Don’t rain on ‘Funny Girl’s’ parade

Katerina McCrimmon is Fanny Brice in the National Tour of Funny Girl. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

The headline for the new touring Funny Girl now at the Orpheum Theatre as part of the BroadwaySF season is simply this: Katerina McCrimmon, who plays Fanny Brice (the titular funny girl), is an absolute star.

You’ll want to say you saw her when. It’s not surprising that this musical biography would launch the career of a mightily talented leading lady. After all, that’s just what happened in 1964 when Funny Girl opened on Broadway and suddenly the whole world knew about its dazzling young star, Barbra Streisand.

You simply can’t discuss Funny Girl without talking about Streisand. Though she had already begun making waves in the world of nightclubs and recording, it was her Broadway debut that heralded Streisand’s official arrival into the celebrity stratosphere. Sixty years later, she remains one of the world’s biggest, most storied stars. Several of her signature songs – “People,” “Don’t Rain on My Parade” – are from Funny Girl, and her singular success in the show is what prevented anyone from ever attempting to revive it on Broadway (that and the show has one of the worst second acts of any hit musical ever).

There were half-hearted attempts at a revival here and there, but how could any young performer rise above the legend of Barbra? In 2016, London’s Menier Chocolate Factory enlisted the help of two Americans, director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Green Day’s American Idiot) and book writer Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy, La Cage aux Folles), to take a crack at making a revised, post-Barbra Funny Girl work. That show turned out to be a big hit, and eventually, Mayer and Fierstein were engaged for a post-pandemic Broadway revival starring Beanie Feldstein that seemed to be doomed by several factors: a talented leading lady who wasn’t really up to this particular part and a revised book that, minus the central star power, still didn’t work.

But then something miraculous happened. Feldstein was ousted or quit – whatever actually happened, it all sounded awful – and Lea Michele (of “Glee” and negative Internet fame) took over. The show became an almost instant hit. When the revival cast album was recorded, it was with Michele, not Feldstein (Beanie who?), and a mini-Barbra was born.

Fanny’s Henry Street neighbors and friends, including Izaiah Montaque Harrisas as Eddie Ryan (right), celebrate her success. Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

Now that revival is on tour, and to heck with all the Feldstein/Michele lore because there’s a blazing new star here. From the looks of her bio, McCrimmon doesn’t have a lot of big credits (one Broadway bow), but it would seem she is poised for musical greatness. She harnesses fine acting chops with a voice that is as supple and tender as it is brash and defiant. She delivers a Fanny worth caring about because it feels like underneath all that musical theater bluster (Fanny’s and the show’s), there’s a real person there.

As has always been the case, this is 100% Fanny’s show, but Fierstein (re-writing the original book by Isobel Lennart) and Mayer try to bolster the ever-wobbly second act by beefing up the role of Nick Arnstein (Stephen Mark Lukas), the charming gambler who steals Fanny’s heart and nearly squanders her fortune. They’ve even put back a song of Nick’s that was cut out of town (“Temporary Arrangement”) that is so awful you wonder why composers Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics) didn’t burn the sheet music on their way back to New York. Fierstein futzes with Nicky, adding him into some of Fanny’s songs (“Who Are You Now?,” “Funny Girl,” which was written for the 1968 movie and here becomes “You’re a Funny Girl”), but the problem never changes: this is Fanny’s show, and any time spent away from her is not time well spent.

Melissa Manchester (left) is Rosie Brice (with McCrimmon as Fanny). Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

Rather than competing for stage time with an unnecessary leading man (the character, not the actor), the show bubbles right along when the supporting characters are light and bright, like Fanny’s mom, Rosie, played on tour by pop star Melissa Manchester, and Fanny’s coach/would-be boyfriend Eddie played by Izaiah Montaque Harris. They both have lovely moments, including a duet (now in Act 2) on “Who Taught Her Everything She Knows?” and Harris dazzles in an Act 1 tap dance routine choreographed by Ayodele Casel.

Aside from supporting cast charm, some bright ensemble choreography by Ellenore Scott and a powerhouse band (led by Michael Rafter making the most of Styne’s irresistible melodies), this Funny Girl really is all about the girl at the center: young but tough, talented but untried, full of dreams and potential and a classic star in the making.

When McCrimmon’s Fanny lets loose on “I’m the Greatest Star,” it’s not just that she’s funny and ambitious and wildly talented. It’s also the way she’s interacting with the jerk playing the piano for her (and winning him over) and showing off for her friend Eddie. It’s a performance within a performance, and McCrimmon does it, like pretty much everything she does here, beautifully.

Her comic timing is utterly reliable throughout, as are those powerhouse pipes. Though Act 2 gets bogged down in the collapse of Fanny and Nick’s marriage, McCrimmon’s reprise of “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” when Fanny musters her strength and begins to move on, is the kind of undeniably thrilling moment that only live theater can deliver.

From the start, Funny Girl has been a difficult show. Styne estimated that he wrote nearly 60 pieces of music for the show, with more than 20 added and then cut during out-of-town tryouts in Boston and Philadelphia. It has been said that the final scene of the show was re-written more than 40 times, right up to opening night on Broadway. Apparently all that is meaningless as long as there’s a fabulous Fanny at the heart of the show. This sturdy touring production and the luminous McCrimmon proves that a musical doesn’t necessarily have to be good to be great.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Funny Girl continues through May 26 as part of the BroadwaySF season at the Orpheum Theatre, 1182 Market St., San Francisco. Tickets are $55-$160 (subject to change). Running time is 2 hours and 35 minutes (including intermission). Call 888-746-1799 or visit broadwaysf.com.