CT holds special spot in heart of ‘Funny Girl’ star performing this week at The Bushnell
When it was announced that Katerina McCrimmon nabbed the starring role in the national tour of the Broadway revival of “Funny Girl,” playing June 18 through 23 at The Bushnell in Hartford, theater fans were agog since she was a virtual unknown.
She wasn’t unknown in Hartford, which saw her in a spirited production of Eugene O’Neill’s comedy “Ah, Wilderness!” in 2021.
That play is set around the same time as “Funny Girl,” and in Melia Bensussen’s production, McCrimmon’s character even got to do some unique musical numbers.
Hartford remembers McCrimmon, but she also remembers Hartford. When she heard quacking ducks in the background of a phone call, she asked, “Are you in Elizabeth Park?” She remembers that park as a refuge when she needed to relax after a long rehearsal of “Ah, Wilderness!”
“Elizabeth Park was my safe space,” said McCrimmon, who grew up in Florida and now lives in New York City.
“That show was so special. I sang and played guitar onstage. What a fun experience,” she said. “It was also my first playback after the pandemic and the first play at Hartford Stage after the pandemic. We were all trying our best to get things back up and running. Hartford was such a huge growing experience for me.”
When it is suggested that her audition for the tour of “Funny Girl” must have been phenomenal, she responds that “it felt cosmic. I felt like I locked into Fanny.”
She’s talking about Fanny Brice, the real-life star of the vaudeville stage, radio and movies in the 1920s and ‘30s. Brice, whose best-known character was the bothersome child Baby Snooks, died in 1951. “Funny Girl” — with a book by Hollywood screenwriter Isobel Lennert, music by Jule Styne (whose other musicals include “Gypsy,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Subways Are for Sleeping”) and lyrics by Bob Merrill (who did the lyrics for the stage musical version of “Ah, Wilderness!” called “Take Me Along”) — premiered in 1964.
McCrimmon even remembers the mother of a former boyfriend of hers saying she would play Fanny Brice someday.
“Funny Girl” is often associated with names who were better known than Fanny Brice is now. Barbra Streisand played Fanny in the original Broadway and movie versions. Movie and TV star Beanie Feldstein starred in the Broadway revival when it opened in 2022, and was succeeded in the role just six months later by Lea Michelle, whose character in the TV series “Glee” not only worshipped Streisand but starred in a fictional Broadway revival of “Funny Girl” in the show’s fifth season.
There is a name star in the touring cast, but it’s 1970s pop star Melissa Manchester, who plays Fanny’s mother.
The recent Broadway revival is the basis for this tour. It has the same director (Michael Mayer, known on Broadway particularly for directing rock musicals such as “American Idiot,” “Head Over Heels” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”) and is using a new adaptation of the script by Harvey Fierstein (whose many Broadway productions include screen-to-stage adaptations of “Kinky Boots,” “Newsies” and “La Cage Aux Folles”).
McCrimmon is unaffected by the previous interpretations. She didn’t see the Broadway revival until she had already gotten the role and hadn’t seen the Streisand film since she was a child. “I didn’t have anything to go off of,” she said, allowing her to create her own vision of Fanny Brice, whose vintage radio shows and movies McCrimmon explored online.
McCrimmon noted that the tour is very similar to the Broadway production, with some scenes edited to be a little quicker. “Audiences have loved it. People are saying it’s the best touring production ever to come to their city.”
Part of the fun, McCrimmon added, is being able to make another visit to Hartford.
“I’m having the time of my life,” she said..
“Funny Girl,” with music by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill and a book by Isobel Lennart updated by Harvey Fierstein, runs June 18-23 at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. $38-$148. bushnell.org.