Michael Mayer’s critically acclaimed re-working of Funny Girl is to embark on a national tour early next year.
The record-breaking Menier Chocolate Factory production is currently playing to packed houses at the Savoy Theatre.
The touring production will begin at the Manchester Palace Theatre (20-25 February) and will then play Milton Keynes Theatre (28 February-4 March), Liverpool Empire (7-11 March), Bristol Hippodrome (21-25 March), Stoke’s Regent Theatre (28 March-1 April), His Majesty’s Aberdeen (10-15 April), Edinburgh Playhouse (18-22 April), Woking’s New Victoria Theatre (25-29 April), Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre (2-6 May), Birmingham Hippodrome (9-13 May), Newcastle Theatre Royal (16-20 May), Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre (23-27 May), Glasgow’s King’s Theatre (30 May-3 June), Nottingham Theatre Royal (12-17 June) and Southend Cliffs Pavilion (20-24 June). Further tour dates and casting details will be announced at a later date.
Loosely based on the life of Ziegfeld Follies star, the comedienne Fanny Brice, and focusing on her turbulent relationship with charismatic gambler Nicky Arnstein, Funny Girl was the vehicle that took Barbra Streisand from Broadway to Hollywood. More than 50 years after the show’s debut, one of Broadway’s biggest and busiest names, Harvey Fierstein, was brought in to turn the show into a musical fit for both its new leading lady (Sheridan Smith) and a modern audience.
With music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, book by Isobel Lennart and a revised book by Fierstein, the show which includes timeless songs like ‘People’ and ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’, proved to be an instant hit with audiences and critics when it opened at the Menier in November last year.
Choreography is by Lynn Page, with set design by Michael Pavelka, costume design by Matthew Wright, lighting design by Mark Henderson and sound design by Richard Brooker, musical supervision and arrangements by Alan Williams and orchestrations by Chris Walker.
The show is due to end its run at London’s Savoy Theatre on 8 October. According to a statement on the production’s website leading lady Sheridan Smith, who have been on a leave of absence, will return to the role currently being played by understudy Natasha J Barnes no later than the ‘week commencing 11 July’.
Funny Girl is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, Scott Landis Productions, Chocolate Factory Productions, Dante Di Loreto and Michael Harrison.
Angela Thomas
Tickets for Funny Girl at the Savoy Theatre are available HERE.
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