{"id":35902,"date":"2016-12-26T04:52:30","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T11:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=35902"},"modified":"2017-05-04T14:13:15","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T21:13:15","slug":"cameri-theatre-funny-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=35902","title":{"rendered":"Cameri Theatre: Funny Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Maya Dagan as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl\/Photo: Daniel Kaminsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maya Dagan is incandescent as Fanny Brice, dazzling, gutsy, and endearing every step of the way! The Cameri Theatre production of Funny Girl<\/em>, directed by Tsedi Sarfati, is superb, a romantic interlude of song, dance, and one woman’s path to stardom, with excellent performances, beautiful costumes and set, vibrant choreography, and great music.\u00a0The dance numbers are stunning, exuberant and elegant, the music is bright, vivacious and moving, and the star is radiant and very, very, funny \u2013 in short, Funny Girl<\/em> is everything one hopes for in a musical.<\/p>\n

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Funny Girl\/Photo: Daniel Kaminsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The musical concentrates, simplifies and intensifies events in the life of comedian Fanny Brice (1891 \u2013 1951), with fiction softening some of the harsher truths of the talented star’s relationship with Nick Arnstein.\u00a0The chemistry between Dagan and the suave Amos Tamam (far more handsome than his real-life counterpart Nick Arnstein) sets off sparks, and makes Brice’s attraction to the less than trust-worthy Arnstein easy to believe.<\/p>\n

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Fanny Brice (Maya Dagan) and Nick Arnstein (Amos Tamam) – Funny Girl\/Photo: Daniel Kaminsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Originally premiering in 1964, the show features songs by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, such as Don’t Rain on My Parade<\/em> and People<\/em>, that have lost none of their glow and still have the power to move audiences. For some, Barbra Streisand’s rendition of these songs is indelibly imprinted on their memory, and it is those people I implore \u2013 don’t hate me for what I am about to write.<\/p>\n

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Funny Girl\/Photo: Daniel Kaminsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maya Dagan imbues the character with the zany energy, the gleeful mischievous spark that for me, feels much closer to conveying the spirit of Fanny Brice. Dagan, who offstage has a very delicate beauty, immerses herself entirely in the character, revealing a flair for comedy with bold physicality and impeccable timing. The real-life Brice, while not at all unattractive, did not fit the prototype of American beauty sought after by the entertainment business of her era, and was relentless in her pursuit of a niche that would suit her talents. Apparently indefatigable, Brice worked right up to her death, and raised two children for the most part single-handedly, working until the seventh month of pregnancy with both (only her daughter, Frances, is referred to in the musical), returning to work just weeks after giving birth. A strong, talented, woman, she had one weak point \u2013 her attachment to Nick Arnstein, and this provides much of the drama in the musical. Dagan captures this contradictory quality of the tough professional, overflowing with a zest for life, drive to succeed, energy and creativity, yet at the same time, so very vulnerable.<\/p>\n

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Funny Girl\/Photo: Daniel Kaminsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Funny Girl<\/em><\/p>\n

Music by Jule Styne; Lyrics by Bob Merrill; Book by Isolbel Lennart from an original story by Miss Lennart; Originally produced for the Broadway stage by Ray Stark; Original New York production supervised by Jerome Robbins; Original production directed by Garson Kanin<\/p>\n

Translator: Dori Parnes; Director: Tsedi Sarfati; Musical director: Tal Blecharovitz; Choreographer: Oz Morag; Set design: Bambi Fridman; Costume design: Moni Mednik; Lighting design: Keren Granek; Vocal coaching: Maya Avidan; Sound design: Nirel Sharon; Assistant musical director and corepetitor: Ohad Ben Avi; Assistant director: Haim Filiba; Assistant choreographer: Dana Shoval; Producer: Haim Sela; Cast: Fanny Brice \u2013 Maya Dagan, Nick Arnstein \u2013 Amos Tamam, Mrs. Brice \u2013 Orna Rothberg, Eddie Ryan \u2013 Amit Reiss, Mr. Keeney \u2013 Shlomo Vishinsky, Florenz Ziegfeld \u2013 Avi Termin, Mrs. Straykosh \u2013 Esti Kosovisky, Mrs. Meeker \u2013 Osnat Ben Yehuda, Emma \u2013 Lior Galron, Renaldi\/Paul\/Tenor \u2013 Shoham Sheiner, Blacky\/Director \u2013 Roi Malka, Stage manager \u2013 Avry Arbel, Bloo Bloob \u2013 Vera Shimrit Sasson, Maud\/Mimsy \u2013 Shani Shauli, Polly\/Jenny \u2013 Lior Cohen, Dancers: Matan Onyameh, Adir Bublil, Matan Ben Shimol, Or Danon, Noa Dagan, Rotem Yehuda, Sapir Izhak, Liron Cohen, Maor Levy, Nophar Levinger, Katia Rozenfeld, Ella Rosenzweig<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maya Dagan is incandescent as Fanny Brice, dazzling, gutsy, and endearing every step of the way! The Cameri Theatre production of Funny Girl, directed by Tsedi Sarfati, is superb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}