Funny Girl #1
OPENING: March 26, 1964
CLOSING: July 1, 1967
Seen: May 1964
LOCATION: Winter Garden
My family has never been great with social graces.
For example, I have often been accused of delivering stinging one-liners which I have been told are “unattractive.” My father has had similar struggles with keeping opinions to himself. And my grandfather also had no filter, especially when it came to the appearances of others. A fantastic example of this occurred in November 1962, on an otherwise nondescript Monday evening. A young Broadway singer was introduced on Merv Griffin and she began to sing. Awed by her obvious natural talent but unconventional appearance, he managed to marvel at her talent and insult her looks in the same sentence.
I will not repeat the verbatim quote here. It is family legend what was said, but I do not agree with my grandfather’s choice of words and I will not disparage a performer because of her appearance. Especially when the performer in question is Barbra Streisand.
In November 1962, Barbra was completing her debut Broadway run in I Can Get it For You Wholesale. Eighteen months later, in May of 1964, my grandfather packed up the family and took them to the Winter Garden Theater to see the girl “who could really sing” perform in what would become her big break – Funny Girl.
Funny Girl is the story of Fanny Brice, singer and comedienne of the 1920’s and 30’s. Born in the Lower East Side in 1892, she made her stage debut at the age of 13. She played chorus roles for the next several years until she was scooped up by Ziegfeld for the Follies and the rest, as they say, is history. She worked almost all the way to her death in 1951.
Barbra’s road to success was similar to Fanny’s. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Barbara Joan Streisand graduated Erasmus high school six months early and moved to Manhattan six weeks later to pursue her acting career. She got a job ushering at the Lunt Fontainne Theater and enrolled at the Theatre Studio. She made some additional cash singing at nightclubs. Three years after leaving Brooklyn, she made her Broadway debut in I Can Get It For You Wholesale. A year and a half later, she was cast in Funny Girl.
While the musical does correctly document most of Fanny’s life, it does take a few liberties as most bio musicals do. Still, unlike many other such pieces, it was written the way her family wished it be as her son-in-law, Ray Stark, produced it. Originally David Merrick had his hands in the cookie jar, but several months before the show opened Stark bought out Merrick. Stark attributed this to Merrick’s admittedly overloaded schedule (Zolotow, 1963), but my gut says that Merrick wanted to take the show in a direction that the Brice family didn’t approve of. There’s really no way to confirm this short of tracking down the living Brice relations.
The entire production seemed to make a creative effort to keep the lure of the 20’s alive. Barbra’s Nick Arnstein was played by Sydney Chaplin, the son of silent film star Charlie Chaplin. I admittedly have not done the research into this but I have a very hard time believing that Charlie and Fanny did not know each other in real life. Sydney was an established Broadway performer in his own right so his casting was not only due to his lineage but it is indeed a nice touch.
The original cast of Funny Girl launched the careers of several of it’s cast members. While it was an obvious game changer for our beloved Barbra, Jean Stapleton originated the role of Mrs. Strakosh and Lainie Kazan was Barbra’s standby. Funny Girl received no Tony award, although Babs was nominated, but it has remained a favorite among theater goers past and present. To be fair, it was up against Hello, Dolly!, 110 in the Shade, and She Loves Me. It would have been a tough year for any show, let alone a biographical musical with a relative unknown as the headliner.
Funny Girl was recently revived for the first time this year, a shockingly long time for a respected musical. There are several interesting explanations for this, but the accepted one is that no one could imagine another actress in the role of Fanny Brice. Barbra played the role to such a level of perfection that no one will ever be able to touch it. The only comparison I have would be Joanna Gleason in Into The Woods – I have yet to see a production where the portrayal of The Baker’s Wife comes close to Joanna’s.
My grandfather had one thing right – Barbra could sing. It is because of her that the show has endured. And though she was spurned by the Tonys, she did win an Oscar for the same role several years later. It is a performance that is deservedly immortalized – and will be for a long time to come.
CAST: ORIGINAL
FANNY BRICE: Barbra Streisand
JOHN, STAGE MANAGER: Robert Howard
EMMA: Royce Wallace
MRS. BRICE: Kay Medford
MRS STRAKOSH: Jean Stapleton
MRS. MEEKER: Lydia S. Fredericks
MRS. O’MALLEY: Joyce O’Neil
TOM KEENEY: Joseph Macauley
EDDIE RYAN: Danny Meehan
HECKIE: Victor R. Helou
WORKMEN: Robert Howard, Robert Henson
SNUB TAYLOR: Buzz Miller
TROMBONE SMITTY: Blair Hammond
FIVE FINGER FINNEY: Alan E. Weeks
TRUMPET SOLOIST: Dick Perry
BUBBLES: Shellie Farrell
POLLY: Joan Lowe
MAUDE: Ellen Halpin
NICK ARNSTEIN: Sydney Chaplin
TWO SHOWGIRLS: Sharon Vaughn, DIANA LEE NIELSEN
STAGE DIRECTOR: Marc Jordan
FLORENZ ZIEGFELD: Roger De Koven
MIMSEY: Sharon Vaughn
ZIEGFELD TENOR: John Lankston
ZIEGFELD LEAD DANCER: George Reeder
ADOLPH: John Lankston
MRS. NADLER: Rose Randolf
PAUL: Larry Fuller
CATHY: Joan Cory
VERA: Lainie Kazan
JENNY: Diane Coupe
BEN: Buzz Miller
MR RENALDI: Marc Jordan
SHOWGIRLS: Prudence Adams, Joan Cory, Diane Coupe, Lainie Kazan, Diana Lee Nielson, Sharon Vaughn, Rosemarie Yellen
SINGERS: Lydia S. Fredericks, Mary Louise, Jeanne McLaren, Joyce O’Neill, Rose Randolf, Stephanie Reynolds, Victor R. Helou, Robert Henson, Robert Howard, Marc Jordan, John Lankston, Albert Zimmerman
DANCERS: Edie Cowan, Christine Dalsey, Shellie Farrell, Ellen Halpin, Rosemary Jelincic, Karen Kristin, Joan Lowe, Jose Ahumada. Bud Fleming, Larry Fuller, Blair Hammond, John Nola, Alan Peterson, Alan E. Weeks
STANDBYS FOR MISS STREISAND AND MR. CHAPLIN: Lainie Kazan and George Reeder
Barbra Archives. “The Merv Griffin Show (1962)”. Accessed September 2022. https://www.barbra-archives.info/merv-griffin-show-1962
Bordman, Gerald. “American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle.” New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1978.
Calta, Louis. “Fanny Brice Role To Miss Streisand.” New York Times, July 26, 1963. https://www.nytimes.com/1963/07/26/archives/fanny-brice-role-to-miss-streisand-night-club-singer-is-chosen-for.html?searchResultPosition=1
Calta, Louis. “New ‘Funny Girl’ Prepares Calmly. New York Times, December 11, 1965. https://www.nytimes.com/1965/12/11/archives/new-funny-girl-prepares-calmly-following-barbra-streisand-doesnt.html?searchResultPosition=1
Internet Broadway Database. “Funny Girl”. www.ibdb.com. Accessed September 2022.
Internet Broadway Database. “Sydney Chaplin”. www.ibdb.com. Accessed September 2022.
Mann, William J. “Hello, Gorgeous”. New York; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2012.
New York Times. “Dispute Leads Chaplin to Quit ‘Funny Girl’” June 17, 1965. https://www.nytimes.com/search?query=Dispute+Leads+Chaplin+to+Quit+Funny+Girl
New York Times. “Fanny Brice Dies At The Age of 59” New York Times, May 30, 1951. https://www.nytimes.com/1951/05/30/archives/fanny-brice-dies-at-the-age-of-59-comedienne-famed-in-role-of-baby.html?searchResultPosition=2
New York Times. “London ‘Funny Girl’ to End When Miss Streisand Quits” June 7, 1966. https://www.nytimes.com/search?query=London+Funny+Girl+to+End+When+Miss+Streisand+Quits
New York Times. “Understudy in ‘Funny Girl’ Lead” February 4, 1965. https://www.nytimes.com/1965/02/04/archives/understudy-in-funny-girl-lead.html?searchResultPosition=1
Tony Awards. www.tonyawards.com. Accessed September 2022.
Zolotow, Sam. “Merrick is Out As Show Sponsor; Stark to Carry On Alone in ‘Funny Girl’; Production Briton Signs for ‘Abraham’, ‘Lovely Light’ Returning”. New York Times; December 13, 1963. https://www.nytimes.com/1963/12/13/archives/merrick-is-out-as-show-sponsor-stark-to-carry-on-alone-in-funny.html?searchResultPosition=46
