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Lyrics & Lyricists at 92nd Street Y
Lyrics & Lyricists at 92nd Street Y – Ziegfeld Girl: The Many Faces of Fanny Brice by Linda Amiel Burns This is the first time that the 92nd Street Y’s Lyrics and Lyricists Series has ever paid tribute to an entertainer, but Artistic Director Ted Sperling, the writer and host, says that Fanny Brice “was a singular talent who could make you howl with laughter singing ‘Second Hand Rose’ and then move you to tears with ‘My Man’.” She appeared in nine editions of the Ziegfeld Follies over the course of a quarter century and is still known today mainly because of Barbra Streisand’s portrayal of her in the Broadway show and film Funny Girl.
An incredible band and cast was assembled for this production: Vocalists Capthia Jenkins, Leslie Kritzer, Faith Prince, Clarke Thorell with music director Jeffrey Klitz on piano, Antoine Silverman, violin, Todd Groves, woodwinds, Kevin Kuhn, guitar/banjo, Pete Donovan bass and David Ratajczak, drums. Many of the songs were from Funny Girl and, unfortunately, not a lot of the material that Fanny sang throughout her career that made her famous. As Ted says in the program, “it is hard to separate our memory of Fanny from the indelible performance of Ms. Streisand.”
The show opened with Faith Prince singing “I’m The Greatest Star” from that show (Merrill, Styne), and later on Leslie performed “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, Leslie and Clarke with the seduction song “You Are Woman,” Capathia’s moving “People” and thrilling “Music That Makes Me Dance.”
There were two songs from Funny Lady, the sequel film, Blind Date (Kander & Ebb) sung by Leslie and “How Lucky Can You Get” sung by Faith and the cast.
Ted’s narration gave us a lot of biological info on Fanny, how she started out winning talent shows at 13, discovered by Ziegfeld and, by the age of 19 in 1910, was a star of the Follies. A novice songwriter wrote a song for her to audition with and told her that if she sang this song with a Yiddish accent, it would go over big. The song was “Sadie Salome” sung by Clarke and the songwriter, Irving Berlin. Fanny’s relationship with charming gambler and con artist Julius “Nicky” Arnstein was explored. When Fanny finally had Nick investigated, she learned he was still married to his first wife. Hopelessly in love, Fanny pretended it didn't matter. She had to wait seven years for his divorce to come through, and married him in 1919 -- just two months before the birth of their daughter Frances who later married Ray Stark, the producer of Funny Girl. Nicky served several jail terms during the marriage and Fanny faithfully visited him in prison, sticking by him for many years. They finally divorced in 1927 after finding out that he was having an affair. In 1929 she married impresario Billy Rose who was 21 years her junior and 15 inches shorter than Arnstein. He was known as the “Bantam Barnum” successfully producing many shows, some even starring Fanny. They divorced 10 years later when she discovered that he was having an affair with his Aquacade star, Eleanor Holm whom he later married. Several songs by Billy Rose were performed, although some people claim that his contribution to the songs credited to him was minimal. Capathia sang “I’d Rather Be Blue” (Rose, Fisher) and “When a Man Loves A Woman” (Rose, Rainger), Faith camped it up with “I Got a Code In My Doze”(Rose, Fields & Hall) and “Cooking Breakfast For The One I Love” (Rose, Tobias), Clarke sang was charming in “I Found a Million Dollar Baby” and “If You Want The Rainbow, You Must Have The Rain.” Later in life, Fanny moved to Hollywood and created the character of Baby Snooks, originally acting the part of the annoying little girl at parties for the entertainment of friends. The Snooks Radio Program was very popular and ran for 11 years. Fanny died in 1951 of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 59. The concert ended with Faith and the cast singing a song most associated with Fanny, the classic “Second Hand Rose.” The audience joined in on the second verse for the popular L & L sing-a-long as the lyrics appeared on the screen. It is hard to believe that Funny Girl first opened on Broadway 50 years ago and we are glad that L & L celebrated through song, the life and work of this comic genius “who paved the way for many of the funny women” such as Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin and others. The last in the series takes place on May 31-June 2 “Panning for Gold: Great Songs from Flop Shows” Lyrics & Lyricists at 92nd Street Y – May 3-5, 2014 Visit 92Y.org/Lyrics of phone 212 415-5500
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