Shaw Festival reviews x2: Funny Girl makes a splash, Jeeves sinks

Sara Farb and Qasim Khan play Fanny Brice and Nick Arnstein in the Shaw Festival’s rare staging of Funny Girl. Photo by David Cooper

When the Shaw Festival announced last November that Sara Farb was going to play Fanny Brice in its production of Funny Girl, I remember thinking several things simultaneously:

A) of course, since Farb was high on everyone’s list of contenders; B) I’ll finally be able to compare the stage show to the beloved film; C) Farb is the perfect age for the part; D) she’s such a strong actor, she’ll make the second act, which lacks the momentum and joy (not to mention the memorable songs) of the first, much stronger, act.

My initial thoughts pretty much played out as I saw the show recently during my first trip of the season to Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Funny Girl (Rating: ✭✭✭✭), which chronicles the rise of vaudevillian-turned-Broadway star Fanny Brice’s (Farb) career, is no one’s idea of a perfect musical. It has some great songs by Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics). But the tension dips in the second act, much of it because of Isobel Lennart’s book.

But it is a first-rate showcase for a gifted singer/actor, and Farb, whose performing credits include both musicals and plays (as well as writing), scales the heights of the role with the kind of commitment, talent and chutzpah that works wonders for the character and show. Best, she makes the role her own, and won’t make you think of Barbra Streisand, the woman who originated the part onstage and on film.

Convinced of her gift, the young Fanny, thanks to the help of dancer/pal Eddie Ryan (Matt Alfano, charming and light-footed throughout), breaks through into vaudeville and then, after attracting dashing gambler Nick Arnstein (Qasim Khan), wins over Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (Damien Atkins) with her innate comic talent to become a headliner in his famous Ziegfeld Follies.

After some back-and-forth flirting over the years, she and Nick eventually become a couple and marry, but the latter’s gambling losses, shaky financial decisions and pride disrupt their life together.

The problem with the musical is that things are much more interesting when you want things: a job, a man, love. When Fanny, fired from a job, sings “I’m the Greatest Star,” it works because she’s trying to convince people of something they don’t know (but she and we do). When the act one curtain comes crashing down after her rousing anthem “Don’t Rain on My Parade” (played beautifully by the orchestra under Paul Sportelli), it works because she’s following her heart and won’t let anyone — or thing — stand in her way.

But once she gets what she wants, then what? There are a couple of reprises of fine songs from the first act, but the second act lacks momentum and drive.

Director Eda Holmes nicely fills out the Shaw’s large Festival Theatre stage with James Lavoie’s sets — whether they’re representing a bar owned by Fanny’s characterful mother (Patty Jamieson) in the Lower East Side, a Broadway dressing room area or, most memorably, a series of showstopping numbers in which the company gets to strut their stuff. (Taurian Teelucksingh gets a terrific solo in the very funny “His Love Makes Me Beautiful” number.)

Lavoie’s costumes are a delight, too, contrasting the modest lives of Fanny and her friends with the shiny, bedazzled outfits of the stage and then, later on, signifying her prosperity and singular personality in a series of eye-popping sherbet colours.

Farb gets firm support from the cast, who include her mother’s gossiping poker-playing friends (among them Sharry Flett, Alana Bridgewater and Janelle Cooper). Arnstein is a difficult role to pull off, and although Khan looks dapper and glamorous, he doesn’t appear completely at ease at first. But the actor gets to sound some more complex notes in the second act, when he can’t just mysteriously exit with a twirl of his cape.

But make no mistake. This is Farb’s show, and she convinces you of pretty much everything about the character: her comedy chops, her bravado, her vocal prowess and her contrasting needs as a woman, mother, business person and artist.

Funny Girl continues at the Festival Theatre (10 Queen’s Parade, Niagara-on-the-Lake) until Oct. 3. Ticket details here

Imperfect Nonsense

The silly shenanigans of P.G. Wodehouse’s works require a light, effortless touch, a breezy but firm sense of direction.

Alas, Brendan McMurtry-Howell’s production of Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense (Rating: ✭✭) feels heavy-handed and occasionally monotonous.

Adapted by Robert Goodale and David Goodale from Wodehouse’s novel The Code of the Woosters, the play recounts a feather-light story about the attempts by the idle, privileged and rather dim Bertie Wooster (Jeff Irving) to get a McGuffin — in this case, silver creamer in the shape of a cow — for his aunt.

What gives the play some novelty is the fact that Bertie wants to tell the story as a play. And so he employs his trusty valet Jeeves (Damien Atkins), as well as Bertie’s aunt’s butler, Seppings (Travis Seetoo), to help out with the dramatization.

For the first parts of the show, as Jeeves wheels in pieces of sets representing different locales and he and Seppings step in to play various characters (sets and costumes are by Sim Suzer), there’s lots of amusing fun. Seetoo’s Seppings earns increasing laughs via a contraption that makes him appear taller than he is.

But soon the wig-donning and hat-doffing become repetitive, especially as the plot becomes more convoluted. It’s not that I don’t appreciate light physical comedy, but it ought to be done more gracefully and with more zest than what is currently onstage at the partially reopened Court House Theatre.

And while Atkins understands his role as the trusty, reliable manservant, there to fix whatever his employer gets up to, Irving seems slightly unclear about who Wooster is. Seetoo understands the assignment best of all, using his malleable mug and expressive body to communicate what his character doesn’t get to say.

Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense continues at the Court House Theatre (26 Queen, Niagara-on-the-Lake) until Oct. 10. Ticket details here