On the TV series “Glee,” Lea Michele honed an image of being Barbra Lite. There is nothing light about her playing Fanny Brice in the current Broadway revival of “Funny Girl,” which opened last spring and now stars Michele in the title role.
From the moment she enters the stage at the August Wilson Theatre, Michele is a singing diva hard at work. What’s missing is a “girl” who happens to be very “funny.” Anyone who knows the career of La Streisand knows that to bring up “Funny Lady” regarding Michele’s performance here is not exactly a compliment.
Even Kevin Kline’s Babs-loving character in “In & Out” had to admit the 1975 movie musical in which the star plays the Big Diva is dreadful. “She was under contract!” he apologizes to the bride he has just jilted at the altar when he belatedly comes out of the closet on their wedding day.Not that “Funny Lady” is completely without merit.
Streisand sounds great whenever she opens her mouth to sing. Likewise, Michele sounds great whenever she opens her mouth to sing in “Funny Girl.” Her diva instincts really come alive when she rips through “I’m the Greatest Star” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” The ambition and the drive are not only fabulous, they are naked, and Michele has the vocal chops to bring down the house without much help from that most overworked piece of equipment on Broadway: the amplification.In the show’s problematic second act, Michele’s Fanny wears the Broadway-star mantle perfectly, unaware that maybe her financially beleaguered husband, Nicky Arnstein, has crises other than getting to the theater on time to see her new show.
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