Funny Girl (film) to the film was released by Columbia Records in 1968. Isobel Lennart originally wrote "Funny Girl" as a screenplay for a drama film entitled "My Man" for producer Ray Stark, but when he offered it to Mary Martin, she suggested it might work better as a stage musical. Lennart consequently adapted her script for what eventually became a successful Broadway production starring Barbra Streisand. Although she had not made any films, Streisand was Stark's first and only choice to portray Brice onscreen. "I just felt she was too much a part of Fanny, and Fanny was too much a part
Fanny Brice was completely devoted to the character, as she told biographer Norman Katkov: "Snooks is just the kid I used to be. She's my kind of youngster, the type I like. She has imagination. She's eager. She's alive. With all her deviltry, she is still a good kid, never vicious or mean. I love Snooks, and when I play her I do it as seriously as if she were real. I am Snooks. For 20 minutes or so, Fanny Brice ceases to exist." "Baby Snooks" writer/producer Everett Freeman told Katkov that Brice did not like to rehearse the role ("I can't