‘Tap’ into something wonderful: Funny Girl, a celebration of song and dance, takes the stage Oct. 17 – 22

Funny Girl first opened on Broadway in 1964 with Barbra Streisand in the star-making, leading role. 

The bittersweet comedy tells – in flashback – the semiautobiographical story of the indomitable Fanny Brice, a Lower East Side gal who dreamed of stardom. Figuring prominently in the story is entrepreneur/gambler Nicky Arnstein, with whom Fanny has a tempestuous relationship.

Naysayers told Fanny she’d never be more than a bit player. Yet the comedian and doyenne of vaudeville and Broadway became a bona fide star.

She had help along the way, including from Eddie Ryan, another vaudeville dancer. Eddie is played by Izaiah Montaque Harris, who’s “elated” to be on his first national tour. He’s well-prepared for the moment.

His mother – a tap teacher herself – enrolled her son in tap classes when he was just 5. Harris has worked with Ayodel Casel, the show’s celebrated tap choreographer, a few times since they first met at a 2018 tap festival. In fact, he calls her a “mentor and an inspiration.”  

(Izaiah Montaque Harris in the National Tour of Funny Girl - Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)

 

Shall we dance?

Of the recent Broadway revival, Newsweek wrote in April 2022 that the show’s two choreographers – Casel and Ellenore Scott, both women of color – “have [brought] dance front and center stage to what is usually seen as a star vehicle – for one star …

“The show now has some electric set pieces as well as some well-choreographed, highly stylized comic dances that stop the show ... from a dance perspective, this Funny Girl is essentially a new show.”

Harris loves dancing Casel’s choreography night after night. “Ayodel came up through the grassroots tap-dancing world, where it’s all about rhythm,” he said. “She understands the groove and often references tap-dancing legends who came before her. That includes Gregory Hines, Bojangles Robinson, ‘Baby’ Laurence Jackson and John Bubbles. She is showing you the history of this art form.”

(First National Touring Company of Funny Girl - Photo By Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)

 

Music that makes me dance

The iconic score by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill includes songs you’re sure to know – even if you’ve never seen the musical or the movie. “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star” and “People” quickly took their place in the great American songbook.

Harris – who’s an actor and vocalist in addition to being a dancer – is thrilled to sing in this show. While he went to college for singing, his dance career doesn’t often afford him chances to belt out a tune. “I get to sing a duet with Melissa Manchester – make that the Grammy-winning Melissa Manchester,” he said. (Manchester, best known for her 1978 hit, “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” plays Mrs. Brice.)

Relative newcomer Katerina McCrimmon plays Fanny, and Harris said the entire company is transfixed by her performance. Her rendition of “The Music That Makes Me Dance,” is “perfect, pivotal, an absolute tearjerker.”

“Night after night, those of us backstage stop whatever we’re doing when she starts to sing that song,” he said. “We just stop and stare. She’s a force of nature.”  

Harvey Fierstein updated Isobel Lennart’s book for the revival, which Michael Mayer directs.

A Valentine to the theater

Besides being a story about big dreams coming true, Funny Girl is also a love letter to musical theater. And therein lies the joy for the performers, Harris said. They’re all doing what they love and celebrating the art form to which they’ve dedicated their lives.

StageAgent.com describes Eddie as, among other things: “clever, supportive, kind, warm, blunt, sensible, reasonable, disappointed.” Harris said that all rings true.

“Eddie’s disappointment comes from wanting so much for Fanny to succeed,” he said. “He wants her to be more than she thinks she’s capable of. He can choreograph the best number, give her every opportunity, tap dance his butt off – but he can’t make Fanny believe in herself.”

(Katerina McCrimmon and Izaiah Montaque Harris in the National Tour of Funny Girl - Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)

Before Harris took on the role, he cleared his mind. He took voice lessons, watched tap videos, saw the movie version. But – and he said this was equally important – he meditated.

“I wanted to come in clean,” he said. “I discovered that me and Eddie have a lot in common. He’s sweet, and I like to think I’m a nice guy, too. We both love tap. I feel like the spirit of Eddie Ryan has fully accepted me.”

Article by Page Leggett