{"id":85196,"date":"2022-10-03T01:32:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T01:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/shes-a-knock-out-deadline\/"},"modified":"2022-10-03T01:32:18","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T01:32:18","slug":"shes-a-knock-out-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/shes-a-knock-out-deadline\/","title":{"rendered":"She’s A Knock-Out \u2013 Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tWell, that’s that. After all the controversies and badly handled original castings and headlines and backstage bruisings and firings or resignations or whatever they were, funny girl<\/em> is, as so many doubted all along, the musical that Lea Michele was born to lead. Broadway’s new Fanny Brice is, to put is simply and without exaggeration, a knock-out.<\/p>\n

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\tMichele has been in the role since early September, but, with some cast members out sick with Covid in recent weeks, and to give the newcomer some breathing room, critics have only in recent days been invited to the August Wilson to observe the changes. The wait was worth it.<\/p>\n

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\tFrom the moment she begins to sing the opening number \u201cWho Are You Now?,\u201d audiences relax in the assurance that this musical, for whatever its other merits \u2013 or lack thereof, and there is plenty of lack thereof \u2013 will be sung by a voice that can do it justice. No, more than justice, because Michele is so good in the role of Fanny that she lifts the entire mixed-bag production if not up to her level then pretty darn close. She makes performers who were fine the first time around \u2013 Ramin Karimloo as Nick Arnstein, Peter Francis James as Florenz Ziegfeld \u2013 seem all that much better, and raises the general level of performance to such a degree that the terrific Jared Grimes, as dance teacher Eddie, now no longer seems adrift during his spectacular tap dance routines: He seems a part of the show, rather apart from<\/em> the show.<\/p>\n

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\tWithout unduly rehashing the summer’s unfortunate headlines, funny girl <\/em>opened last spring with Beanie Feldstein as Fanny and Jane Lynch as her mother, Mrs. brice Feldstein was never as bad as the gossip suggested \u2013 she’s an amiable stage performer with a just-adequate singing voice. alas, funny girl,<\/em> a just-adequate musical, needs a lot more from its star, otherwise there’s just way too much adequate begging for attention. Needless to say, the star for whom the show was created seemed to grasp this with everything she had, knowing full well that funny girl <\/em>needed Barbra Streisand even way back when.<\/p>\n

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\tWhile Michele has made no bones about her Barbra love over the years \u2013 it was a running joke on glee<\/em> \u2013 she delivers a Fanny Brice that only hews to the original when it’s absolutely unavoidable \u2013 line readings of jokes written for Streisand still sound like Streisand, power ballads still insist on the big, belted notes that have been Streisand’s calling card since long before Michele was born.<\/p>\n

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\tBut to suggest that Michele is Streisand 2.0 would be as demeaning as it is inaccurate. To my ears, Michele’s \u201cPeople\u201d is breathier than the Streisand classic, perhaps a bit warmer. \u201cI’m The Greatest Star\u201d arrives with such force-of-nature gusto that those multiple standing ovations you’ve been reading about seem absolutely spontaneous and heartfelt. And \u201cDon’t Rain On My Parade\u201d \u2013 in both its early can-do bravado and as the fearsome second-act pledge of survival \u2013 is returned to its rightful place among Broadway’s big, beloved showstoppers, with Michele’s crystalline, belted tones ringing out.<\/p>\n

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\tThe new Fanny is equally at home during the non-singing segments, nailing the punchlines, such as they are, and finding a comfort level with her cast mates that Feldman didn’t always reach. Michele and Karimloo have an easy chemistry \u2013 at one point during the reviewed performance, there was a slight mishap with that famous blue marble egg that Nick gifts Fanny. It slipped from their hands and landed with a thud on the table, prompting laughter in the audience and among the two stars. After a summer of rumored tensions and and hurt feelings, those onstage smiles felt like a deep breath let loose.<\/p>\n

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Tovah Feldshuh, Lea Michele <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\tAnd Michele isn’t the only newcomer providing fresh air: Tovah Feldshuh is a gem as Mrs. Brice, a tiny ball of grit and fire and maternal devotion that makes clear just exactly where Fanny got her gumption and talent. Feldshuh, in ways that the woefully miscast Jane Lynch wasn’t, is entirely credible as the old-school saloon hoofer of yore who raised her very funny girl to survive in the world of show-biz and the world at large. <\/p>\n

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\tHer Fanny clearly took some important lessons to heart. Seems there’s been a lot of that going on over at the Wilson.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n