Herricks Community Players director John Hayes said he has a simple answer to why he is doing a second production of “Funny Girl” – 32 years after he first staged it in 1982.
“There’s nobody else crazy enough to do it,” Hayes said. “It’s one two-hour flashback and it’s a Ziegfeld show.”
Hayes said the logistics of putting on the play – a musical retelling of the career of America’s first major female stage star of the 20th century, Fanny Brice – is particularly daunting since it requires recreating the legendary Ziegfeld Theater on stage.
“This is one of our harder productions because of sets,” said Margo Bayroff, who is doing double-time as stage manager and co-producer with Carol Hayes.
While the zenith of Bryce’s career was in the 1920s, director Hayes said the story of her struggle to achieve stardom is a universal tale still relevant today.
“It’s a piece for all time. It’s a story of a woman who lived in the prime of Broadway in the ‘20s,” he said.
Cathy Chimenti, who played Fanny Brice 10 years ago in a community theater production of “Funny Girl” in Douglaston, is eager to take it on the role again with a different perspective.
“It’s absolutely wonderful. It’s the dream role of a lifetime,” Chimenti said. “Now I’m getting a whole different understanding of the play.”
Unlike Barbara Streisand, who insisted she didn’t know anything about Brice’s life when she played the role on Broadway, Chimenti said she has done extensive research on Brice, reading “everything I could get my hands on.”
She said her biggest challenge is to replicate Brice’s apparently stoical attitude about the ups and downs she endured during her career.
For Richard Buckley, who plays Brice’s husband, Nick Arnstein, the production is his fifth role with the Herricks Community Theater. Buckley, a former member of the Herricks Board of Education, previously played lead roles in “The Music Man” and “Guys and Dolls”.
“I’m very happy to be back here,” he said.
Jake Glickman, who plays Eddie Ryan, a friend of Brice’s in her vaudeville days, said he’s enjoying his second role in a Herricks players production after playing a role in “Mame” last year.
“It’s the epitome of a community theater,” Glickman said.
Frank Hendricks gets to reprise the role of the larger-than-life impresario Florence Ziegfeld, who he played 25 years ago in a production of “The Ziegfeld Follies”.
“It’s fun. I enjoy it,” he said.
Hayes said the play is essentially a one-woman show, as Brice largely reminisces about her career and her thorny relationship with Nick, who is about to be released from prison. It’s semi-biographical, taking liberties with Brice’s life story. But the musical score by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill is what makes it memorable, including such Broadway favorites as “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “People”.
The curtain goes up on “Funny Girl” on Friday, May 2 at 8 p.m. at the Herricks Community Center at 999 Herricks Road in New Hyde Park with additional performances on Saturday, May 3 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 4 at 3 p.m.
Performances continue the following two weekends on May 9, 10, 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $23 for adults and $18 for seniors and children. Tickets can be ordered in advance by calling 516-742-1926
