The Funny Girls by Roy Smiles
Produced by Thomas Hopkins, in association with Andrew Exeter, directed by Michael Strassen
Starring Mia Tomlinson & Rosanna Harris
Upstairs at The Gatehouse 26 Oct to 21 November 2021
“a fast paced script full of Jewish humour”
In 1961 19 year old Barbra Streisand was trying desperately to escape sleeping on the couch of her overbearing and hyper-critical Jewish mother. To that end she wanted to be an actress and was appearing off-off Broadway in a disaster called Driftwood.
It was in this production that she encountered a 24 year old Joan Rivers who played her lesbian stalker. Finding out that her mother was seated front and centre Barbra was terrified of going on and facing her critical comments. Bonding over their shared experiences of overbearing mothers Joan tasks herself with talking Barbra into going onstage. Joan, after all, has an agent in that night.
So for the first half we have the two struggling actresses biting chunks out of their lives as they bouy each other up until Joan literally drags Barbra onto the stage as the curtain rises.
In the second half we fast forward 10 years and Miss Streisand is a Las Vegas star while Miss Rivers is a national comedy star. Now the egos are starting to run out of control as they vie to be the most successful diva. The one-liners become more vicious and they end up fighting in Streisand’s dressing room before walking off arm in arm.
Obviously the dialogue is all imagined but the bare bones of the story is real. Streisand and Rivers did meet in an awful play off-off-Broadway and did become sort of friends.
As Streisand Rosanna Harris has the look and the voice, which she uses to great effect at the end of act one when she bursts into song. Mia Tomlinson as Joan Rivers is less effective. While looking quite like Rivers she spoils the characterisation with too much gurning and pauses (for laughter?). That said the pair go great guns when the script ramps up the one-liners. It is like machine gun fire as they rip into each other.
Roy Smiles has fashioned a fast paced script full of Jewish humour.
This was my first visit to Upstairs at The Gatehouse and I was impressed with the spacious auditorium and the friendly welcome from the staff.
The Funny Girls is at Upstairs at The Gatehouse until 21 November 2021
http://thefunnygirls.co.uk/
http://ptheatre.blogspot.co.uk/
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