Southport Spotlights brought a slice of the Big Apple to the Little Theatre, courtesy of their latest production, ‘Funny Girl: The Musical.’ The verdict? Golden, delicious.


‘Hello, gorgeous.’ What better way to get the audience eating out of the palm of your hand from the first than simple flattery. Even if the show’s opening line is not strictly directed at the crowd, but is ostensibly the leading lady addressing her own reflection. Still, it worked: one line in, the three-hundred-strong (packed) crowd hooked.



Based on the story of real-life twentieth-century comedienne and vaudevillian, ‘Funny Girl’ follows the fortunes of Fanny Brice, who begins the show with a head full of dreams and two left feet, yet by the climax two hours in is (spoiler alert!) a Broadway starlet able to make out cheques for twenty thousand dollars. Along the way, she falls in love with a ruffled shirtfront, travels the world- oh, and sings quite a bit, too. (The show’s most recognisable numbers being the tear-jerker ‘People,’ and the irrepressible ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade.’) The show was initially a 1964 Broadway hit, before it (and lead Barbra Streisand) transitioned to a film version in 1968.


It won Streisand a Best Actress Oscar; ‘Hello gorgeous’ was reportedly the first comment she made post-win- to the gong. Since then, following the much-publicised stint of Sheridan Smith as Fanny which was even screened in cinemas, the show has been enjoying something of a resurgence. Understandably, too, when it speaks so clearly to the zeitgeist.



Yes, it is a light-hearted laugh-fest, but it also explores serious and prescient issues. One scene manages to explore the concept of consent through the medium of song; another queries how women on the stage are often perceived as object of the male gaze.



Most importantly, though, there is the central character Fanny- as she herself notes, ‘a bagel in a world full of onion rolls.’ Yeah, the central role thinks she’s a roll without a centre. Perhaps it’s pathologically ingrained to refer to herself as foodstuffs after being told in adolescence her lady bumps are like lentils.

She learns to come to terms with herself as an individual, embrace her uniqueness as a selling point- who doesn’t love bagels, right? It is a message just as relevant today as it was when the production first premiered in the ’Sixties. They could quite easily add in The Greatest Showman’s 2018 smash-hit ‘This Is Me’ without it sounding out-of-place.



‘Let the world know you as you are,’ as the real Fanny Brice once advised.
In Southport Spotlights’ version, the audience’s almost immediate empathy with Fanny ‘Bagel’ Brice was due in no small part to the talent of leading lady Janine. She was exuberant and effervescent, as if she had just consumed an entire tube of blue Smarties in the green room before coming onstage. It was onstage she stayed for the majority of the production, all-singing, all-dancing, all-acting.


Her repertoire spans cheerful, fearful, realistically tearful, and everything in between. Few other shows demand quite as much of their leads, but here she rose to the challenge with aplomb. (And an aside or three.) The rest of the relatively select cast of fifteen were equally as energetic through the numerous costume changes their small number required- special mention should go to the sparkly-waistcoated Eddie, and Fanny’s mother, Mrs. Rosie Brice. Judging from the cheers post-performance their wit and warmth was not missed by the audience. (Or they had the whole family plus the neighbour’s cat in.)



Sets and props, meanwhile, were used sparingly but to great effect. Suspended picture frames represented an ideal of marital bliss for Fanny, twinkling fairy lights transported an enraptured audience from Houghton Street to Fanny’s backyard in Henry Street, NYC. One scene cleverly reversed the bright lettering above the stage to make it appear Fanny was backstage at the Follies, bounded by the audience on both sides, ever the consummate professional.

Subtle nods were made to the original stageshow and film, too. Of course there was the ubiquitous blue marble egg Fanny is gifted, and her classic fur-trimmed crimson dress and hat combo. Waistbands drop, and hemlines rise- as does the anticipation of the audience as the show nears its poignant conclusion. (Which I won’t spoil here.) As a nice finishing touch, to end all female cast appear on-stage donning the various costumes Fanny has worn throughout, a nostalgic back-catalogue of her career.



A single fudged line, a couple of bum notes, but overall Southport’s Little Theatre staged a performance as polished as the show’s ubiquitous blue marble egg. What rating does it get? Golden. Any show that peddles the line ‘Life’s candy, and the sun’s a ball of butter...’ Delicious!