I can't help but wonder what a Funny Girl revival would have looked like had it been directed by Susan Stroman, Tina Landau or Lucy Moss. Others that I think could have done it better than Mayer? Casey Nicholaw, Christopher Ashley, Jerry Zaks, Jack O'Brien, Lonny Price, and even a trio of director-choreographers whom I don't typically think handle libretti well--Kathleen Marshall, Jerry Mitchell, and Rob Ashford.
Mayer's leaden direction exacerbates all of the problems in the book without improving any of them even slightly. |