Funny Girl Original Broadway Cast (50th Anniversary Edition) Barbra Streisand

Cover Funny Girl Original Broadway Cast (50th Anniversary Edition)

Album info

Album-Release:
1964

HRA-Release:
23.04.2014

Label: Capitol Records

Genre: Soundtrack

Subgenre: Musicals

Artist: Barbra Streisand

Composer: Jule Styne

Album including Album cover Booklet (PDF)

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  • 1Overture04:04
  • 2If A Girl Isn't Pretty02:16
  • 3I'm The Greatest Star04:01
  • 4Cornet Man03:52
  • 5Who Taught Her Everything?03:05
  • 6His Love Makes Me Beautiful03:21
  • 7I Want To Be Seen With You Tonight01:55
  • 8Henry Street01:53
  • 9People03:26
  • 10You Are Woman, I Am Man03:48
  • 11Don't Rain On My Parade02:45
  • 12Sadie, Sadie03:33
  • 13Find Yourself A Man02:00
  • 14Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat03:22
  • 15Who Are You Now?02:50
  • 16The Music That Makes Me Dance03:52
  • 17Don't Rain On My Parade02:06
  • Total Runtime52:09

Info for Funny Girl Original Broadway Cast (50th Anniversary Edition)

It has been 50 years since Barbra Streisand portrayed Fanny Brice in the 1964 Broadway stage production of Funny Girl, and 46 years since she reprised her critically acclaimed role for the 1968 feature film.

The Gold-certified Funny Girl: Original Broadway Cast Recording is now available as a 50th Anniversary HighRes-Edition digitally remastered in 24-bit at 96 and 192 kHz, as well as a 48-page book featuring exclusive photos from the production and a new essay by Jay Landers.

With music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Bob Merrill, Funny Girl was produced by Ray Stark, directed by Garson Kanin, and choreographed by Carol Haney under the supervision of Jerome Robbins. In addition to Streisand, the show's original cast included Sydney Chaplin, Kay Medford, Danny Meehan, Jean Stapleton, and Lainie Kazan, who also served as Streisand's understudy. The production earned rave reviews and eight Tony® Award nominations, in every major category.

„The original idea was to do a movie about Fanny Brice, the comic Ziegfeld Follies star, but eventually the project was diverted to Broadway, and it evolved into a star vehicle for Barbra Streisand. The 21-year-old had only appeared in one previous show, but on opening night she had placed three LPs in the Top Ten within the previous 12 months, turning her into a major star. As such, she completely overshadowed Brice but, especially on this initial recording of Jule Styne and Bob Merrill's score, she did convey a modicum of Brice's ethnic humor, albeit mixed with a big dose of her own personality and world-beating voice. Styne had composed the music with Streisand in mind, and she handled both the bravura, rangy belters 'I'm the Greatest Star' and 'Don't Rain on My Parade' as effectively as the tender ballads 'People' (soon to become a hit single in a different recording from the one included here) and 'The Music That Makes Me Dance.' She dominated the album, taking eight of the 17 selections alone and also appearing on four others, but Kay Medford (as Brice's mother) and Danny Meehan (as a vaudeville friend) made strong impressions in such change-of-pace numbers as 'If a Girl Isn't Pretty' and 'Who Taught Her Everything?' Sydney Chaplin, as Brice's husband, the gambler Nick Arnstein, was less impressive, with a very limited vocal range that sounded even more inadequate than usual against Streisand's remarkable instrument. Quickly recorded, the album was relatively underproduced for a Streisand recording, but it captured a fresh performance she could not recreate later.“ (William Ruhlmann)

Barbra Streisand, vocals
Jean Stapleton, vocals
Kay Medford, vocals
Danny Meehan, vocals
John Lankston, vocals
Sydney Chaplin, vocals

Music by Jule Styne
Lyrics by Bob Merrill
Musical Direction by Milton Rosenstock
Orchestrations by Ralph Burns
Produced by Dick Jones
Musical produced by Ray Stark


Barbra Streisand
is the only recording artist to have number one albums in five consecutive decades. She has achieved 51 Gold, 30 Platinum and 18 multi-Platinum albums, each of which, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, exceeds all other female singers. Her most recent GRAMMY® nominated album, What Matters Most, and Release Me became her 31st and 32nd to reach the Top Ten in the charts, with which she passed The Beatles to become the third highest achiever in that significant statistic, exceeded only by the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra. She is the only female among the top ten album-selling recording artists and also the only one to have done so in the pop music field during decades dominated by rock and country sales dominance. In her sixth decade of providing music magic, Barbra Streisand continues to reach the top of the charts. Her Back To Brooklyn concert DVD was confirmed as No. 1 on the Billboard Top DVD Music Video chart. Achieving that distinction with the Columbia Records release, Streisand now has topped the DVD charts five times. Her success in the DVD field also includes having earned nine Gold DVDs, six Platinum and three multi-Platinum titles.

The Streisand Foundation has given millions of dollars in more than 2100 grants to over 700 non-profit organizations including her substantial underwriting of The Cedars-Sinai Barbra Streisand Women's Cardiovascular Research and Education Program which addresses the leading cause of death among women in the United States. The legendary artist also has raised many millions more for a variety of causes through her performances. Barbra Streisand was recently honored by the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors for her generous support and dedication to the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at Cedars Sinai Hospital.

About Funny Girl:

The musical by librettist Isobel Lennart, composer Jule Styne (Gypsy, Bells Are Ringing) and lyricist Bob Merrill (Carnival, New Girl in Town) depicted the rise to fame of comedienne/Ziegfeld Follies star Fanny Brice (Streisand, in her second Broadway role) and her troubled relationship with husband Nicky Arnstein (Sydney Chaplin, son of Charlie and star of Styne’s Bells Are Ringing and Subways Are For Sleeping). Kay Medford and Danny Meehan also starred as Mrs. Brice and Eddie Ryan, respectively, and future All in the Family “Dingbat” Jean Stapleton was featured as Mrs. Strakosh. Funny Girl, directed by Garson Kanin and produced by Brice’s son-in-law Ray Stark, opened on March 26, 1964 after 17 previews at the Winter Garden Theatre (today, home to the musical Rocky). It then transferred to two more theaters before closing in 1967 after 1,348 performances; Mimi Hines succeeded Streisand as Fanny.

The show earned eight Tony nominations, but won none of them thanks to the unstoppable competition from David Merrick’s production of Hello, Dolly!. Streisand would be awarded for her portrayal of Fanny, however, when she won Golden Globe and Academy Awards for the 1968 film version. It would be her first role in a film. The musical produced a number of standards, including “I’m The Greatest Star,” “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and, of course, “People,” not to mention one of the most electrifying overtures ever composed.

The original cast album, one of Streisand’s only recordings not on Columbia Records, was recorded over just one session (as was standard practice at the time) at the Manhattan Center studios on April 5, 1964 and was produced by Dick Jones. Longtime Broadway champion Goddard Lieberson, the president of Columbia, reportedly passed on the cast album but made a stipulation that Streisand record a number of songs from the score for Columbia which she did in December of that year. (Two – “Who Are You Now” and “Cornet Man” – still remain locked in the Columbia vaults.) Lieberson might have rethought his passing on the album if he could have foreseen its success. In stores just a scant week after it was recorded, it went on to spend 51 weeks on the Billboard chart. It peaked at No. 2, kept from pole position only by The Beatles’ Second Album (illuminating how much the charts have changed over 50 years!). The Original Broadway Cast Recording of Funny Girl would eventually be certified Gold in September of 1964 and go on to win the Grammy for Best Original Cast Album. It was released on CD in 1987 on Capitol and in 1992 on EMI’s Broadway Angel Label, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004.

Booklet for Funny Girl Original Broadway Cast (50th Anniversary Edition)

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