“Life’s candy, and the sun’s a ball of butter/Don’t bring around a cloud to rain on my parade!” So sang Barbra Streisand in the 1968 musical Funny Girl, and so can you, and not just in your shower/in the Castro/while sitting on the floor of your closet rocking back and forth. That’s right! Sally forth to a certain angular downtown museum, where KRON-TV and KCBS film critic Jan Wahl is hosting a Funny Girl Sing-Along — the movie remains as Jewish, as sort of gay, and as rollicking a timeless classic as ever. The story of funny lady (fine, "comedienne") Fanny Brice, the film follows a lively and gamine Barbra-as-Brice through her rocky romance with the entrepreneurial gambling addict Nicky Arnstein, whose charms drive her to sing the touchingly human, bittersweet, and triumphant loneliness ballad “People.” You know: “People/people who need people/are the luckiest people/in/the ....” You get the idea. The list of ever-so-singable songs in this flick also includes “Secondhand Rose” and the impassioned victim-complex masterpiece “My Man,” providing ample opportunity to ham it up, get moved by the cinematic musical spirit, and channel your inner showbiz queen.
Thu., Feb. 18, 6 p.m., 2010
