SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 18, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Hannah Shankman, who is about to embark on the north American tour of “Funny Girl” playing the lead character Fanny Brice, has 15 songs in the show, not to mention 22 costume changes, and she says she wouldn’t change a thing.
The tour begins in Seattle, Washington, on Sept. 24, and will make a stop at the Eccles Theater from Oct. 8 to Oct. 13, with shows on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m., and Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with a Saturday and Sunday matinee at 1 p.m. and a Sunday evening show at 6:30 p.m. Tickets and more information are available here.
Featuring one of the most iconic scores of all time by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, a revised book from Harvey Fierstein based on the original classic by Isobel Lennart, and direction from Michael Mayer, this sensational revival dazzles with one of the most celebrated musical scores of all time, including the classic songs “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star,” and “People.” The bittersweet tale tells the semi-autobiographical story of comedian and Broadway star Fanny Brice, a girl from the Lower East Side who dreamed of a life on the stage. Everyone told her she’d never be a star, but then something funny happened — she became one of the most beloved performers in history.
“Funny Girl” opened on Broadway in 1964 and ran for 1,348 performances. Barbra Streisand starred in the original musical and the 1968 movie. A Broadway revival, first starring Beanie Feldstein then Lea Michele, opened in 2022 and closed the next year.
Shankman, who was born and raised in New York City and whose parents are also in theater, joined the initial North American tour of the Broadway revival of “Funny Girl” in September 2023 as the standby for Brice, touring to more than 30 cities coast-to-coast. That tour closed last month, and then will relaunch later this month.
Shankman has also been seen on Broadway in “Hair,” “Side Show,” “Les Misérables,” and “Wicked.” In the West End, she has appeared in “Hair,” and “Homemade Fusion.” She has also toured with “The Band’s Visit,” “Rent,” and “Les Misérables,” and appeared at The Kennedy Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival and La Jolla Playhouse, among others. Her TV and film work includes “The Last Five Years,” “The Greenway,” and the 85th Academy Awards.
We chatted with Shankman by phone from New York, and first asked her about her journey with “Funny Girl.”
“We actually have been on the road for a year already, but we’re on a month-long layoff right now and we relaunch the tour in Seattle, and we have a little bit of rehearsal before we do that,” she explained. “So I actually did a regional production of ‘Funny Girl’ about eight years ago, and I played Fanny. Then they announced the Broadway revival, and I went in and auditioned for that in I think 2021, and unfortunately, I didn’t book the Broadway production, but I re-auditioned again for the tour, and I booked the standby last year. So I’ve been a standby for Fanny for the past year. I’ve gone on every Thursday. And now I’m stepping into the role full-time, and I’m super excited about it.”
Shankman said she feels well prepared to take on the character of Brice.
“I definitely feel like I have more of a grasp on the character, and the show,” she said. “It’s a really demanding role; she does 15 songs, 22 costume changes, but now that I’ve done it a bunch, I feel like I’m just excited to delve even further into the character and to get to know her even better and make new discoveries with her.”
She said there will also be new cast members starting the tour later this month.
“We’ve had some changeover over the last year and actually we have a bunch of new cast members starting in Seattle, so we’re really excited to debut the brand new version of ‘Funny Girl,'” she said.
We asked her what it was like to grow up with parents who are both in theater.
“My mom and dad are both actors, and actually, my sister is also in the film industry, and my brother is a musician, so we had a very arts-friendly family growing up,” Shankman said. “And one of the very first shows I ever saw, I got to see my mom play Peter Pan in ‘Peter Pan,’ and I thought: ‘Wait a minute, if that’s a job, I’d like to do that.’ So they were very supportive growing up. You know, I did a lot of theater in school, and then I did an after-school program that really helped shape me as a singer and actor. And then I actually went to University of Michigan for my BFA in acting, and the rest is kinda history. I booked my first national tour my senior year in college and I’ve be working ever since. And I’m very grateful to have been so successful in this incredible industry.”
We also asked her about being in “Hair” in the West End. Theater impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh, who was a production runner on the original West End staging of the show in 1968, brought the 2008 award-winning Broadway revival of the show to London. It opened in spring 2010; Shankman did the show for six months.
“I had no idea how lucky I was at the time,” she said. “I was, like, 22 years old. It was my first Broadway show. I had done the show on Broadway as a swing and an understudy, and then we transferred the show, and almost everybody from the Broadway company went, only a couple of people didn’t go, and I got bumped up to an ensemble track and an assistant dance captain. You know, London is just such an incredible city, and the people are incredible, the history is incredible, and you’re so close to all those other European cities that are so amazing. It was honestly the time of my life. I enjoyed every single moment of it. It feels like the European New York to me. We ran the show for six months on the West End and we were so well supported by the community over there, it was wonderful.”
We asked Shankman if she has a preference between touring and appearing in a show in just one venue.
“You know, I love both; they both have their ups and downs,” she said. “Being in New York and being in a Broadway show is so incredible, because you get to go home to your family every night; my dog Charlie and my husband. You get to live in your own space, so you really get your day off every week, which is lovely. On tour, it’s a little different, because if we are only in some place for a week, we end up traveling on our day off, which is very taxing. But bringing these shows to audiences across America is so rewarding, because these people are, you know, thirsty to soak up every show that comes through the theaters and it’s just so fun to get to bring this show, specifically ‘Funny Girl,’ to audiences that have never seen it. It’s really an honor and a pleasure to get to tour these shows all across the country.”
She added: “It’s definitely exhausting, I’ll tell you that much. But it is such an honor to play the part and tell her story. I really wouldn’t change it for anything. I have my incredible star dresser, she really is the backbone of the show for me. And our hair person, we have a Fanny hair person that travels with us as well, and does my costume changes. It makes the show a lot easier, having the two of them as a support system. [The costume designer] Susan Hilferty, is a genius, and she just made me feel like an absolute star in her clothes; I mean her costumes are just unmatched.”
Shankman also talked about bucket list roles she’d still like to play.
“There are a couple for me that are bucket list roles,” she said. “I would love to play Sally in ‘Cabaret,’ I would really love to play Dot in ‘Sunday in the Park with George,’ the Baker’s Wife in ‘Into the Woods.’ I really love Sondheim and he is one I listened to growing up and why I really fell in love with musical theater. And I would love to create roles. You know, it’s so fun to start a character from the ground up, I’ve had the privilege of doing that a number of times; in workshops, readings. I look forward to doing much more of that in the future, hopefully.”
Finally, we asked her what a perfect day is, for her.
“Well my husband and I usually wake up and walk our dog [who is a dachshund-Maltese mix] to go get coffee at our favorite spot, and then we come home, make breakfast, hang out, we love to walk around Riverside Park in our neighborhood,” she said. “But any city we’re in, we love to walk around and explore, find great food, and we sometimes go to shows. One of our favorite things to do is go to art museums. That’s actually one of my favorite things in every city is trying to find an art museum or a gallery to go to, and that’s sort of been something we even do in New York, we go to museums that we haven’t been to in years or that have new collections, and that’s one of our favorite things to do.”
For more information about “Funny Girl,” and for tickets, click here.
