Caroline O’Connor plays Fanny Brice in the Melbourne revival of Funny Girl.
MOST PEOPLE NATURALLY associate Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand. She starred in the original Broadway production and subsequent film, and many would argue that it lifted her career to greater heights: she won an Oscar for it.
The text is based on the apparently true story of Fanny Brice, a Vaudevillian Broadway star who married entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein. Set in New York pre-World War I where Brice worked at the Ziegfeld Follies, it actually feels like a contemporary celebrity story. As Fanny rose to fame she contended with a tumultuous marriage thanks to a troublesome husband who ended up in prison.