From Playbill.com an article about the director
of “Danny and Sylvia”
Pamela Hall: An Ingenue Who
Got Lost in the Stars
She made her Broadway debut as Nina, the winsome waitress who sings “I’ve Never Said I Loved You” in Dear World, then replaced Betty Buckley as Martha Washington in 1776 and was Philia in Broadway’s second A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Then — poof! — she got out of the ingénue business and, for all practical and visible purposes, dropped off the side of the stage while she was still ahead of the game.
In truth, Pamela Hall only relocated behind the footlights and became a director.
Her efforts are now displayed in the year-old Danny and Sylvia, with Brian Childers and Kimberly Faye Greenberg, twinkling ‘n’ shining under the roof of St. Luke’s Theatre (308 W. 46th).
Warm, sassy diva in ‘One Night With Fanny Brice’ By Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press
NEW YORK — To portray the life of legendary musical theater performer Fanny Brice on stage requires confidence and nerve, as well as talent.
Not to worry — Kimberly Faye Greenberg is up to the task. She’s sassy, lively and animated in the solo show, “One Night With Fanny Brice,” a charming new musical which opened Sunday night off-Broadway at St. Luke’s Theatre.
Written, directed and arranged by Chip Deffaa, the solo show chronologically covers Brice’s immigrant childhood and long career in show business, and her tumultuous love life with faithless con artist Nick Arnstein.
Brice, a popular comedienne and singer for decades during the first half of the 20th century, is probably best-known to modern audiences through Barbra Streisand’s iconic portrayal in the popular 1964 Broadway musical “Funny Girl” and the 1968 film of the same name, for which Streisand won an Academy Award.
Greenberg is close in appearance to Brice, with a similarly warm stage presence, mobile face, natural comedic talent and expressive way of singing. She artfully creates her own persona of Brice, a more down-to-earth, realistic depiction of a woman who was a determined, insecure, but irrepressible and unstoppable force of nature.
In her trip from burlesque to vaudeville to Broadway and international stages, Brice created a lot of her own characters, whom Greenberg also portrays with flair, including the beloved radio personality known as Baby Snooks.
Deffaa’s script has Brice lovingly, and often wryly, discuss her family and childhood, sketching portraits of her gambling charmer of a father and her hardworking, no-nonsense mother, including brief imitations of them. She recalls milestones of her career, from joyfully collecting change thrown onstage during her first performances to her many successful years as a headlining performer. Greenberg also nicely impersonates some of the important people in Brice’s life, from famed impresario Florenz Ziegfeld to Arnstein to celebrities like her friends Gypsy Rose Lee and W.C. Fields.
Some 40 songs are partially or fully sung, interspersed with colorful stories of Brice’s rise to fame. Greenberg has a richly colored voice, well-suited to her comedic numbers, like the double helping of Roses, “Rose of Washington Square” and “Second Hand Rose.”
She’s equally affecting on serious ballads, such as “My Man,” which Deffaa has intercut with the story of Brice’s unfortunate relationship with Arnstein, and a dramatic, “After You’ve Gone.”
Deffaa has distilled Brice’s busy life and career into a well-paced two-hour show, complete with live accompaniment by musical director Richard Danley on piano and Jonathan Russell on violin.
Greenberg is still performing in the long-running “Danny and Sylvia, the Danny Kaye Musical,” in the same off-Broadway theater. For a warm look back at a colorful period in show business, spending this “One Night With Fanny Brice” is well worth the time.
Kimberly Faye Greenberg stars in “One Night With Fanny Brice” : CLOSED
Kimberly Faye Greenberg stars as the original funny girl, Fanny Brice, in a new musical, written by ASCAP Award -winner Chip Deffaa. Musical numbers include “Bill Bailey”, “I Am Always Chasing Rainbows”, “Second Hand Rose”, “My Man”, and ”You Made Me Love You”.
Kimberly is also currently playing Sylvia in Danny & Sylvia: The Danny Kaye Musical. The NY Times reviewer wrote “Sylvia is nimbly potrayed by Kimberly Faye Greenberg as loving, yet with a ruthless edge. Greenberg sings beautifully, conveying (Sylvia) Fine’s love for the most undisciplined Kaye along with her astute, apparently shark-like business aptitude.”
“One Night with Fanny Brice delivers what it promises… This may be as close as devotees will ever get to (Fanny Brice) … An interesting look back.”
- Sun Gazette Newspapers
“One Night with Fanny Brice brings Fanny’s historical contemporaries to life : Flo Ziegfeld, Eddie Cantor, Gypsy Rose Lee, Billy Rose, W.C. Fields, Al Jolson and all the lowlifes associated with Nicky Arnstein” – The Washington (DC) Examiner
SHOW SCHEDULE:
Wed. at 2 pm, Sat. at 2 pm, Sun. at 2 pm.
To purchase tickets go to www.telecharge.com or call: 212-239-6200






