I have a similar but different take on Feldstein and the x factor.
I saw her two weeks ago, and felt the need to root for her. The way you do watching a stock production wherein a TV personality takes on a stage role with forethought, skill, and above all else, good intentions. I wasn't troubled by her singing per se, which has nice notes ("Who Are You Now?"), some power aided by the soundboard. I felt I was being asked to buy into the fact of her casting, the concept of her performance in this venue, Broadway. So I kept leaning forward with that "is this the moment when she seals the deal?" expectation. In other words, I didn't sit in the dark house, hands across my chest, waiting for failure.
I waited to be surprised. Sincerely. When the performance's workmanlike okay-ness coasted on -- marred by Mayer encouraging some unappealing clowning (that roll downstage in an ill-chosen costume) -- the show's seams showed, the second act's structural monotony and reliance on snippets of reprises to cue emotions sinking it.
Feldstein's problem is that she can't deliver this vehicle as a vehicle. And once that becomes clear, the whole endeavor charging premium prices begins to implode. This star is never "bad" or embarrassing, moments of clowning excesses aside. But she can't make a case for Funny Girl to be happening. That, to me, is the fundamental problem baked into the DNA of this revival. |
