Our visitors, Judy and Jane, took us to see “Funny Girl” last night. They had managed to get tickets, although it is already sold out for most of its run and opened to rave reviews. I had never seen it on stage, although I, of course, saw the movie (with Barbara Streisand and Omar Sharif). The success of the show depends on the central performance of the role of Fanny Brice, the part made Streisand a star. Sheridan Smith, an accomplished British actress, was marvelous in the part. They did not try to recreate Streisand’s performance and her Fanny is a bit less broad, a bit more human and certainly a bit less Jewish that the way Streisand played it. She is a smallish woman and they played that for humor by surrounding her with tall chorus girls and a tall Nicky Arnstein. Her comic timing was great and her voice was good. You always wonder if British performers will capture the American sound. In “Guys and Dolls”, the accents were certainly American, but they failed to capture the Damon Runyon cadence. It was kind of the same thing here. The accents were neutrally American, in the modern sense, but you would not think that they were mostly Jews from Brooklyn. But it really didn’t make that much of a difference, partly because the performances were so strong and partly because, unlike “Guys and Dolls” (especially the role of Adelaide), the humor did not rely on the accent. In the end, it was a little odd that Fanny et al. lost their Jewishness, but it didn’t spoil the show. There were certainly a few moments, particualr during the songs “People” “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, where I couldn’t help recall Streisand belting it out with her other-worldly voice. But Sheridan Smith didn’t bother to attempt to recreate that sound and gave them her own interpretation and touch. I was never crazy about Omar Sharif in the movie and Darius Campbell’s portrayal was infinitely better. And it wasn’t just because he is a platinum-selling singer with a lovely voice. He really gave you the feeling that his Nicky Arnstein really loved Fanny. The fact that his Arnstein is a likable gambler rather than Sharif’s shifty gangster makes their relationship more romantic and less doomed from the start. The show was wonderful and Sheridan Smith got the second standing ovation we have seen since we got here.

Seder shopping: This was a reminder that I am living in a secular country and that I am definitely not living in a US city. I decided that it might be nice to bring some Coconut macaroons to the New Unity seder and Andy asked me to bring horseradish and parsley and a lamb shank for the plate. The parsley was easy, but all of the local supermarkets sell their meat bone-free and encased in plastic. But we went out to dinner and I was able to order braised lamb shank and we put the bone in Judie’s backpack. The search for macaroons and horseradish was more problematic. It was a surprise, since not only is London an international city, but this was once the part of the city where Jews lived. But I would go to bakeries and grocery stores and almost no one had even heard of seders or Jewish-style macaroons (the French ones are easy to find). I did finally find a few macaroons when it occurred to me to go to Ottolenghi, a restaurant chain run by Israelis chefs. But they only had 4 or 5. I decided to try the Beigel Shop. The didn’t have macaroons and none of their many desserts were unleavened on Passover. They had at least heard of seders. I guess the fact that they spell bagel wrong should have been a clue. I never found any horseradish other than horseradish cream (the kind of thing you might put on a a roast beef sandwich or something). I even tried the Banglatown supermarket, which had a whole aisle of spices, some of which I’d never heard of, but no horseradish. (Rev. Andy did find horseradish in a store in Islington, so we had a complete seder plate.) It was a little weird to experience a Passover where no one seems to be aware that it is happening. And having it follow the un-Jewish “Funny Girl” sort of accentuated that. I probably should not have been surprised since this is such a secular place.

The Seder: This was the first Passover in over 20 years when we did not go a seder at the Rothbergs and we missed that continuity. But our Unitarian seder was very nice. It used a UUA Haggadah, which had all of the main elements of the traditional seder (glasses of wine, a shortened version of the exodus story, the plagues, the “Hillel sandwich”, etc.) and added some UU touches (ten modern plagues such as racism, homophobia and environmental degradation and added an orange to the seder plate the symbolize the quest for freedom by LGBT people). It capture the spirit of the seder ceremony in a UU sort of way and the food that everyone brought was great, even if it was all vegetarian. Judie’s traditional apple kugel might have been the best she has ever made.