Funny Girl

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Original cast album
Original cast album

Funny Girl is a musical with a book by Isobel Lennart, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill.

The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of Broadway and film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein. Its original title was My Man.

After seventeen previews, the Broadway production, directed by Garson Kanin and choreographed by Carol Haney, opened on March 26, 1964, at the Winter Garden Theatre, where it ran for 1348 performances. The opening night cast included Barbra Streisand, Sydney Chaplin, Kay Medford, Danny Meehan, Jean Stapleton, and Lainie Kazan, who also served as Streisand's understudy. Later in the run, Streisand and Chaplin were replaced by husband-and-wife team Mimi Hines and Phil Ford.

The show was nominated for eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Composer and Lyricist, Best Actor in a Musical (Chaplin), Best Actress in a Musical (Streisand), Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Meehan), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Medford), Best Choreography, and Best Producer of a Musical (Ray Stark). Facing tough competition from Hello, Dolly!, it failed to win in any categories.

The show had a London production at the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1966.

[edit] Song list

Act 1

  • If a Girl Isn't Pretty
  • I'm the Greatest Star
  • Cornet Man
  • Who Taught Her Everything?
  • His Love Makes Me Beautiful
  • I Want to Be Seen With You Tonight
  • Henry Street
  • People
  • You Are Woman, I Am Man
  • Don't Rain on My Parade

Act 2

  • Sadie, Sadie
  • Find Yourself a Man
  • Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat
  • Who Are You Now?
  • The Music That Makes Me Dance
  • Don't Rain on My Parade

[edit] Film version

Funny Girl
Directed by William Wyler
Produced by Ray Stark
Written by Isobel Lennart
Starring Barbra Streisand
Omar Sharif
Walter Pidgeon
Cinematography Harry Stradling Sr.
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) 1968
Running time 151 min.
IMDb profile

The 1968 screen adaptation, directed by William Wyler, paired Streisand with Omar Sharif in the role of Arnstein. Medford repeated her stage role, and Walter Pidgeon was cast as Flo Ziegfeld, with Anne Francis in the added role of showgirl Georgia James, although most of her performance was left on the cutting room floor. The role played by Stapleton on stage went to Mae Questel. Fans of the original Broadway score were dismayed to discover most of its songs were eliminated. The most notable addition was "My Man," a Fanny Brice tune used as the film's finale.

Streisand won the Academy Award for Best Actress, an honor she shared with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter. The film was nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Kay Medford), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation), Best Original Song ("Funny Girl"), and Best Sound.

Streisand received a Golden Globe as Best Actress; nominations also went to the film, the title song, and Wyler. Lennart's screenplay won her recognition from the Writers Guild of America.

The film was a huge hit in theaters, and became the top grossing film of 1968.

In 2006 this film ranked #16 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals.

A 1975 sequel, entitled Funny Lady, with James Caan in the role of Brice's second husband, impresario Billy Rose, was considered inferior by most critics, but was still a commercial success.

A previous Hollywood biopic allegedly based on Brice's life, released in 1939, was entitled Rose of Washington Square and starred Alice Faye, Tyrone Power, and Al Jolson. It was as historically inaccurate as its successors.

[edit] External links

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