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
Opening Night (Glee) Opening Night (Glee) "Opening Night" is the seventeenth episode of the fifth season of the American musical television series "Glee", and the 105th episode overall. It was written by Michael Hitchcock and directed by Eric Stoltz, and it aired on Fox in the United States on April 22, 2014, and features Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) opening as Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" on Broadway. Archive footage of Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) is used in this episode. Out-of-town visitors arrive for Rachel Berry's (Lea Michele) official Broadway opening night in "Funny Girl", including Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch),