Smith's efforts make it a laugh

Photo: Johan Persson

SHERIDAN SMITH stars as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Manchester Palace.

FUNNY GIRL

Manchester Palace

until Saturday

THE truth is that Funny Girl isn't revived very often because for modern musicals lovers, it's not that great a show.

The leading lady plays Fanny Brice, the Thirties Ziegfeld Follies comedienne who charmed her way into the hearts of audiences but made a very bad choice in falling for gambler and loser Nick Arnstein, the man who ultimately broke her heart.

So we know before we start that nothing is going to turn out very well...

And while the first act bowls along nicely as Fanny gets her break and builds a solid, then spectacular, career - and sings "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade" - in act two things start to go wrong, the songs aren't that memorable and the show loses its way a little.

This perhaps isn't terribly unexpected: the book was worked on by about a dozen writers over the years and the stage version, first produced in 1963, was soundly beaten at the Tonys by "Hello Dolly".

So this revival is mainly about two things: how well can a company put zip back into the exercise, and how easily can a modern musicals star make it her own?

The simple answer is that the show does rather well, thanks, and the performer, well, pretty darned easily.

The show isn't overtly spectacular or lavish, though has nice period costumes and a richly decorated and coloured all-purpose set on to which larger props are trundled.

Supporting actors are generally very good too, with Rachel Izen as Fanny's mother and Joshua Lay as Fanny's friend Eddie stand-outs. Leading man Chris Peluso, is handsome but rather stiff throughout.

'Superb'

But as Fanny Brice, go-to actress of the moment Sheridan Smith is genuinely superb, as reviewers and audiences for the London production have long since proclaimed.

The reason she is so good, I suspect, is that she's an actress first and a singing star second. Her performance is packed with little expressions, looks, smiles and gestures that one suspects a singing star would eschew in favour of another hour's singing practice.

Here they combine into a charming, funny performance that isn't flashy but immediately seems right, both for the role and for the character.