Judy Blazer, Michael Nouri and Linda Stephens end their stint in the new production of Jule Styne-Bob Merrill-Isobel Lennart classic Funny Girl at the Sundance Theatre in Utah, Sept. 1. Funny Girl was to have run through Aug. 18 but was then extended. It began June 30. Philip Himberg, the Sundance Theatre's artistic director, is at the helm.

Nouri's most high profile theatre credit was Broadway's Victor/Victoria, in which he played opposite Julie Andrews. He was recently cast as Emile de Becque in a new national tour of South Pacific. Blazer's credits include Titanic, Me and My Girl and The Torchbearers.

Coincidentally, the Sundance revival comes just as the 1968 William Wyler film, starring Barbra Streisand, is getting a commercial restoration and re-release in major cities by Columbia Pictures.

The creative team includes choreographer Peter Anastos, set designer Peter Dean Beck, costume designer James Scott, lighting designer David Lander, and musical director Ryan Murphy. The focus of the production will be the recreation of Brice's true personality, stated press materials.

The future of the staging is unclear, but Sundance has a history of sending its shows on to bigger stages. Among the works developed in its Theatre Laboratory are The Laramie Project and Two Sisters and a Piano, both of which played Off-Broadway last season, and The Kentucky Cycle, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Sundance also helped develop a musical called Spring Awakening, which it said would play the Roundabout Theatre Company sometime in 2001-02. The Sundance Theatre is a not-for-profit arts organization founded by Robert Redford in 1991 and connected to same institute which sponsors the famous Sundance Film Festival held every year.

- by Robert Simonson