Barbra Joan Striesand on Broadway

[Barbra Streisand]

Posted: 8/20/04 at 8:11pm

hi is anyone her old enough to have seen Barbra Streisand as Miss Marmelstien in I Can Get it For You Wholesale? Or her as Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl"?

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 8/20/04 at 8:14pm

Nope.

[alterego]

Posted: 8/21/04 at 1:02am

It's Streisand isn't it, Barbra?

[Ebonic_Singer]

Posted: 8/21/04 at 1:10am

I can ask my grandmother. She saw Ethel Merman in the original production of Gypsy.

[Barbra Streisand]

Posted: 8/21/04 at 2:07am

alterego: What do you mean is it Streisand?

[feinstein9]

Posted: 8/21/04 at 2:08am

you spelled it wrong in the title, babs. you might want to talk to peter felicia at theatremania.com, he saw the original funny girl.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 8/21/04 at 5:57am

One of my good friends played hookey from high school and saw Mme. Streisand in "Funny Girl" a few times, inclusing her closing night performance, where she sang "My Man" at the final curtain. He doesn't have any great anecdotes about it other than saying she was incredible.

I've heard others say that she "phoned it in" a lot later in the run and seemed bored at times on stage with doing eight shows a week (which is why we've never seen her on Broadway since). Some people have said that she was great when she knew a celebrity was in the house, but otherwise was pretty lackluster -- a few people told me frankly that her replacements Mimi Hines and Lainie Kazan were actually better in the role (but, of course, it's all subjective).

[marlomanners]

Posted: 8/21/04 at 9:50am

I know someone who saw her in Funny Girl, and she also told me that she sleepwalked through it. Interesting since it's such a "legendary" performance.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/21/04 at 1:59pm

But Margo, Lanie never actually went on for her, right? Or maybe only once? Mimi replaced her, but they never offered the role to Kazan.

Streisand phoned it in, but it was her phone. Her work ethic was pretty amazing -- there's nothing like one, when fueled wih ego.

[Glebb]

Posted: 8/21/04 at 3:15pm

Was just humming her version of "Soon It's Gonna Rain", in my head.
Damn she was good!