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WPCNR ON THE AISLE. By John F. Bailey. Theatrical Review. April 4, 2009:
Page 1…Good Evening, Mr. and Mrs. Broadway, Walter Winchell here, (tappity tap tap telegraph ticker):
Dateline: FLASH! Elmsford, New York Funny Girl, the Broadway icon of 1964 based on the showbiz career of legendary but real Fanny Brice, the song, dance, and schmaltz doll of vaudeville the first half of the twentieth century is a tear-jerking, inspiring sentimental bottle of seltzer spraying laughs, tears, and dreams across the stage where you’ll meet old family and friends from the past right out of Flatbush .
FLASH! It introduces a brand-new charmer to follow to the Great White Way – A local girl who makes good! Morristown, New Jersey’s own Jill Abramovitz, Graduate of Morristown High is shown in the comic “Brides” Number, Fanny Brice’s famous debut in the Ziegfeld Follies. Funny Girl has never been revived on Broadway, and there’s a reason for that: it was Streisand’s show. Ms. Abramovitz takes on that challenge at WBT and succeeds spectacularly. Photos, Courtesy, Westchester Broadway Theatre, By John Vecchiola.
From Ms. Abramovitz’s honest treatment of the signature song People, made lushly poignant by Ms. A’s rich contralto and soul-baring voice – stopped the show to wait for all the “bravos.” In a voice more sincere than Streisand’s, more passionate, (but admittedly not as delicately nuanced as Barbra’s rendition of People), Ms. A. makes People her own. Her duet with Grant Norman playing her love, Nicky Arnstein on People in Act 1 is enchanting and perfectly matched. In this scene the romantic couple combine on You are Woman, I am Man.
The revival spins the dreams Broadway is made of creating the vaudeville Ziegfeld Follies era again. It introduces a new Jill to thrill Broadway in the years to come: Jill Abramovitz takes on the legendary demanding Barbra Streisand creation of Fanny Brice and does it her way, delivering not-quite-Barbra ( but, let’s face it, Mr. and Mrs. Broadway, there is only one Barbra?), but delivers the goods with a voice that rings through the theatre with power, grace, sincerity and knockout bring-the-house down style!
This kid’s got the energy, spirit, moxie – can’t-keep-a-trouper down personality that fits Ms. Brice to a nose, and I think Ms. Brice would have admired. Though Ms. Abramovitz nose is just right.
The Streisand admirer accompanying yours truly, Brenda Starr, (the long-stemmed rose), was pleased, impressed with the way Ms. Abramovitz stepped into the Streisand spot. Ms. Abramovitz stepped up to the big time. It takes guts to take on an icon role, and the kid delivers a gutsy brash, totally confident performance in this virtuoso demanding role where she’s onstage just about all the time.
Comic, what’s there not to laugh at here? Abramovitz evokes the schmaltz and shtick of the Old New Amsterdam Theatre and the Winter Garden when the Follies were playing. Her zany high energy dance routines in the famous Brice Follies debut number, Brides, where she careens into other bridesmaids, sent spinning out of control by her family-way stomach into other dancers – a comedy routine the original Brice invented departing Florenz Ziegfeld’s choregraphy – captures the Brice comic touch that Abramovitz delivers . It takes talent to dance clumsilly intentionally and make it believable.
Page 2!
Ms. Abramowitz as Fanny Brice(front and center) in the number that Ziegfeld sees and gives her her break, performing Cornet Man with Rusty Reynolds playing cornet as Stubb Taylor.
When we first meet Fanny, she’s an ugly duckling trying to get a part, and talks Eddie (played with sympathetic pathos by Kilty Reidy) into working with her on the lead part in Coronet Man. When she performs this baby with just right amount of comedic mistakes – she got laughs from the WBT audience aplenty — and she gets the part thanks to intervention by Nicky Arnstein played by Grant Norman. In the movie Nick was portrayed by the Egyptian Clark Gable, Omar Sharif.
Norman lacks the dashing male animalism of Sharif that sparked that movie, but that being said, he gamely manages to fill his role as Fanny’s love of life booming out his duets with the redoubtable Ms. Abramovitz. The first scene they meet is pitch-perfectly played by the two – when Fanny takes one look at him…and in a paradody of Maria (from West Side Story—which debuted six years before) she sings…”Nicky Arnstein….Nicky Arnstein….the most beautiful name…” She is pitch-perfect, raptly love-at-first-sight, as is he. The pair cavort well in a Baltimore hotel – teaming with electric intensity on You Are Woman, I am Man.
The first Act is capped by Ms. Abramovitz’s raucous Don’t Rain on My Parade as Fanny leaves the Follies to follow her guy (Arnstein) to New York.
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Louisa Flaningam as Fanny’s Mom (in green dress) who runs a saloon steals the show holding her own from the natural scene-stealer Abramovitz. Flanagan delivers some of the funniest lines of the show. The great company is holding Ms. Abramowitz aloft (in gold dress) after her first opening night with Ziegfeld.
When told she needs to feel young again, Ms. Flanagan says, “I’ve already been through that!” When Fanny leaves her home for Nick, she says. “My job is done.” Her comic interactions with the poker players of the old Brooklyn neighborhood are funny bridges moving the plot along. You’ll love her lines throughout.
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In Act II, Fanny and Nick are settled down, and married life is celebrated by Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady. It is a tribute to Ms. Abramovitz interpretation of this role that her infatuation with Nick appears very real throughout. You feel he genuinely makes her happy. Though Ms. Abramovitz sometimes swallows or delivers a punchline too quickly – you do not have the option of a retake to get it right. With each night the Jill Abramovitz Fanny Brice will be spot-on.
As Fanny supports Nick with money from her fabulous show business earnings, and his failures mount she stands by him. But he resents it. His reprise of Don’t Rain on My Parade is a strong counterpoint and he shows he can hold his own vocally at least with Ms. Abramovitz charisma.
The ability of Fanny to go on despite repeated heartbreaks from Nick endeare her to the audience – here is the show must go on spirit that makes us love Broadway. Especially when the hurricane of 1926 wipes out his gambling establishment, and she is preparing for opening night. The knockout number “Rat-a-tat-tat” features Abramovitz-Brice clowning at best as a Jewish private in the American Army in a blood-red, patriotic extravaganza, giving audiences of today a feel for the Follies that used to be.
From the opening scene with Fanny in her dressing room awaiting her husband to arrive back from prison, when she begins to reminisce – she has you from “Hello,” and when she takes off into I’m the Greatest Star” – you’re gonna like her, I guarantee it. (Talk about stealing lines.)
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Lighting by the sungod, Andrew Gmoser is superbly evocative on the “Brides” number, the “Coronet Man” sequence, and the People number. Choreography by Michael Susko reaches back in time to simulate the stately precision of Ziegfield extravaganza numbers, aided by a worthy investment in costumes by Matthew Hemesath. The orchestra sounded a little light with some opening night clunkers – but overall this is a workmanlike effort driven by a daring lead performance.
Jeff Tanski’s direction has pulled the cast together in a way that makes all characters seem to relate and appear interested in each other and caring, a part of the goings-on. It captures the family of showbiz. The set design is not elaborate and the stage is barely large enough to give the epic style of a Ziegfeld show, but the WBT tries. This is easily the largest cast WBT has assembled in quite sometime.
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Ben Hecht, the playwright , a contemporary of Brice said of the real Fanny Brice: “Theatre audiences never adored any performer more than Fanny. It would be impossible for an audience to laugh louder, weep more copiously and applaud more violently than Fanny’s audience did.”
Abramovitz captures that side of Ms. Brice – the earthy side of Brice and the appeal of the underdog you can’t keep down. It has always worked for Broadway it works in Elmsford, too, thanks to the way Jill Abramovitz carries this show. The audience loved her, bravo-ing performances a number of times in the show – rather unique for this audience. I have not heard that before here in almost a decade of reviewing these shows here. You should go on out and see her, and get a great dinner too. You’ll be glad you did. You can say you saw her when.
Ms. Abramovitz is moving on up! She stole the show at the White Plains Performing Arts Center last April, as Hedy LaRue in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, then theCitizeNetReporter praised her: “Abramovitz has some of the best crackup lines in the play and she delivers them perfectly getting laugh out loud guffaws from the audience.”
Funny Girl with its sendups of Brooklyn culture at the turn of the century, its melodrama, and its star –“laughs” and charms nightly through June 14 at Westchester Broadway Theatre. For information, go to their website at www.broadwaytheatre.com. The Box Office: 914-592-2268.
BEFORE THE ACTS…
Allan Gruet, longtime distinguished public relations director for the WBT, presented the 2009 Bob Fitzsimmons Scholarship of $1,000 to Archbishop Stepinac Senior, Thomas DiCarlucci. Photo by WPCNR.
DiCarlucci is a member of the Stepinac stage crew, ever since his freshman year and has served in eight full-length productions. Mr. DiCarlucci will attend Manhattan College this fall, majoring in electrical engineering. The Fitzsimmons award, named for Stepinac graduate and former p.r. director for the WBT, who died unexpectedly in 1992. The Scholarship was established in his name by WBT.
The fundraiser to sustain the scholarship is coming up on April 21 and features John Treacy Egan and Christine Pedi, Joe Venice and His Band, The Lighthouse Protege Choral Ensemble and a special performance by the Stepinac High School Cast of Curtains!.
You get a dinner, including tax & gratuity, for just $50 a person, $40 for children, seniors and students, with 35% going directly to the Fitizsimmons Scholarship Fund. Call the Box Office and get your ducats today.
