About the work
Funny Girl is a musical by Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics), with a book by Isobel Lennart, premiered on Broadway in 1964. It tells the life of the comedian and singer Fanny Brice and made Barbra Streisand a star. The work ranks among the great biographical musicals of the 1960s.
Plot
The young Fanny Brice from New York's Lower East Side dreams, despite her unconventional looks, of a career in show business. Through talent, wit, and persistence she rises to become a celebrated star of the Ziegfeld Follies. She falls in love with the elegant gambler Nick Arnstein and marries him. As Fanny's fame grows, Nick is broken by his financial failures and wounded pride, becoming entangled in shady schemes and ending up in prison. In the end Fanny stands alone but unbroken, channelling her heartbreak into her art.
Cultural significance
Funny Girl is inseparable from Barbra Streisand, whose renditions of People and Don't Rain on My Parade became enduring classics; the 1968 film won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. The musical shaped the image of the strong, idiosyncratic female lead in musical theatre and helped pioneer the biographical "bio-musical." A 2022 Broadway revival testified to the work's lasting appeal and to the difficulty of following in Streisand's outsized footsteps.