Theater review: Another star is born in 'Funny Girl'

12:20 AM CDT on Sunday, September 13, 2009

By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News
ltaitte@dallasnews.com

IRVING – "I'm the greatest star. I am by far ... but no one knows it."

Those are almost the first words the character Fanny Brice sings in Funny Girl, the musical based on the life of the great Ziegfeld Follies headliner. You have to believe the performer who sings them, which is why the role is so hard to cast. The part did launch Barbra Streisand on the road to the top, after all.

For its production that opened Saturday, Lyric Stage found 22-year-old Kristin Dausch. This newcomer has everything the role needs – first and foremost, a voice that could belt high notes to the far reaches of the new Cowboy Stadium if need be. It still has all the velvet and satin for Jule Styne's great ballads, including the 1964 hit "People." Amazingly, this young performer even carves out an individual singing style when it would be so easy just to copy Streisand.

Dausch can act, too, and she has a gift for comedy – which you'd better if you're going to star in a show called Funny Girl. Altogether she scores an exhilarating triumph, though she still has some room to grow in terms of polish, especially in stage movement. (And once she really gets to be a star, she can demand more flattering costumes. She does look quite smashing, though, in the final outfit she dons to sing the show's forgotten gem, "The Music That Makes Me Dance.")

Lyric luxuriously propels its new star on the winds and strings of conductor Jay Dias' full orchestra, and director Cheryl Denson has surrounded her with a seasoned cast that's solid top to bottom. Christopher Pinnella is younger and sings better than most actors who play Nick Arnstein, the gambler Brice falls in love with. Lois Sonnier Hart, both brash and warm, nearly steals the show as Fanny's mother, and Connie Coit as the matchmaking neighbor is her able co-conspirator. Jeremy Dumont as Eddie Ryan, the dancer who adores Fanny but can't get her to take him seriously, hoofs with the pizzazz of a master from the golden age of vaudeville.

When served up with such juicy ingredients, Funny Girl can be seen as one of the greatest of Broadway musicals, right up there with Styne's masterpiece from a few years before, Gypsy. The lagniappe: You don't get to see a star born like this every day.

 

COMMENTS

 

Posted by Stagefan51 | 21 hours ago

Lawson Taitte: Great review of an even greater show. Kristin Dausch is literally fantastic. Christopher Pinella's Nicky Arnstein knocked it into the bleachers. As a progressive, I was prepared to dislike conservative talk radio yakker Mike Gallagher as Tom Feeney but even he won me over with his panache and bravado...he's a funny "guy" in Funny Girl. And Jay Dias' orchestra was the icing on the cake! Bravo, Lyric Stage.