"Over the years, many revivals have been attempted and defeated because the thing a revival is trying to revive is not to be found in the property itself. It’s in the personality of the necessary star: someone not nice but inevitable, not diligent but explosive, not well-rounded but weird. They don’t grow them that way much, anymore, nor write new material for them."
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"There’s a reason 'Funny Girl' hasn’t been revived since its original run in the early 1960s: Despite several memorable songs (with first-rate tunes by Jule Styne and second-rate lyrics by Bob Merrill), there’s not much to the story ... Isobel Lennart’s book has been rewritten for this production by Harvey Fierstein, but it still feels episodic and superficial. "
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"While Harvey Fierstein’s revision of the book can’t do much to save the dated show, the audience isn’t coming to see the show for the plot. They’re coming for Jule Style and Bob Merrill’s iconic songs, sung by the titular girl."
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"In the end, Broadway’s new 'Funny Girl' feels like a musical comedy promise left unfulfilled. We’re told more than once that Fanny is hilarious and one-of-a-kind, but proof of that side-splitting singularity doesn’t materialize. So you long for something quirkier, zanier, more out-there and surprising. In short: Girl, show me the funny."
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"Some of Feldstein’s assets do make the trip over from film: She’s winningly fresh; she gives great “bumble;” she has beautiful eyes the size of hubcaps, which roll and twinkle and flirt. ... But in song after song, Feldstein’s voice lets her down. Piercing and unpleasant when it gets any higher than her chest, fading and pitchy when it descends even a few steps, it’s simply not a sound you expect to hear on Broadway."
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"Ms. Feldstein deserves applause and even our affection for setting forth on the task. If she doesn’t quite scale the heights that the role requires, that’s more a reflection of the perilous altitude of the peak than the potential of her talents."
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"A production that sparked a virtual rainstorm of bad publicity has, improbably, turned into a parade that has audiences cheering almost from the overture to the curtain call."
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"Beanie Feldstein is, it turns out, a perfectly fine choice for this 'Funny Girl,' which is not to say she’s perfect, but rather that she’s on equal footing with a just-above-average musical that has always been dominated by several excellent songs and a legendary breakout performance that lifted the show – and its plodding 1968 movie adaptation – well beyond the sum of its parts."
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