The first-ever Broadway revival of Funny Girl has received generally negative reviews from New York theater critics. The production’s creative team includes Isobel Lennart (book), Harvey Fierstein (adaptation), Jule Styne (music), Bob Merrill (lyrics), Michael Meyer (direction), Ellenore Scott and Ayodele Casel (choreography), David Zinn (sets), Susan Hilferty (costumes), Kevin Adams (lights), Brian Ronan (sound), and Chris Walker (orchestrations). The cast includes Beanie Feldstein (Fanny Brice), Ramin Karimloo (Nick Arnstein), Jared Grimes (Eddie Ryan), Jane Lynch (Mrs. Brice), Toni diBuono (Mrs. Strakosh), Debra Cardona (Mrs. Meeker), Martin Moran (Tom Keeney), and Peter Francis James (Florenz Ziegfeld).
Guardian (Adrian Horton): Feldstein brings an endearing everygirl to Fanny. Her crisp comedic timing adapts well to the show’s slapstick. … But this is a musical, one with some full-tilt belting, and her singing just isn’t up to par. … Which is a serious problem when a show hinges on the story of one woman’s undeniable talent. … The rest of the production … seems to be hustling to compensate for this lack. … There are high points to this new Funny Girl — moments of comedy and genuine laughs. But this is Broadway; the bar is higher than that. Funniness alone didn’t make Fanny Brice, the musical character, a star. 3 out of 5 stars.
Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney): [Feldstein] has a lovely, light singing voice in a part that often calls for big-belt power, and she reads girlish, never quite selling the consuming hunger that propels Fanny to stardom. … The revival’s shortcomings by no means rest entirely on Feldstein’s shoulders. … The hurdle with Funny Girl is that it has just two great songs. … Feldstein gives a spirited, highly enjoyable performance, and her freshness drew squeals of appreciation from what seemed like a large contingent of very vocal young female fans on a recent press night. But she never quite makes the material soar, and this is a rickety vehicle that needs a supernova to put gas in its tank.
N.Y. Post (Johnny Oleksinski): The audience members at Funny Girl are not the luckiest people in the world. … The mediocrity that salivating Fanny Brice fans are finally laying their eyes on isn’t particularly funny, or well sung, or well designed or well directed. This sorely lacking new production rains on the old musical’s parade. … We don’t expect any Broadway performer to match up to one of the greatest American vocalists of all time. Feldstein, however, barely muddles through the beloved songs. … From top to bottom, this Funny Girl needed different people. 1-1/2 out of 4 stars.
N.Y. Times (Jesse Green): Without a stupendous Fanny to thrill and distract, the musical’s manifold faults become painfully evident. To rip the bandage off quickly: Feldstein is not stupendous. She’s good. She’s funny enough in places, and immensely likable always. … Still, you can’t blame Feldstein for the show’s problems; that would be like blaming the clown for the elephants. The main elephant is the book, written by Isobel Lennart and fiddled with for this production by Harvey Fierstein, to no avail. … This could all have been predicted; over the years, many revivals have been attempted and defeated because the thing a revival is trying to revive is not to be found in the property itself. It’s in the personality of the necessary star.
Variety (Frank Rizzo): The problem with this uninspired revival of Funny Girl … is not simply the singular ghost of she who shall not be named. (Alright: It’s Barbra Streisand.) Rather, the issue here is the production’s inability to live up to its star-making potential that would have made us once again forgive the simplistic, sentimental and sanitized original book. … To make some kind of emotional sense of Fanny’s character calls for an actress of extraordinary charm, maturity and finesse, one who is able to show motivational shadings beyond the limits of the script. Oh, and sing the hell out of the score.