Fabulous Fanny Brice with Kimberly Faye Greenberg

Host Luisa Lyons chats with actor and Broadway expert Kimberly Faye Greenberg all about her one woman show Fabulous Fanny: The Songs & Stories of Fanny Brice, Barbra Streisand, the technicalities of streaming a show online, creating online “events”, and more! 

Visit Filmed Live Musicals at www.filmedlivemusicals.com. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also support the site at Patreon.  

Host Luisa Lyons is an Australian actor, writer, and musician. She holds a Masters in Music Theatre from London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and now lives, works, and plays in New York. Learn more at www.luisalyons.com or follow on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

The Associated Press declared Kimberly Faye Greenberg  a "Warm, Sassy Diva!”, while she played leading roles in two Off- Broadway musicals at the same time:  Danny and Sylvia, The Danny Kaye Musical (as Sylvia Fine) and the solo show One Night with Fanny Brice (receiving a Patrick Lee IBTA Best Solo Performance Award nomination amongst fellow nominees, John Leguizamo, Michael Shannon and Michael Birbiglia). Kimberly's own solo show, Fabulous Fanny: The Songs and Stories of Fanny Brice, has been touring for the past 8 years with the Huffington Post stating the show brings "Fanny Brice to Fabulous Life"!  The show is now available to stream on selected dates and times. Visit http://www.kimberlyfayegreenberg.com to learn more. Follow Kimberly on Instagram at @kfgreenberg. 

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Transcript

Luisa Lyons: 0:04

Welcome to the Filmed Live Musicals podcast. A podcast about stage musicals that have been legally filmed and publicly distributed. The Filmed Live Musicals website contains information on nearly 200 musicals that have been captured live. Check it out at www.filmedlivemusicals.com. And now, on with the show! Kimberly Faye Greenberg is an actor and Broadway expert. She is an industry coach and has worked as a dresser on over 20 Broadway shows. She was the first actress to play leading roles in two off-Broadway musicals at the same time, ONE NIGHT WITH FANNY BRICE and DANNY AND SYLVIA. She has played Fanny Brice in four different shows and on two albums. Her one woman show FABULOUS FANNY: THE SONGS AND STORIES OF FANNY BRICE was filmed live in Connecticut and is currently available to stream. Welcome Kimberly.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 0:55

Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Luisa Lyons: 0:58

It is absolutely my pleasure. So can you tell us, who was Fanny Brice?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 1:03

Well, Fanny Brice is a legend, a Broadway legend. TV, film as well. Most famous during the 1920s - the roaring 20s. She started off going through vaudeville, a little bit of burlesque, coming into fame and the Ziegfeld Follies, becoming the first comedienne torch singer. So she is sort of the first female comedienne of our time, and she kind of led the way for many others. She's also historically significant because she did a lot of songs with a lot of sort of Yiddish, Jewish humor, which kind of brought that into the forefront as well. And sort of creating a niche for, you know, making fun of whatever your ethnicity is at the time. That is sort of her little claim to fame. She sort of has all her Yiddish schtick that she does a lot when she sings, that she does in her comedy. And then as well as moving into the later years of her life, she became Baby Snooks on the radio. Some people who are still alive today may have listened to her in the 1940s and early 1950s. And then she passed away in the 1950s from a stroke. She was only 59, so she was fairly young. But of course, she lives on today most prominently because Barbra played her in the Broadway show and in the movie musical FUNNY GIRL and then FUNNY LADY. So most people if you say Fanny Bryce, that's sort of where they will know her from. But she did have such like, an iconic way of influencing American musical theater, Broadway, the comedians of today. Lots of her songs are part of the American Songbook. So she left a great impression as far as her life before before she died.

Luisa Lyons: 2:51

And how did Fanny Brice come into your world?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 2:54

Well, it's a very funny story, and I tell a little bit about it in my show. I guess it's kind of been destined since birth. My middle name is Faye, so F A Y E, I named after my great- great- grandmother, whose name was Fanny. So there you go. And it was a pretty popular name at the time. But it's kind of funny how that would be the case that later on, I'm playing this legendary woman named Fanny. So that was the first thing. In high school as I started moving into musical theater, obviously, as the Jewish girl and I had some very, very, let's say, slight resemblance more than slight really, to the real Fanny Brice, right? We look fairly alike, if you put our two pictures together, which is very strange. And so I my drama teacher at the time kind of said that if that's something that I would want to do, maybe kind of look at FUNNY GIRL and that's a role I could play as I got older. And then I went through college and left college and as I was doing regional theater across the United States, I was doing a production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. And that same company was going to be doing FUNNY GIRL a year from then, and they said they wanted to consider me to play Fanny, they were very interested. Can you look at the script and score and study that? I was like, of course, of course of course I do. This is you know, dream role! People have been telling me to play this so I spent a year studying FUNNY GIRL. Literally just studying FUNNY GIRL. I, you know, read all the books that were available. I went to the - there's a museum here in New York City and you can listen to all these old radio broadcasts and old TV shows that you can't find anywhere else. So it's kind of like a library and -

Luisa Lyons: 4:33

Is that the Paley Center?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 4:35

It's the Paley Center, yes! It's an amazing resource. And of course the New York Public Library's also an amazing resource unlike any other and I did so much research and then guess what. Didn't book the part. Didn't book it. A year later, didn't book the part, literally drove all my teachers crazy. All we ever did was learn FUNNY GIRL material and go over the scenes and I did not book the part. However! Taking what I learned from that I was able to apply that to audition for a role that I was kind of pining for, for several years, which was Sylvia Fine, Danny Kay's wife, in another musical called THE KID FROM BROOKLYN. I booked that. Eventually, that led me to do the off-Broadway show, which was a little different called DANNY AND SYLVIA: THE DANNY KAYE SHOW. And then ironically enough, or the stars were aligning, the universe was aligning, and someone saw me in that show and said, "Hey, I've got this Fanny Brice show that I want to workshop, I would like you to play Fanny Brice. So there you go. So that led me to play Fanny many moons later. And of course, you know, lots of things happened. When I started playing Fanny, I was with the show, I wasn't with the show for reasons that didn't have anything to do with me. Then I was back to the show. Then we opened the show off-Broadway. I made an album, I got the reviews, and then everything else started. I ended up with my own solo show that's very different from the off-Broadway version. I was in a Broadway show at the Liberty Theatre, which is the only hidden theater on Broadway. And in the pandemic, it obviously doesn't exist anymore. And mostly events happen in that space, but it does exist. So I was in a show called THE ZIEGFELD MIDNIGHT FROLICS by a company called Speakeasy Dollhouse, where I played Fanny. And I'd been workshopping another show called Ghostlight, where I also play Fanny. So it's kind of become like this whole life thing. It's very crazy. I play Jewish historical women now for a living, whether it's Fanny or not, and now, gratefully and thankfully. So, just how you found me, long story short: my solo show is now streaming. So that's very exciting.

Luisa Lyons: 6:42

What led you to create your own solo show when you already had performed in another one woman show about Fanny Bryce?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 6:49

Well, it wasn't something that I had planned. Nor did I ever think that I would ever be doing any sort of solo show at all, that was never on my periphery. But having been in the off-Broadway show, and people seeing that, I actually got several calls asking me for more. They wanted me to bring a show to their venue, but the off-Broadway show wasn't my show to bring and they wanted something else. So I said, "well, I can create you a show?" And so I did. And I created

Luisa Lyons: 7:17

Here's all the research I spent a year doing!

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 7:20

Oh, wow. Okay, great. So you know how it goes. So yeah, I created a 45 minute version for one venue that wanted a version. And then I created a two hour version for another venue that wanted like a full show in a 500 seat theater. And they both went off really well. And from there, I got other calls. And over the course of four or five years, we were sort of tweaking that show. And then now it's about eight or nine years later, and the show is kind of what it is. Now I have a couple of different versions I offer out and the streaming version is actually a little bit different than the live version, even though it's live because I've cut a little bit off the video to make it more accessible for an at home viewer to watch. So it's not quite so lengthy and no intermission and things like that. So I guess I have like three versions of it now, an hour version, a two hour version, an hour and 15 minute version. But it was a long road. It certainly didn't happen overnight. And I just kind of figured it out as I went along. I had no idea what I was doing. And here we are.

Luisa Lyons: 8:29

Any venue can pick a length of show, that slots in so beautifully.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 8:33

Yeah, that's why I did it that way. Because I made a commitment to myself that if I was going to put in all this work, I surrounded myself with a great team of people. I didn't do it alone. And then I said, well, it's something I could have for a long time. And especially in a business where there's no certain outcome, and being able to support myself, hopefully, you know, with it some some way. And somehow, I was like, the best way to put it out there was to create a couple of different versions out of necessity, but also out of the fact that it would make them more viable for many different venues.

Luisa Lyons: 9:05

When you were researching Fanny Bryce, how much video footage of her is there?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 9:12

Well, I mean, there are the movies that are still available that you can see right now on Netflix. BE YOURSELF is on one of those streaming services and the ZIEGFELD FOLLIES of whatever the year it is, 1945, something like that. Yeah, have those as well. There's a couple of other films that she's she was in that are, you know, still out there in public view. But what I found is there's a lot of other little things having to do with Baby Shnooks, like they recorded a lot of the radio segments that would never really aired as video, but those are still available to watch. There's some interviews that are available. So things like that, but also what's interesting, and what I didn't even know until I started putting together my own solo show, and gratefully the person who shared this knowledge with me, wrote one of the most popular Fanny biographies. So he was able to share this with me. But what I didn't know was that she had a memoir, she wrote a memoir. They did that because her daughter, Francis, who married Ray Stark, who was the producer of FUNNY GIRL, he asked Fanny to write this memoir, so he could use it to pitch writing teams, to give to them to see what they would come up with in order to showcase her life as far as a musical is concerned. So her memoir is in a box under lock and key at the New York Public Library. And if you have a reason to read it, you can go read it. Put your gloves on and go read it!

Luisa Lyons: 10:46

How come it hasn't been published?!

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 10:47

I don't know, but it is part of somebody's private estate and it was donated. So I'm certain that it probably can't be published because it's somebody's private estatte at this point.

Luisa Lyons: 11:00

That's theater history. It should be published! I just finished reading Gloria Swanson's autobiography. Which was first written by her seventh husband or something like that. She was married so many times. But it was absolutely fascinating, this insight into this world that doesn't exist anymore. And Fanny Brice lived, you know, in such an amazing time in Broadway history. Broadway is not like it was when she was on Broadway.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 11:33

It's so true. And that's I think that's what's been so great about my show, is I've been able to take a lot of those stories, and sort of incorporate them, the ones that people don't know about, which is kind of kind of fun. I didn't want my show to be like this just list a couple of facts throughout her life. That's not what I wanted to do. I really wanted to make it a story driven piece where like, you know, get little snippets of things that happened to her that you wouldn't necessarily know. So I think that's kind of that was the glory of being able to read that which is so cool!

Luisa Lyons: 12:06

Is it a typed manuscript or handwritten?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 12:08

It's typed, like from a typewriter. It's pretty crazy.

Luisa Lyons: 12:13

And it's at the Billy Rose Library?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 12:14

Yes, it's at the research station on the fourth floor, so you can go read it now. You know my big secret! It's not really a secret, but it does exist.

Luisa Lyons: 12:23

I'm actually like, I don't know what to say that that has not been published. Just how is that possible?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 12:31

I don't know. But I will say I mean, Herb Goldman, who's the one who, who told me about this, he wrote the most popular Fanny Brice biography and I will say if you read his biography, it's pretty much on point with what was in the memoir. If you can't don't have access to read her memoir, then I would say read Herb Goldman's book on Fanny Brice. And I think it will enlighten you.

Luisa Lyons: 13:00

He quotes liberally I'm guessing from the manuscript?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 13:03

Yeah, I think he he takes a lot directly from the manuscript. But I mean, that's to his credit, because can we

Luisa Lyons: 13:11

Can we get Ms Streisand involved? Like, how do we get this thing published?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 13:14

(laughter) No, she needs to listen to this podcast! I've been trying to meet Barbra for many moons and I have come very close. I don't know if you saw my blog, a video I made but I uh... I have introduced myself to her so she knows who I am. I will say that I could share my little story, but I don't know if that's...

Luisa Lyons: 13:36

Oh, I would love to go ahead!

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 13:38

Okay, so here's my little Barbra story. So I've always liked to think, you know, in my own mind, you know, to like my own ego to think that she probably has heard about me and some semblance because if you google Fanny Brice, it's only a few people that pop up and it's basically me and her. And the reviews from my off-Broadway show were in the New York Times and The Associated Press and if you read The Times you would have, she would have seen that. So I would like to have thought you know... But anyway, when I was, this was like a couple years ago when I was working at SOMETHING ROTTEN on Broadway. Barbra Streisand was doing a talkback at the Winter Garden Theater. And I didn't know that that was happening. It was an interview I think for her new album. They were inviting a very small audience and a friend, who you know knows me as Fanny and is a dresser, she asked if that was something that I would want to go do obviously I said yes. When I found out that I was for sure going to be able to go, another friend of mine, smart friend because I don't know why I didn't think to do it, she was like, "um, well, this is your chance to meet Barbra! How can you meet Barbra?" I was like, well, I guess I could drop something off for her at the stage door. She's like, "Yes, yes, yes! You should drop roses." I said, "Oh, okay." She could drop roses and a little known blah, blah blah. She's like "They need to be yellow roses. Like in Funny Girl when Nick Arnstein gives her yellow roses." So I was like okay. So you know I got really nervous - oh you're getting like all excited.

Luisa Lyons: 15:06

I really feeling, like my heart is racing for you!(laughter)

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 15:09

So here's what happened and it was a whole big deal and it made me really extremely nervous because I don't do things like this. As far as like I'm not a big like swooning over fans kind of thing. But I was like, well this is my one opportunity I should grab it. And I know, working on Broadway, working on Broadway shows, if you send - if anyone who's listening - if you send somebody something at the stage door they will get it. So just know that. So I got a dozen yellow roses and I wrote out a little card that basically said something to the effect of "I'm the other Fanny Brice go to gal. And I've been in a great obviously admirer of your work and you are extremely instrumental in me and my journey and playing Fanny Brice. And I just wanted to reach out and you know, introduce myself and I attached my CD." So there you go. So it was like my FABULOUS FANNY BRICE CD and a card. And then I dropped it off at the stage door. And I wore, I have this fabulous sailor outfit that I wear. And if anyone knows FUNNY GIRL specifically, in that in that beginning of the first act, she has like the sailor suit on as Fanny. So I have like a sailor-ish suit that I just wear it because I like it. And so I wore that that day in her honor. And I was sitting in the audience with a friend and we were just sitting there, la-di-da, and, maybe 10 minutes later, I look up and I was like something looks off the stage. And you know, Barbra, I'm sure had a huge say in what her stage looks like. And it was very much set up for you know, a picture moment for the paper or whatever they were doing publicity wise and big flowers, you know, things that would stand out on like a stage that seating like 2000 people in the audience, nothing small and chintzy. And I look at the table and there's like, this had been brought out probably as I was sitting there and I wasn't paying attention, on the table was this vase with like these dozen yellow roses. It's next to the water, it was very much probably her chair, I could tell it was probably going to be her chair where she was going to be sitting. And I look up and I just was like "No?! Really?!" And I looked at my friend and I pulled, I had taken a snapshot of the photo of what I'd given her and I said "I think those are my my flowers on the on the stage, look at the photo, look at the flowers." And then so I, the show hadn't started yet, so I got out of my chair, because we were in the back of the orchestra. And as was like do-do-do-do-do-do, I walk to the stage and I look... They were my flowers! On the stage! They specifically bought them out and put them on the table next to where she sat with her water. So my flowers were out there, they were definitely my flowers. And then in the middle of the show, I got so verk - I'm still verklemlpt! I'm still like oh my god, that happened. Because you know, she had exact say what happened on that stage. So she said to her assistant, "Put those on the stage", you know, even after she got the card or whatever. And in the middle of the show, they were asking her about playing Funny Girl in the theater. And you know, this is a typical question that an actor would get, you know, "Did you get bored doing all those shows?" And her response was, "Well, you know, sometimes it's human nature, if you're doing something over and over again," she goes, "However, you know, on the stage, they have these fake artificial plants that I would, you know, look at as I was standing waiting for the scene to go by, and I would just kind of look at them and they'd be dusty. And I'd wipe the dust off. And I would think how could people not, you know, remember to dust?!" And she had been looking at my flowers, like the whole interview, just like kind of looking at them and touching them and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then she looks at my flowers. And then she looks out at the audience. And she says,"But these flowers are very real." Or "These roses are very real." And it was kind of like a nod to me. You know what I mean? Like I wanted to take it that way because she didn't have to do that. You know what I mean? And especially this little teeny, like some random comments of these flowers are very real, like looking at it people you know what I mean?

Luisa Lyons: 19:24

I think I would have started crying.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 19:29

I think I fell over in my chair. Total acknowledgement. You know what I mean? And then the end came and I left the theater and went to the stage door, any stage door at the end of the show is usually crowded with fans. So you know, I didn't get to talk to her and she rushes into her little car and drives away. But yeah, as they're driving down Broadway, traffic moves really slowly and me and my sailor suit so I just like walk next to the car for about a block or two until it turns off and it goes away but I was just like I hope you know, I hope that my CD is either sitting on her living room, you know, a table somewhere or her assistant's table somewhere, but it's nice to know that that acknowledgement actually really did happen.

Luisa Lyons: 20:13

That is so beautiful. You will meet one day. You just have to.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 20:20

I hope. I hope so. I mean, we're like one degree apart. I know several people that know her or have met her or you know, have worked with her in some capacity. So I do hope that I, I will get the opportunity. If nothing else, I would love to sing with her like that would make me so happy. Like, can you imagine?! I'd die. I'd die.'m shvi zing, I'm shvitzing! But nyway. Yeah, so there's my st ry. It's very long-winded.

Luisa Lyons: 20:41

I have dry mouth just thinking about it. That's is the most beautiful Barbra story! As a long time Barbra fan - HELLO DOLLY is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's just so glorious. I love her so dearly. She's one of the few performers who is on my bucket list that I haven't seen yet. I've seen Liza, Alanis Morrisette, I've seen Patti, Bernadette -

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 21:11

(gasp) Yeh, if you ever can see her! I saw her concert the last time in New York. And it was really spectacular.

Luisa Lyons: 21:18

At the Barclays Center?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 21:19

Yeah, it was spectacular.

Luisa Lyons: 21:22

It was like, one of the few times I was performing in the city. And I was like,"Come on the one time I'm performing and I missing Barbra!"

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 21:30

Okay, she'll come around again. I'm sure of it!

Luisa Lyons: 21:32

I sure hope so. So you've created this beautiful one woman show and you've been performing it all over the US. What led you to film it a couple of years ago?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 21:44

Well, interestingly enough, I would have had no, you know, ESP or knowing that we would be in this situation, this point. So whenever I had the opportunity, and especially since I was local within the tri state, I was able to hire a friend to come and videotape it, who I knew was an excellent videographer. So that's just how that happened. I like to video things when I have the opportunity, which is very rare, because then I can, you know, use it in some form of a promo or to look back. I like to look back on the videos, if I don't have a show for six months, so I can look back on the video as a reminder of "Oh, I need to do this or think about this", whatever the case might be. So basically, it was just for my own library. And I got the permission of the venue. And then when quarantine happened, I actually didn't occur to me to use the video to share. A friend of mine who's a producer, I'll give a shout out to Ashley Kate Adams, her studios, AKA Studio Productions. And we were just having a chat. And she had said to me, "You know, you should really, if it's a really good quality video, you should think about streaming that." And so that's kind of how that came to be. And I tzjujed it up with some credits, and some openings and and did a little editing just because it needed to have that for the stream. I wanted it to be, to make a really strong impact and keep viewers attention. I know that most of the time, we can only sit through like a movie length. So I that's why I kept it to like an hour and 15. And plus it gives the audience their own unique show, it's a little different than what you would see in person, which I think is kind of cool. So that way, if you want to see my show again, it wouldn't actually be the exact same thing. Again, I mean, live seeing it live, it wouldn't be the exact same thing. So that's kind of how that came to be. And then I didn't know anything about streaming. Luckily, my show falls under an ASCAP license. And that was very helpful for streaming it on YouTube. I'm actually going to be moving it to, I don't know when this podcast is going to be airing, but I'm actually looking to move it to a platform called Stellar, which is a more accessible

Luisa Lyons: 24:01

Mmm hmm, the Goldstar platform?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 24:01

Yes, the Goldstar platform! They've been so nice in helping to promote my show, but now they have this beautiful new platform to stream. So I'm going to be moving it there. Because they too have the license that I need in order to be able to stream and not have to worry about that because I want to make sure that everyone's getting paid, which is so ultra important. I have a whole team. You know what I mean? I want to make sure everyone is getting something from this because that makes me feel good to you know what I mean, during this time especially, want to make sure everyone's getting what they need or have been contracted for. So that's kind of how that has happened and just figuring it out. And the whole, you know, filming of live musicals is such a new thing, which is like so great with your podcast and your database. So being able to list them now it's going to grow exponentially, so quickly. And there's so many different things out there now. It's kind of amazing to see but it's really cool how we can just bring the theater now into the home. You know what I mean?

Luisa Lyons: 25:05

What really excites me about this topic is that we've been filming theater since we invented cameras. Its been there since the beginning. And we've been filming live theater and musicals and broadcasting. The first broadcast was actually in 1944, no, when did the war break out? 1939. So the first broadcast was like, 1938 in the UK. And it's taken until now for it to become - COVID has made it"acceptable" right? I'm so excited, because I can't keep up with the content. Whereas before, it was like, oh, every, like six months, I'd get a new show, it would be exciting. Now it's like, six every week!

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 25:49

Right? I know. It's like crazy how just in a matter of like a month, it's been a lot more people coming, bringing their show out into the open on streaming, which is kind of cool. And it's great. You know, it's hard, because as far as, like, as an actor, I'm a member of Actors Equity. And that puts a lot of stipulations like, I know, I get a lot of questions from those who are not in the business of"How come I can't then just go watch, you know, the Broadway musical of AIN'T TO PROUD, you know, I want to see that stream. And I want to how come I just can't press a button and that that can happen." But that's because of union rules that can't happen. But what's so cool about the time that we're living in. I consider myself like a multi-hyphenate, somebody who does many things. In the arts industry, we're all creating our own work, you know, complementing our performing career or offstage career, whatever it is that we do. And so it's not, it may not be those big shows, like those, HAMILTONs but it's all these other cool things that are not as easily accessible, that we're now able to put online to stream that, I think is what's going to be integral to the growth of the arts, especially. Now, since theater isn't going to be able to come back anytime soon. I think this is gonna, like be changing the game, like forevermore kind of thing.

Luisa Lyons: 27:03

Yeah. And it means that, you know, we can access shows like yours that I might not have ever seen before, because I wasn't in New York yet, when you were first performing it here. Right?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 27:13

Exactly, exactly.

Luisa Lyons: 27:14

And like now, you know, people in Australia can access it and, and vice versa, we can access shows that we were limited to not being able to see by geography or cost, or accessibility. Now, streaming has changed that.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 27:31

Yeah, it's kind of cool. It's like bringing theater to anyone really who has some way to stream, which is kind of cool. I again, it's like, every time I see a musical movie being made, or something, I'm always cheering that because that's still helping our onstage, you know, profession, it's really helping us to continue to grow musical theater movement, or theater movement as a whole. Because again, we tend to be forgotten about. TV, film is really important and I'm happy to be part of that as well. But that's such a, you know, everybody knows about that, but they don't know as much about theater. So it's nice that we continue to have, we can have more influence now on what it is and what we do and the impact we can have right now.

Luisa Lyons: 28:16

And pre-pandemic times whenever a movie musical was released, if that musical was also playing on Broadway, or wherever, the ticket sales went up, even if it was a movie version, not the filmed live version. Yeah, I'm really excited to see what happens post-pandemic and when we open up again, how streaming will boost ticket sales or create interest in shows.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 28:40

Year, it should be interesting to see how that happens. I know for me, my fear was, well, if I broadcast my show, who's gonna want to pay to see it in person? Because when I book it in a venue, for me, that's where my payday happens. Because that's, you know, my one show every six months or whatever is like a really nice payday where I can, you know, actually pay bills with that. So that was my thinking. But then I did realize, because if you're looking at then sort of people started telling me, "Well, that's not the case. If they see it online, then they're absolutely gonna want to be in the room with you later on."

Luisa Lyons: 29:15

And even more so knowing that it's a different show that there's more to see when we go see it in person.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 29:21

Exactly, exactly. So then that's kind of what led me down the path of being less fearful about that, and more of just like, let's just put it out there and get new people to watch who can't, you know, access now. So that's kind of and it's exciting. I mean, I found you It's so cool!

Luisa Lyons: 29:37

That's what makes me love doing this so much. I get to find out about these awesome shows and meet incredible people that are making all this cool art all around the world.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 29:47

Yeah, absolutely.

Luisa Lyons: 29:49

I'm curious why you chose, and I'm guessing it has something to do with licensing, why you chose to release the show on specific dates. And with the specific times rather than, why not just upload it to YouTube?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 30:03

Oh, okay.

Luisa Lyons: 30:04

Like open source sort of thing?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 30:06

Like an on demand kind of thing, like more like you could access it anytime any day?

Luisa Lyons: 30:12

Yeah.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 30:12

Yes, it is a licensing issue. So you need a different license to be able to do that. It's all been a learning curve. So I mean, I knew about the license that I needed to just - well actually, that's not true. When I went to go looking to stream my show, I knew what I needed to have it on stage and an open environment in the theater. Then when it came to streaming, then I had to do a bunch of research. And then

under ASCAP found out: 30:34

okay, well, if you, you know, you show it on a YouTube platform, then you're good. However, Vimeo is not the case. Vimeo doesn't have any licensing. So you have to make sure that you get your licensing yourself if you're on Vimeo. But to educate your listeners, if you have a product that's on demand, then you need an additional license called a sync license. So that's something else that you need as far as like, your music or using like copyrighted material. So that's an additional thing, which I don't have, but could get if I wanted to. And so that's sort of on a lot more long term thing. But I know that I kind of like having my show on certain days and times. And what I'm going to like with Stellar is I'm going to be able to do it more often, because they're taking up a lot of the slack of what I have to do behind the scenes. Because it's not as easy as me just pressing a button, there's a lot more to it than that. It's like, you know, I get an email that somebody bought a ticket, gotta go send them the link, and they got to send the confirmation email, then got to press play on the day, make sure it's streaming, right. And, you know, there's a lot more to it than you would think. But I like having set days and times because it becomes a theatrical event. And that's kind of you know, what I do is creating a theatrical event. It's more exciting to me than on demand. However, if I can eventually do it on demand, I may, so we'll see. I'm not so certain. I kind of like where this is, I just would like there to be more accessible times. So maybe I do like a Broadway show schedule where you see it like, you know, Tuesday through Saturday at 8pm. You know what I mean?

Luisa Lyons: 32:17

Oh I love that.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 32:19

Yeah, we'll see.

Luisa Lyons: 32:21

There is something to be said for creating an event. That's something that Broadway on Demand has been doing, rather than just releasing a show and having it available, although they do do that. They first do these, like premieres where at eight o'clock on a Friday night and then it's like, like you say, it's an event and people are live tweeting, and there's a sense of, even though we're all in our own living rooms, there's this sense of community and like going to the theater.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 32:48

Exactly, exactly. So I kind of like that idea to continue that. So we'll see. At this point my plan is just to continue that, to keep adding dates. For your listeners, I don't know when this is going to be up but right now it's streaming through October 18. But it's definitely going to be streaming through the holidays into the new year at least it'll be streaming until the pandemic is over and we're out of quarantine at this point. So I'll keep adding dates but whoever's watching and looking for dates might see increase in dates that they continue to check back and so they're not available to stream on a certain time or whatever. But yeah, that's kind of how that's going.

Luisa Lyons: 33:27

Oh, that's awesome. And we'll have links in the show notes and on the Filmed Live Musicals website so people can go and book tickets.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 33:39

Amazing, thank you!

Luisa Lyons: 33:39

Because I learned so much about Fanny Brice, obviously I've watched FUNNY GIRL many times and you know, knew that kind of that story, that "sanitized story" as I've read that you've called it the kind of the glossed over version.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 33:55

Yeah, I can take it really quick second to say the reason they did that was because Nick Arnstein was still alive. And they didn't want to, forgive the word, piss him off and like not actually be able to do FUNNY GIRL so which is why it was like a watered down version.

Luisa Lyons: 34:11

Gotcha. Yeah. The lives of these people, like married three times and like in and out of debt and having to hustle all that. It's so fascinating and harrowing at the same time.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 34:25

I know. I know. Well, we all still do that today. I mean, we're not like we're not doing it at the level that they were when you know their actual story, but you know, still trying to try and make it work.

Luisa Lyons: 34:39

What's your favorite thing about playing Fanny Brice?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 34:43

Um, I I'll say the fact that having played her for so long, it really has given me as a human more permission to just like, have so much hutzpah and like, not be afraid in my journey and things like that. But she taught me that which is kind of cool. I get into that in a very little tiny point in the end of my show, if you watch it, but, I think that's the biggest influence. And then I think the second thing is, is opened up so many opportunities, I would never have imagined this, I never sought this out. This kind of just came to me and I went with it. And I said, Yes. So there's a testament to those who are listening to say, yes, if you can say yes, even though it's really scary, say yes. But again, and saying yes, and, and going on this crazy journey, I've met so many cool people. I've booked a lot of other really neat jobs that I would never have imagined doing, I get to talk to cool people and like, share her story and share my story and keep her legacy alive, which is ultra ultra important in the scheme of the theatre world. So I would say that and then of course, you know singing her songs and telling her stories is, is really cool. That's like the icing on the cake kind of thing.

Luisa Lyons: 36:02

As a performer, when you are performing the show, there are so many touch songs, it's a big sing.How do you look after your voice while you're performing?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 36:12

I think I'm pretty used to it now because of the fact that it's kind of so in my body from like eight or nine years of work. But I will say when I'm doing a show, I have to, like you would do in any Broadway show, if you're doing a show eight times a week, especially when I'm doing my show, is I'm usually doing a lot of rehearsal leading up to it. And then there's like a travel day, the day before. And then the tech all happens before you do the show at night. And the next day is another travel day. So it's a lot of physical as well as mental. So I'm always just trying to rest my voice as much as possible before I'm doing a show. And you know, "sing out Louise!" during the show and then done. But I will say, you know, Fanny had lungs of steel. And I will say I have a little bit of lungs of steel as well. I'm lucky that way. It's just in my, in me and my vocal structure. So I'm grateful for that. So I guess that's really it at this point.

Luisa Lyons: 37:13

It was meant to be/

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 37:14

It was meant to be. I mean, I'm not singing WICKED. I'm singing like big belty traditional American musical theater songs, which is definitely a different kind of saying, like, if you were to ask me to sing WICKED, that would not be something that I would be doing. So that would be a whole different thing. So I would say, for what works for me is very different than what might work for somebody else.

Luisa Lyons: 37:40

Well, there's a whole other topic about how songwriting has changed, and how writing for women and female characters has changed over the 20th century and that the belt has just gotten higher and higher and higher!

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 37:51

Absolutely! Yes, it's much more about vocal pyrotechnics than it is about telling a story. And also, think it was more so about like in the 40s and 50s on Broa

Luisa Lyons: 38:03

Mm hmm. Do you have a, I was going to ask favorite way. And I think Fanny was inte ral in this too early on, is lik singing from your from your own voice. Like when you're clo e your eyes, you should be abl to tell who it is that sin ing specifically, and I thi k right now and it's just the the nature of musical the ter at this point. It's more abo t the songs and the lyrics and the tone like a Disney tone or ike a WICKED tone or kinds of hings like that. So it's bee more encouraged to like, sou d like Idina. I should be able to sing like that and sound like that. But, then you close yo r eyes. You don't know who's wh's singing necessarily. You're h aring the song itself. This is hat you know, they want you to b hearing. So I think that's a lot of how contemporary musical heater is very differen than traditional musical heater. song but everybody asks that! What's the song that you most connect to of Fanny's that you like to sing?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 39:06

Oh my god. Well, this isn't even a Fanny song. It's 'Don't Rain on My Parade' from FUNNY GIRL. That was my audition go to song for years and years. It became my audition go to song when I didn't book that FUNNY GIRL. And it became my audition go to song probably because I was like,"Well, I'm gonna do it anyway". That song is, luckily when I walk into an audition and I sing it, I don't really do it anymore, I've kind of moved on because most people in New York and the Broadway community know that I do that. So I do. I sing other things now. But it was cool because when I was once singing it, like I recall, I had my final callback for the Broadway show PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE. And everybody from the entire creative team and casting was in the room. And I sang'Parade' as my first song because that's what got me in that room. Everybody clapped after and was like so excited and you know like "aah!" And I jus,t I just did this whole big moment because you're not you're not seeing me on the podcast, but like everyone was like cheering and that's been just such a cool journey of being able to share that with others because I have very unique take, I think, on that song itself. So I think that's my favorite. Favorite, even though it's not Fanny's, aah!

Luisa Lyons: 40:30

It's a technicality. It channels her.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 40:35

It does channel her.

Luisa Lyons: 40:38

Okay, so I have a series of quick questions. I don't want you to think about them too much. Whatever comes to mind is good. And there are no wrong answers. Okay. Do you have a favorite musical?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 40:51

Les Mis.

Luisa Lyons: 40:52

Oh, interesting. Do you have a favorite filmed live musical?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 40:58

Oh, I'm trying to think. I mean, I enjoyed HAMILTON. Um, I'm trying to think... Filmed live musicals... besides my own. Can I say my own? (laughter)

Luisa Lyons: 41:15

You can indeed!

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 41:17

Okay, my own!

Luisa Lyons: 41:18

Excellent!

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 41:20

I feel like I haven't seen a lot of the live musicals yet. Like, I enjoyed SHE LOVES ME, I enjoyed HOLIDAY INN. But those were also musicals that I saw in person as well. So it's hard for me to say that those are my favorites when I have seen them on the stage.

Luisa Lyons: 41:41

Well, I think it's cool that you can experience both.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 41:44

Yes. You know what I will say, though, it has left an indelible impression, INTO THE WOODS from the original Broadway cast. Because I saw that when I was really young. And that left a huge impression. So I probably would say that if anything was to be my favorite. That probably would just because of the impression

Luisa Lyons: 42:02

That sits in my heart because I think that was the very first filmed live musical I saw. I grew up in Australia. And Broadway was may as well have been the moon, it was so far away. And it was my first introduction to Sondheim. And to this world of Broadway and musical theater, and it's such a good capture. It was intentionally filmed like a movie.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 42:25

Oh, my God, it was so good that it was on the stage. It was so good. Yeah. I'll never forget that. I didn't grow up with theater either. And we were not a theater going family. Really my first musical I saw was OLIVER when I was fairly young, but we didn't really do that kind of thing. So seeing that on PBS was like, the world was opening.

Luisa Lyons: 42:49

Yeah, we had lots of access to theater in Sydney. But you know, Broadway was very coveted. And it's like the bee's knees and the height of theater. And to see this, this show filmed live, and like there's an audience there and they're reacting and it's Bernadette Peters and Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason. It's so awesome. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. So, filmed theater is often called like a hybrid between theater and film. It's not exactly theater, and it's not exactly film. So what should we call it?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 43:25

Well, I've been calling mine like a theatrical experience. Because again, you're not in the theater. You're at home, but you're still experiencing theater, and you're still getting the emotional tie from it. I think for the most part, I mean, you're not getting the energy. But if the show is really well done, I think you're still getting that emotional pull to whatever it is that you're watching. So I don't know, I I guess a theatrical experience. Maybe that's what I've been saying. That's how I've been kind of equating it to.

Luisa Lyons: 43:58

It makes a lot of sense. I'm like collecting all these little, "what should we call it" and collate them all one day?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 44:08

Aah! Sounds good. That sounds good. I'm sure that eventually there will be a term for it. Yeah. I don't know what that's going to be. I mean, it's not going to be like "streaming theater". It's not going to be that.

Luisa Lyons: 44:20

Yeah, there are really fun articles in like old Film Daily magazines from the 20s when talkies first came out, and there was like this crisis in the industry - "what do we call talking pictures?!" And there's all these like, bizarre hybrids between like the word audio and the word film or cinema. They just had no idea what to call it. So I feel like we're at that phase with filmed theater, where we're not sure what to call it, and someone's going to come up with it.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 44:50

It's probably going to have its own name because I think too, especially as we continue to move forward, and I think we're going, I mean, I think can't say for sure. but I have a feeling that because COVID is going to continue to be here for a while. And unfortunately, that might mean that theater may not be here for a while to come. I think we're going to see more of like the bigger Broadway musicals doing more of this, like more of like the HAMILTON. I know DIANA is coming out next. So I think we're gonna see more of that. So there's definitely going to have to be some sort of other name to it.

Luisa Lyons: 45:29

Yeah. I want them to find a way to put a socially distanced audience in those rooms. Because I think you need the live audience. I think it makes a huge difference. Otherwise, you're just making TV, which is fine, but it's not theatre.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 45:43

Yeah. True. True. True. Yeah. Because their energy does help serve the viewers energy when they're watching it.

Luisa Lyons: 45:50

Yeah, absolutely. Where do you stand on bootlegs?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 45:57

Um, I will totally admit that I have watched bootlegs but only for educational purposes, not for sharing. Like if I'm going in for a part. If there's a bootleg, then I will definitely look at it, but I don't support it in place of going to see the live show. I mean, we do record shows for educational purposes, you know what I mean, we record Broadway shows so that the understudy can watch, we record Broadway shows, you know, or theatrical experience, like I recorded my show. So like, I have it for my library in case I ever needed it. So we do, that's just the thing that happens. But if you can go see and support the live version, I'm speaking specifically of a bootleg, not something that was offered out to actually stream, then do that. Absolutely do that.

Luisa Lyons: 46:52

What do you wish had been filmed?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 46:56

Oh, goodness! God, I wish we had so many, so much of what has existed. I mean, I'll say this, and only those of us in New York have access to it, most Broadway shows get filmed, but they get put into the the New York Public Library, Film and Tape. So you can't actually have access to it unless you have a reason to have access to it again, for an audition for educational purposes. But I almost wish that at this point in time, there would be some way to like, release all of that. So we could all enjoy it. But yeah, but I wish, like, everything could be on recorded tape somehow, legally, that would be really cool.

Luisa Lyons: 47:44

Bless the lawyers that would have to be involved in negotiation.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 47:49

It will never happen. But yeah, it'ss hard. Because as a union member, you just, it takes a lot to record something. So it's just not like you can set up a video camera and just record it at any time with audience, you just can't do that. So it would be nice if there was a way to to make that happen.

Luisa Lyons: 48:12

Yeah, I think the pandemic is going to shift that, that attitude, it's going to become easier. And digital cameras as well, have made filming a lot

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 48:18

I think so too. easier. And I think also from the income standpoint, too, as far as like performers, and backstage personnel, and everybody who needs an income as well, that helps if we can figure out a way to actually realistically make that happen and support everybody. Do you know what I mean? So, I don't know. It'll be interesting. It's all such a new thing. I mean, it's not new, like you said, it's not a new, it's not a new idea. But it's new as far as the public having so much access to it.

Luisa Lyons: 48:53

Yeah, absolutely. Is there anything of Fanny Brice's that you would love, if you could go back in time, have a recording of it? And be able to watch it today? Is there anything particular that you would like to see?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 49:06

You know, the only things I would love to see which there are at least I don't know any of any of them? I would love to actually see her in the actual Follies, in the show itself. Like, there's remakes of what some of those were like in the movies and stuff, but I would love to actually be able to see it happening on stage in real time. There are other random clips from the Follies, so I'm sure that they exist somewhere in somebody's closet somewhere. But, I thought it would be so cool just to see what we can hear, actually see it. Like you know, they were all on record or we hear like sound sound clips or something that somebody has, but I would love to actually see what that actually looks like in person. But yeah, that would be my thing. Take me back to the Follies just so I could actually see it.

Luisa Lyons: 49:57

Yes, please! What would you like to see filmed In the future?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 50:03

Oh goodness, well for me, just across the board, I would love for more stuff to be legally filmed. So whatever that could be, then I would love that. It also I think would be cool just because I've done a lot of immersive theater and immersive theater is kind of coming back. If we could figure out a way to to film all of that kind of stuff as well, it would be cool, especially when we're watching it on a computer because then all that live stuff, immersive stuff, from all the different things going on can be edited together to create an even new piece of the magical theatrical art event, whatever we're going to call it. I mean, like, it would be cool. There's just so many options we have so we have so many capabilities now of recording, you know, zoom of all things. I mean, it's so crazy how we could just record something that we're not even in the same room so I would love to see just more of everything, but saturated even more.

Luisa Lyons: 51:03

I'm with you! More theatre!

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 51:06

Yes, exactly.

Luisa Lyons: 51:08

Where can we find you online Kimberly?

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 51:10

So you can find me at kimberlyfayegreenberg.com. And you can find my solo Fanny Brice show at FabulousFannyBriceShow.com. And Fanny is F A N N Y, some people spell it a little bit differently, so I spelt with a Y. So please check that out. There all my streaming show information is on my, both my websites actually. So if you go to my Kimberly Greenberg website, it'll take you to my Fanny Brice show website. So either way you'll find it and then last but not least, you can also check out my other Acto, Coach endeavor at TheBroadwayExpert.com. We didn't really get into that here today. But please feel free to check what that might be out as well.

Luisa Lyons: 51:56

Wonderful. Thank you so much Kimberly, this was so much fun and I have learned more about Fanny Brice and I think i need to watch your show again! Thank you so much!

Kimberly Faye Greenberg: 52:10

Thank you so much for having me.

Luisa Lyons: 52:12

My pleasure. Filmed Live Musicals is a labor of love and wed like to thank everyone who makes it possible. Thank you to our patrons Josh Brandon, Mercedes Esteban, Jesse Rabinowitz and Brenda Goodman, Al Monaco, David and Katherine Rabinowitz, and Bec Twist for your support. If youd like to support Filmed Live Musicals, please like and review on your podcast app, find us on Twitter at musicalsonscreen and on facebook at Filmed Live Musicals. If youd like to support the site financially, you can find us at patreon.com/musicalsonscreen. No matter what level you are able to pledge, you receive early access to written content, and early access to this very podcast. Visit www.filmedlivemusicals.com to learn more. Thanks for listening.