary, is pleased to announce its third and latest collaboration with playwright David Rimmer (Pulitzer finalist for Album, author of New York).

With the International Al Jolson Society's 17th Annual Long Island Festival just three weeks away (On August 17, from 9am to 4:30pm, at Oceanside Knights of Columbus, 2985 Kenneth Place, Oceanside, NY 11572.), BroadwayWorld.com Cabaret Review/Columnist and passionate Al Jolson fan Stephen Hanks fantasizes about what it might be like to have a conversation with 'The World's Greatest Entertainer,' 53 years after he died. You ain't read nothin' yet.

After Midnight will reintroduce this exciting tradition by presenting stars of today in limited engagement appearances throughout the musical's run. Grammy Award-winning recording artist Fantasia, who was last seen on Broadway in her stunning and universally praised star turn in The Color Purple, has been confirmed to kick off the excitement as the first such guest star in After Midnight.