Funny Girl - Broadway Tour at the Orpheum

Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

Funny Girl is playing this week only at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Minneapolis. If you like musical theatre in any way, you should go see this production. It is the first Broadway revival since the show was first produced in 1964!! On top of that, the lead actress Katerina McCrimmon is stunning, and fantastic, and a star! She carries the whole show and is incredible.

Backing-up a bit, the show Funny Girl tells the story of Fanny Brice, a vaudevillian performer who had a dream to be part of the Ziegfield Follies, and made her way there. The show is a memory play in that it starts with Fanny arriving at the theatre to perform, and it happens to be the night her husband Nick Arnstein (played magnificently by Stephen Mark Lukas) is getting out of prison. This sends her mind back thinking about how she got to where she is - and that forms the majority of the show. We get to see this girl try out and be overlooked in vaudeville because she "isn't pretty." We watch her slowly succeed and make it into the Follies, and meet Nick, and the trials and tribulations that lead her to the starting point of the show. In doing so, we, the audience, also get to watch an unknown become a bonafide star in front of our eyes.

Photo By Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

The production is gorgeous - great sets (though always a hint of the original backstage so that we are reminded that what we are seeing is taking place in the memory), incredible costumes, and the performances through out were wonderful. The full cast is a joy to watch, though naturally our focus is on Fanny and Nick's relationship. Musically, you probably know what to expect - People, Don't Rain on My Parade are the two big hits from the show that Barbra Streisand (the original Fanny Brice in 1964) still performs to this day. Beyond those two songs, the rest of the score is so well written with musical themes woven through out, which I think bring a deeper level of connection between the songs. There are three performance numbers in the show - numbers that are part of the vaudeville, or Follies show that Fanny is in. Beyond that, the rest of the songs are traditional musical numbers and they shine. 

Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

Funny Girl is a classic musical theatre piece told in a classic and gorgeous way. I thought it was a wonderful show, and such an incredible cast! I am curious about the audience for this piece. Is it musical theatre lovers like myself who have been wanting to see a stage production since they first saw the film? Is it people who are Streisand fans who love the film and want to see it on stage? Considering that one of the recent stars of the show on Broadway was also in Glee and talked about the show a LOT on Glee - is the audience a Glee-fan audience? I honestly don't know, and couldn't really tell. What I do know is that the night I saw it, the audience was loving every moment! I think you will also, so take a chance and go have a great night out!