Year 6, Day 95

Good Morning! Today's song is Don't Rain On My Parade from Funny Girl.

I only know about Funny Girl because of the sheer amount it's mentioned in Glee, but any way that you're exposed to a musical that makes you want to check it out is a good one. Funny girl is semi-biographical, based on the life of comedian and actress Fanny Brice. It was created in 1963 with the book by Isobel Lennart, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill; it was produced by Ray Stark, who was married to Brice's daughter. It was brought to Broadway in 1964 starring Barbara Streisand, and follows Fanny Brice as one of the Follies showing flashbacks of her life with her husband Nicky Arnstein. So Brice's son in law tried lots of avenues for her life story, but didn't find one that he liked until Lennart submitted this (originally titled My Man). It had been just a screenplay, but actress and singer Mary Martin suggested it should be a musical. Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim were brought on, but Sondheim rejected it because the actress was not Jewish, and therefore not right for the part, which caused the actress to back out of the project. They continued to struggle to find someone for the part getting feedback from others they approached that they should get a Jewish girl for the role. They were running out of time when they brought in Streisand, and although she didn't make a good impression to Brice's daughter, she got the part. Directors kept quitting which put the show in limbo for months, but eventually they found someone, although he and Streisand did not agree about what should be done with the show. Eventually they managed to get the show opened. They had to keep editing it, with it being way too long, postponing opening in New York five times to keep perfecting the book. It took them 17 previews, but they managed to open on Broadway from 1964 to 1967, and had other runs since then. The original cast recording with Streisand has since been put in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and despite not winning, the show was nominated for 8 Tony Awards. It took a lot to get the show where it ended up which sucked, but we got a musical out of it, and even a book loosely based on the hardships leading up to opening night from this in a novel called Smash by Garson Kanin (who was the eventual director who Streisand had a problem with). So there's that. I don't know much about Funny Girl or Fanny Brice as a person, but maybe it's time to find out about her.

Peace.