London's Funny Girl Headliner Sheridan Smith Would 'Love' to Play Fanny Brice on Broadway

Could Sheridan Smith be the pip with pizzazz on Broadway? The two-time Olivier winner, who recently opened in Funny Girl at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, would jump at the opportunity to reprise the role of Fanny Brice on the Main Stem. "I'd be daft if I said no. I would love to, that's my dream,” the two-time Olivier winner told the BBC. “But would they take a Lincolnshire girl to do a New York-Brooklyn girl?” Of course, before the Great White Way, there's the small matter of the West End transfer. The revival has already announced that it will play a limited engagement from April 9, 2016 at the Savoy Theatre.

This incarnation of the musical, which catapulted Barbra Streisand to stardom on stage and screen, is directed by Tony winner Michael Mayer and has a revised book by Tony winner (and as we like to think of him, Broadway Mayor) Harvey Fierstein. Although there's no official word yet on whether the production has any intention of crossing the pond to play New York following the two London runs, with Tony winners Mayer and Fierstein on board it looks like a distinct possibility. A Bartlett Sher-helmed revival of the musical—headlined by Lauren Ambrose—was set to play Los Angeles and Broadway in 2012 before being postponed indefinitely. And then there was Lea Michele...

Smith won consecutive Olivier Awards for her performances in Legally Blonde and Flare Path. She returns to the Chocolate Factory after starring in Little Shop of Horrors in 2006. Her additional U.K. stage credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hedda Gabler and Into the Woods. She’s appeared on screen in Blackwork, The C Word, Cilla, Mrs. Biggs and Hysteria.

The tuner, which first played London in 1966, tracks the rise of Fanny Brice’s career as one of Broadway’s biggest stars by way of the Ziegfeld Follies, as well as her doomed romance with Nicky Arnstein. The score by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill features such iconic show tunes as “People,” “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “I’m the Greatest Star” and a book by Isobel Lennart.

Along with Smith, the cast at the Menier Chocolate Factory includes Maurice Lane, Darius Campbell, Marilyn Cutts, Valda Aviks and Gay Soper.