50 | JULY 21 • 2022 

PEOPLE WHO LOVE 
BARBRA ARE THE 
SMARTEST PEOPLE IN 
THE WORLD
I can’t recall doing a whole 
column on one subject. 
But it’s a slow week for 
new movies, TV shows, 
etc., and, for a long time, 
I’ve wanted to write about 
The Funny Girl “odyssey.” 
Breaking news last week 
made me finally do that. 

On July 11, it was 
announced that Beanie 
Feldstein, 29, the star 
of the current Broadway 
revival of Funny Girl, would 
leave the show “early” and 
would be replaced by Lea 
Michele, the former Glee 
star. I kind of saw this com-
ing. Reviews of the revival 
were tepid, and it got just 
one Tony nomination. 
There are reports that the 
show will be rewritten for 
Michele. 
I doubt Michele or the 
rewrite will make a dif-
ference. The truth is that 
Funny Girl had a bad 
script when it premiered in 
1964. Tony-winner Harvey 
Feinstein, 68, was hired 
to rewrite parts of the reviv-
al. But he couldn’t make a 
fundamentally flawed musi-
cal into a winner. 

Fanny Brice, the actress 
who was the subject of 
Funny Girl, was largely for-
gotten by 1964 because her 
heyday was in the 1920s 
and on the stage. She 
made a few, forgotten mov-
ies. Theatergoers in 1964 
had to depend on the musi-
cal show to tell them who 
Fanny Brice was. Sadly, the 
musical, original and reviv-
al, mostly made-up Brice’s 
biography and had only one 
fully developed character — 
Fanny Brice.
The 1964 musical had 
one irreplaceable asset: 
Barbra Streisand. A very 
good YouTube channel, 
Staged Right, has a 30-min-
ute video that masterful-
ly weaves together the 
real story of Fanny Brice 
with the story of Barbra 
Streisand as Brice. 
About Streisand as Brice 
in Funny Girl, Staged Right, 
says: “Some roles become 
immortalized by the peo-
ple that first played them. 
Such instances can only 
be described as a unique 
moment where a role and 
performer meet so perfectly 
in creating an excitement 
that it can never be repeat-
ed.”
Here’s the backstory: 
Frances Brice, Fanny’s 
daughter, wanted a movie 
made about her mother. 
Her husband, top producer 
Ray Stark, was persuaded 
by Broadway star Mary 
Martin to make a stage 
musical instead. Martin 

wanted to play Brice. The 
problem was that Martin 
was nothing like the “very 
Jewish” Brice. 
Stark hired Stephen 
Sondheim to co-write the 
songs. When Sondheim 
learned that Martin would 
play Brice, he quit. While 
not an observant Jew, 
Sondheim could recognize 
absurd casting. He insisted 
that a Jewish actress had to 
play Brice. 
The show was in limbo 
for a while and Martin took 
herself out of “contention.” 
Then Carol Burnett was 
asked to play Fanny. To her 
credit, she said, “I’d love to 
do the part, but you really 
should get a Jewish girl.”
 Starting in 1960, 
Streisand began perform-
ing in New York clubs and 
got a lot of “buzz.” Staged 
Right says: “No one had 
heard anything like her. Her 
power and expressiveness 
could easily be compared 
to Judy Garland and Lena 
Horne. But her phrasing 
and intonation were so 
uniquely hers — and her 
street smarts and quirkiness 
made audiences fall in love 
with her.”
 Streisand got a sup-
porting role (1962) in the 
musical I Can Get It for 
You Wholesale despite 
the protest of producer 
David Merrick, who said, 
“I don’t hire ugly girls.” 
She was a smash and got 
a Tony nomination. After 
Wholesale, she became a 
favorite for the Brice role, 
but she had to overcome 
the opposition of Frances 
Brice to get it. Streisand got 
the role because she had 
the goods — she could be 
funny, touching, and she 
could knock audiences out 
as she sang a lot of hard-
to-sing songs. She endured 
as directors and songwrit-
ers came-and-went and 
the script changed almost 
every day. 
The musical got so-so 

reviews, but everyone 
loved Barbra. Bette Davis, 
on the game show, What’s 
My Line, gushed about 
Streisand days after the 
opening. Two weeks 
later, Streisand was the 
“mystery guest” on the 
show, and Random House 
founder Bennett Cerf, a 
panelist, told her, “It was 
one of the greatest perfor-
mances I’ve ever seen on 
Broadway.”
Beanie Feldstein recent-
ly said that Fanny Brice 
was the woman who real-
ly broke the barriers for 
Jewish actresses. She was 
wrong. The real Brice just 
wasn’t well known enough 
to do that. Streisand as 
Brice, and in other roles, 
was the woman who broke 
down huge roadblocks 
for Jewish actresses. She 
showed the world you 
could be openly Jewish, 
“look Jewish” and “be 
funny” Jewish. She even 
showed that a woman with 
these attributes could be 
sexy, too. 
I like Beanie Feldstein, 
but following Streisand was 
almost impossible. I don’t 
think that Michele will do 
any better. 

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

CELEBRITY NEWS
ARTS&LIFE

DANNYB VIA WIKIPEDIA

Beanie 
Feldstein

WIKIPEDIA

Fanny Brice, 
c. 1920

Barbra 
Streisand

WIKIPEDIA

