Funny
Girl
Celebrating the life of trailblazing actor, comedian Fanny Brice at Bass Concert Hall
Fanny Brice was a woman who took big chances and, as a result, she opened big doors. Born in New York City in 1891, she dropped out of school to work in a burlesque revue. From there, she moved up to the Ziegfeld Follies and starred on Broadway. A singer, a performer, a film star and comedian, Brice brightened stages in Vaudeville America, lighting the path for women to follow decades into the future.
Brice’s life both on stage and off become the backdrop of Funny Girl, a musical comedy revival of its original, set to open at Bass Concert Hall on Tuesday, March 4.
“The show is based on episodes of her real life. Some people don’t realize that when they come in,” Stephen Mark Lukas, who plays Brice’s husband, Nick Arnstein, in the Broadway Across America tour of Funny Girl. “It really is a love letter to the theater and this incredible woman who was a trailblazer. She paved the way for women like Tina Fey and Carol Burnett to make their way in show business.”
Though the revival of Funny Girl has been 60 years in the making, the story of Fanny Brice remains timeless. Born Fania Borach, the child of Jewish Hungarian and Alsatian immigrants, Brice dreamed of a life on the stage. Everyone told her she would never be a star, but then something unexpected happened: She became one of the most beloved performers in history. The musical shows Brice’s rise to stardom as well as her romance with Arnstein, a man with big dreams as well as his share of demons.
“Nick was a gambler, sort of a playboy, a man about town with a lot of different interests,” Lukas said. “He meets Fanny and they fall very much in love, and he becomes a legitimate businessman for a while. He is in some ways a sort of an antihero, but through the course of the show, he is sort of undone by Fanny’s success.”
Through the course of the show, Arnstein falls back into his old ways while Brice continues to climb.
“In a way, both were sort of imprisoned by the expectations of their gender at the time,” Lukas said. “It’s an interesting meditation on our society then, and a lot of it holds true today. It’s a very real ending. We have reactions throughout the show that tell me people identify with their struggle, and how hard it is for people to pursue such different dreams.”
According to Lukas, it’s this conflict that adds depth to Funny Girl, elevating it from a musical comedy to a theatrical event.
“One of the reasons I love this show is that it works on so many levels,” Lu-kas said. “It’s a comedy, there are these grand musical numbers, and then on this whole other level, it’s a bittersweet romance. The plot is a little more sophisticated than most other musical comedies.”
In addition to being a popular stage play, Funny Girl was also a massively successful movie starring Barbra Streisand in 1968. The film earned eight Academy Award nominations, with Streisand taking home an Oscar for Best Actress, tying with Katharine Hepburn, who also won for The Lion in Winter. Streisand’s performance in the film version has held space in the hearts of American moviegoers for decades, practically owning the musical performances of the songs “People” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”
Stephen Mark Lukas
Hannah Shankman as Fanny Brice.
“It’s been revived partly because Barbra Streisand’s performance in the movie was so indelible,” Lukas said. “But it’s been brought back. I love the music. It’s really timeless — songs that people really — and it’s fun to deliver these to an audience. It’s one of my favorite parts of doing older musicals like these. They’ll recognize a song, and maybe they didn’t even know it was from this musical.”
Lukas said that he believes in the way music enables people to see things from another perspective. “Theater is really a way as a society to build empathy,” he said. “Especially musical theater. With the element of music, you have characters singing their innermost thoughts, things they wouldn’t express through dialogue, so you get this inner map of what makes them tick. It lets you step into their shoes, and experience their point of view.”
And that’s what Lukas returns to with each performance, the thing he most loves about Funny Girl: The characters.
“I love playing this character because you get to go through a real journey,” Lukas said. “In a way, he’s what every man dreams of being: This stylish, romantic figure, but then he sort of unravels. It’s really an emotional experience for a lot of folks.”
Come see Lukas at Bass Concert Hall alongside Hannah Shankman as the indomitable Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, March 4 - 9, Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets start at $35 and are available at texasperformingarts. org and BroadwayinAustin.com, by phone at (512) 4771444 or from the Texas Performing Arts ticket office at Bass Concert Hall.
