Kay Medford high school and working as a nightclub waitress. She was the original "Mama" in "Bye Bye Birdie" on Broadway, garnering excellent reviews, but lost the film role to Maureen Stapleton. Medford appeared in the Warner Bros. rock and roll film, "Jamboree" (1957). She made her Broadway debut in 1951 in the musical "Paint Your Wagon". She was cast in "Carousel" before she appeared onstage in "Funny Girl" as the mother of Fanny Brice (played by Barbra Streisand); for this performance she was nominated for a 1964 Tony Award for Featured Actress (Musical), and when she repeated the role in the
Funny Girl (musical) the hands of the director Joil Newman who exchanged the female role of Fanny with Funnie Brice, a male. The actor Julio Cesar Arturo Valverde Monje was hired to play the iconic character. The first tour started in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the Teatro Opera, and the cast then traveled to Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. The cast then traveled to the rest of South America with the "Funny Girl" South America Tour 2.0. Opening night was on October 15, 2015. A new London production opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory on November 20, 2015 in previews, officially on December