American actress-singer impressionist Christina Bianco is to play the title role of 1920s vaudeville star Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Theatre Marigny, just off the famed Champs Elysees in Paris.
Official opening night is 7 November 2019 with the show (in English with French surtitles) finishing next 5 January 2020.
Funny Girl made Barbra Streisand famous in 1966. Her appearance at the Prince of Wales Theatre was the only time she trod the boards on a West End stage. She had to leave the show early for personal reasons.
Ironically, Sheridan Smith, the star of the 2015 London revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory also had to pull out in mid-run, citing stress and exhaustion. She later returned to the show (which transferred to the Savoy).
Natasha Barnes replaced her for two months but Smith later came back to the Jule Styne musical (lyrics by Bob Merrill) and starred in the national tour.
Cabaret star Bianco toured the UK with her one-woman show ‘Me, Myself and Everyone Else’, appeared in Forbidden Broadway at the Vaudeville Theatre and wrote a Christmas concert called ‘O Come All Ye Divas’ for the Charing Cross Theatre at the end of 2016.
The supporting cast will be announced shortly. Stephen Mear will direct and choreograph the 60-performance show which is being performed in Paris for the first time, 55 years after it was created.
Jeremy Chapman
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