Funny Girl

The Fabulous Fanny

Brice was born Fania Borach on October 29, 1891, in New York City, to fairly affluent parents of Hungarian Jewish origin. She gained prominence performing comedic routines and songs [Page 931]like “My Man” and “Second-Hand Rose” in the Ziegfeld Follies sporadically beginning in the 1910s. Her film roles, recordings, and popular radio show only added to her fame.

The musical Funny Girl is performed at the Brno City Theatre in the Czech Republic in September 2012. The play has been performed on many stages in many countries, but Barbra Streisand's appearance as Fanny Brice in the 1968 film version is most remembered. The musical is set in New York City prior to and following World War I. Fanny, a Hungarian Jewish star in the Ziegfeld Follies, awaits the return of her husband, Nick, from prison and reflects on their life together as their story is told in flashback.

American film producer Ray Stark, whose wife, Frances, was Fanny's daughter, commissioned a biography of Brice, The Fabulous Fanny, which he found to be wholly unsatisfactory. He next hired and fired a succession of a dozen screenwriters to draft a version of Brice's story that would make a suitable big-budget film. Stark decided to turn the only screenplay he liked, Isobel Lennart's My Man, into a musical at the suggestion of actress Mary Martin. Initially, composer Jule Styne and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, the songwriting team behind the similarly biographical musical Gypsy, were to create the score; however, Sondheim moved on to other projects, and Bob Merrill, known for pop songs like “Mambo Italiano” and “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window,” contributed the lyrics instead. With the score and libretto in place, Stark assembled a production team that, at various points, included David Merrick, Jerome Robbins, Garson Kanin, Carol Haney, and Bob Fosse, to stage the musical. Anne Bancroft, Eydie Gormé, and Carol Burnett were all approached to play Fanny Brice, but none were seen as having the requisite combination of Yiddish theater humor, singing, and acting abilities.

Styne remembered Streisand, then only 19 years old, from her Tony-nominated performance in Jerome Weidman and Harold Rome's I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Streisand was already making a name for herself with her popular nightclub act, Grammy Award-winning debut album, and various television appearances alongside Johnny Carson, Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, Jack Paar, and Mike Wallace. Stark was impressed with Streisand's audition and offered the role of Fanny to her immediately.

Funny Girl on Broadway

Funny Girl opened on March 26, 1964, at the Winter Garden Theatre. Critics praised [Page 932]Streisand, but other aspects of the show, especially the libretto, were much less well received. In fact, the Broadway opening was postponed repeatedly to allow time for rewriting. Even the score, which included the now-classic “People,” “Don't Rain on My Parade,” “Cornet Man, “I'm the Greatest Star,” “If a Girl Isn't Pretty,” and “The Music That Makes Me Dance,” did not receive universal critical approval. However, the cast recording would go on to reach number two on the Billboard Magazine Top 200 Singles chart and be certified as gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Over the course of the Broadway run, the cast included Sydney Chaplin, Kay Medford, Jean Stapleton, Johnny Desmond, Paula Laurence, Phil Ford, Bob Avian, and Larry Fuller. The musical went on to play 17 previews and 1,348 regular performances on Broadway; Streisand reprised her role for the 1966 West End production at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London.

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