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Katerina McCrimmon is perfect “Funny Girl”
The Fabulous Fox’s “Funny Girl”
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by Pat Lindsey
As much as I looked forward to seeing “Funny Girl” at The Fabulous Fox, I worried that I might be disappointed. I’ve loved “Funny Girl” since 1964. I took the movie soundtrack with me to college in 1967 and drove my roommate crazy each time I needed a big dose of “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” My concern was that no one (except maybe Lea Michele) could sing those songs like Barbra Streisand did in the movie.
Thankfully, my worries were unfounded. When Katerina McCrimmon took center stage and belted out “I’m the Greatest Star,” I had to agree whole-heartedly. She is star power personified and the audience knew it, too. Her vocal range is impressive and she can hold a note long enough to activate my goosebumps. McCrimmon and her voice are the highlights of the show, but she also has a super-charged supporting cast to enhance it.
“Funny Girl” is the story of actress Fanny Brice’s rise to fame with the Ziegfeld Follies around 1924 and her turbulent marriage to gambler Nick Arnstein. Stephen Mark Lucas is convincing as Nick Arnstein. From Henry Street to prison, he and Fanny (McCrimmon) exhibit the chemistry and emotions necessary to make this show a success. Lucas can also sing and he does it very well in “You Are Woman, I Am Man” and “You’re a Funny Girl.” Arnstein becomes Fanny’s “first ruffled shirt” as she falls head over heels for this lovely man who seems to possess all the culture and worldly experience that she lacks. It doesn’t take long for her to convince him to make her a “Sadie, Sadie, married lady.”
Two other outstanding performers are Fanny’s mother, Rose Brice, played by Barbara Tirrell and Fanny’s good friend, Eddie Ryan, played by Izaiah Montague Harris. They both help Fanny in her quest for stardom by teaching her everything they know about show business. Eddie (Harris) tap dances his way into everyone’s heart while Mrs. Brice (Tirrell) does a balancing act of being a good Jewish mother without interfering in her daughter’s marriage.
Everything from the vandevillian curtain and footlights at the opening of the show to Mrs. Brice’s tavern on Henry Street to the chorus line numbers in the Ziegfeld Follies gives the audience a feeling of being in the early 1900s. The period costumes are perfect and often gorgeous. The choreography is fantastic. And the music by Jule Styne with lyrics by Bob Merrill will always be my favorite. It can’t get much better than “People” sung by Katerina McCrimmon (Fanny).
Because Fanny Brice was a comedienne, there are a lot of laughs in “Funny Girl.” The funniest scene is during a Ziegfeld show when Fanny was expected to join a chorus of beautiful starlets and sing, “His Love Makes Me Beautiful.” Fanny never considered herself an American Beauty, so at the last minute before going onstage, she puts an object under her beautiful wedding gown to make herself look pregnant. She sang the lyrics while emphasizing being in a family way and the audience roared. Florenz Ziegfeld (Walter Coppage), however, was not happy that she deviated from the script, but he had to give Fanny credit for knowing how to please her audience.
“Funny Girl” is being performed now through Feb. 4 at The Fabulous Fox. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. But most of all, it will give you a wonderful evening of theater at its best.
Tickets are available through Metrotix at 314-534-1111 or visit The Fox box office.
