In June 2010 producer Bob Boyett, who holds the rights to the musical biography of entertainer Fanny Brice, announced plans for a Broadway revival of Funny Girl with Tony Award-winning South Pacific director Sher attached.
Boyett indicated that the production would first debut out-of-town before returning to Broadway for the first time since 1964. The musical has become synonymous with its original star, Barbra Streisand.
Center Theatre Group reveals that Sher will reunite with his Tony Award-winning creative team from the 2008 South Pacific revival, which was produced by Lincoln Center Theater in association with Boyett.
Funny Girl will run Jan. 15-Feb. 26, 2012, at the Ahmanson Theatre. The musical will officially open Feb. 1, 2012.
Funny Girl's closest full-scale Broadway encounter since it closed at the Broadway Theatre in 1967 (it originated at the Winter Garden) was a 2001 Paper Mill Playhouse production starring Leslie Kritzer, in New Jersey. The production and its star were acclaimed. A separate short-lived Broadway-aimed national tour was launched in 1996 starring Deborah Gibson, but shuttered on the road. Streisand had already achieved a level of stardom by the time she tackled the role of Brice at the age of 21. She was Tony Award-nominated for her performance and earned an Academy Award for repeating her work in the 1968 film. Funny Girl features music by Styne, lyrics by Merrill and a book by Isobel Lennart. "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade" are standouts from the score.
CTG also announced plans to present the National Theatre production of War Horse in early summer 2012. The acclaimed London spectacle, currently on Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater's Beaumont Theater, incorporates life-size equestrian puppets. War Horse will begin June 13 for a run through July 22. An official opening has been set for June 20.
As previously reported, Bring It On: The Musical will launch its national tour at the Ahmanson (Oct. 30-Dec. 10); with newly-added touring productions of American Idiot (March 13-April 22, 2012); and Fela! (April 25- June 3, 2012) also on the bill.
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