Funny Girl (film) What infuriated me was the way they did things—never telling me, never talking to me, just cutting. I think they were afraid that if they were nice to me, Barbra would have been upset." In her book "Talking Back: Images of Jewish Women in American Popular Culture", Joyce Antler writes that Streisand has created several rich images of a Jewish woman within film, "Funny Girl" being one of them. In "Funny Girl", Antler writes, Streisand is able to portray a character that is obviously Jewish, and in this role she creates a space for the intelligent Jewish woman to be
Funny Girl (musical) Finally, Isobel Lennart submitted "My Man", which pleased both Stark and Columbia Pictures executives, who offered Stark $400,000 plus a percentage of the gross for the property. After reading the screenplay, Mary Martin contacted Stark and proposed it be adapted for a stage musical. Stark discussed the possibility with producer David Merrick, who suggested Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim compose the score. Sondheim told Styne, "I don't want to do the life of Fanny Brice with Mary Martin. She's not Jewish. You need someone ethnic for the part." Shortly after, Martin lost interest in the project and backed out. Merrick