Sheridan Smith: Taking on Barbra Streisand and being the female Hamlet in revival of Funny Girl musical

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Sheridan Smith is eating her lunch in the restaurant of the Menier Chocolate Factory, the London theatre, in a break from rehearsals for Michael Mayer’s eagerly anticipated revival of Funny Girl. “You can tell that Fanny’s mother has been through a similar situation that Fanny is going through with Nick: ancestral proneness to misogyny.” Smith is quick to correct me when I misquote one of the mother’s great lines: “Love him a little less; and help him a little more.” “The word is ‘respect’ – ‘respect him a little more’.” There’s a lovely, searching song, “Who Are You Now?” which, it is rumoured, was the one Streisand would drop on two-show days when she wanted to pop up to her duplex and dust her tchotchkes between the matinee and evening show. “But it’s about Fanny discovering at this point in her ascent that ‘you can’t take an audience home with you’,” says Smith, who knows what she is talking about. What we have is not an anthem for everyone but an insight into the character’s experience of the world.” The adjective which I incessantly want to apply to Sheridan Smith is “Shakespearean”.