“Funny Girl” opened on Broadway in March 1964 and made Barbra Streisand a star, portraying singer and comic Fanny Brice. In its 70-year history, Gallery Players had produced the musical, with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill and book by Isobel Lennart, only once, in 1985.
Until now. Perhaps it took the company all these years to find another actress capable of stepping into the tap shoes donned 50 years ago by Streisand. The search ended when they found Paula Shtein, about whom the line from “I’m the Greatest Star” – “Hey, that kid is terrific” – could have been written.
A graduate of Lincoln High School in Gahanna and the Capital University Conservatory of Music in Bexley, Shtein projects the complementary vulnerability and assurance of Ziegfeld Follies headliner Brice without mimicry. She mostly avoids Brice’s repertoire of funny faces and gives her a dignity and thoughtfulness more appropriate to a 21st century rendition in our age of female empowerment and the #MeToo movement. Even when her judgment may be sabotaged by a societally-instilled desire for marriage and family, or by the dubious charms of the conniving Nick Arnstein, she pursues what she believes she wants.
…You won’t be disappointed, however, by Shtein’s solo performances of the two blockbusters written by Styne and Merrill. Even those who revere Streisand remain divided over “People,” which became her signature. In fact, according to Styne’s biography “Jule” by Theodore Taylor, even the musical’s producers had a distaste for the song. Its permanent place in the score was decided by audience reaction to Streisand’s first performance during try outs. Shtein will make you feel lucky for its retention because she belts it out with authority.
With its breakneck pace and tongue-twisting lyrics, “Don’t Rain on My Parade” challenges any singer, but Shtein certainly doesn’t fake it, not in the full version that ends act one and not in the reprise that brings down the curtain after act two. She brings out all the resolve, defiance and spunk that Merrill wrote into those lyrics. One might even call it “the rose of sheer perfection,” if that line were not already taken.
In a December season when performances that aren’t tinselly are rare, Shtein’s Fanny Brice makes it worth marching your band out and beating a path to the Columbus Jewish Community Center.
Jay Weitz is a theater critic from Columbus.
