Funny Girl Set for L.A. Actors Fund Concert Starring Laura Benanti, Sarah Silverman & More

Tony Award winner Laura Benanti and comedienne Sarah Silverman are among the performers who will share the role of Fanny Brice in an upcoming Actors Fund benefit concert of Funny Girl in Los Angeles. The musical will be performed on March 14 at the Pantages Theatre, directed by Peter Flynn, with musical direction by Seth Rudetsky.

In addition to Benanti and Silverman, Tony winner Lillias White, original cast member Lainie Kazan and Julia Murney have signed on to play Fanny, with more names to be added in the coming weeks. In 2002, Rudetsky guided an all-star cast including Murney, White, Sutton Foster, Carolee Carmello, Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth, Whoopi Goldberg, Jane Krakowski, Andrea Martin, Judy Kuhn, Bebe Neuwirth, Andrea Martin, Ana Gasteyer, Ricki Lake and LaChanze in a NYC concert at the New Amsterdam Theatre.

Funny Girl debuted on Broadway in 1964 with Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice. Set in New York City in the 1920s, the musical follows Brice from her rise to fame in the Ziegfeld Follies to her marriage to gambler Nick Arnstein, and their inevitable breakup when Nick finds himself in trouble with the law. The score by Jule Style and Bob Merrill includes “Don't Rain on My Parade," "I'm the Greatest Star," "Sadie, Sadie" and “People.”