Funny Girl (London)
Prince of Wales Theatre
Coventry Street, London
April 13, 1966 — July 16, 1966
Funny Girl opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London on April 13, 1966. Lawrence Kasha directed the London production of Funny Girl, starring Barbra Streisand.
Barbra's Playbill bio was tailored for the London audiences:
This is Miss Streisand's first appearance in a foreign country. Luckily, she speaks English fairly well. On occasion, she has claimed Burma and Madagascar as possible places of birth, but it has been hinted that she is a native of Brooklyn, New York. Since her unprofessional singing debut in an amateur contest five years ago, Barbra Streisand has become America's leading female recording artist, a major star of Broadway, television, night clubs, and the concert stage. Her original cast album of “Funny Girl” and 6 other LP's have received gold album awards each signifying a million dollars in sales. Fulfilling her 10 year contract with the CBS TV Network, she presented a one-woman special, “My Name is Barbra”, which won five Emmy Awards for Excellence and was immediately considered by critics and the public as a classic hour of entertainment in any field. Before arriving in London she completed taping her second television programme, “Color Me Barbra”, which was run in the United States on March 30th. This one received even greater acclaim than the first and will probably be shown in England some time next autumn. Miss Streisand has been signed to make her screen debut in the role she created when “Funny Girl” is filmed next year. Her individualism, her style, her controversial opinions, her looks, her talent, have made Barbra Streisand the object of intense cult-loyalty across and beyond the United States. Her stunningly strange face has fascinated the world's leading photographers, appearing on the covers of dozens of American magazines, including Time, Vogue, Look and twice on the cover of Life Magazine in less than two years.
Barbra loves Chinese food and was a follower of Zen Buddhism until she lost the book. She is a talented interior decorator and dress designer. She loves antiques and is an avid collector of buckles, shoes and fans. She donates clothes to thrift shops, buys clothes at thrift shops and was recently elected to the International Best Dressed List. Then she went to Paris. Her favourite flower is the gardenia because its scent cannot be captured. She misses her dog Sadie very much.
Lisa Shane was Streisand's understudy in London and had to stand-in a few times for Barbra when she was ill.
In 1997 Barbra Streisand told talk show host Rosie O’Donnell that it was her best friend, Cis Corman, who told Barbra she was pregnant—on opening night! Barbra eventually announced her pregnancy during the London run.
Some of the choreography and excessive physicality (i.e. Barbra jumping onto the chaise lounge during “You Are Woman”) was altered to take Barbra’s “condition” into consideration.
Lisa Shane was asked to take over the Fanny Brice role when Streisand left due to her pregnancy — unfortunately the show closed shortly thereafter.
Shane released an EP of songs from Funny Girl (see back cover image above). Below is a sampling of Shane singing “The Music That Makes Me Dance.”
Michael Craig portrayed Nick Arnstein. In his autobiography (The Smallest Giant) he wrote, “Barbra was phenomenal and could recognise a misplaced ‘ting’ on the triangle from the other side of Leicester Square. She was a wonderful performer and, even when she did her own little improvisational riffs, she was always in complete magisterial control.”
Craig also noted, “Barbra had a great success although some of the critics commented on how small her voice seemed in the theatre, compared with what they had heard on her recordings. She was the only one on stage who was mic'd—the rest of us had to make do with lung power and shotgun mikes directed at the stage from the spot rail ... I did have to be a bit careful in my more intimate moments with Barbra and make sure I didn't speak into her personal mike, which was hidden in her cleavage, but apart from that I started to really get the hang of it.”
Of his experience playing opposite Streisand in Funny Girl in 1966, Michael Craig summed it up by saying: “A funny peculiar time with a funny peculiar lady. I admired her talent enormously—still do—but back then her professionalism left a lot to be desired.”
(Below: pages from the special program, and a ticket from an April 11, 1966 charity performance of Funny Girl in London.)
Barbra sang at the American Embassy and recorded her Christmas Album while in London.
Streisand's last live performance of Funny Girl (ever!) was on Saturday, July 16, 1966.
Funny Girl's After-life
The stage show of Funny Girl has been resurrected in regional theater productions over the years. A Broadway revival has never succeeded, though. It is interesting to note that the show has been revised since 1966. Lyricist Bob Merrill contributed changes to the 1996 Broadway-bound revival starring Debbie Gibson. “Before Jule [Styne] passed away, we rewrote two of the songs and added a completely new song to the score,” Merrill told the press. “I did a rewrite of the book. I maintained everything that was in the show but tried to strengthen the character development.”
(Above: Streisand on stage with the FUNNY GIRL ensemble, 1966.)
In 2011 a remounting of the show at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles was announced. The plan was to transfer the show to Broadway in 2012. Lauren Ambrose was cast as Fanny Brice and Bobby Cannavale as Nick Arnstein. Bartlett Sher was to direct. Bob Boyett, a producer of the revival, said in a statement: “We have made the extremely difficult decision today to postpone our production of ‘Funny Girl.’ Given the current economic climate, many Broadway producing investors have found it impossible to maintain their standard level of financial commitment.”
End.
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