Search Results

This chapter deals with Wyler's final three films. It opens by recounting Wyler's involvement with The Sound of Music, which he was scheduled direct — and he did cast Julie Andrews — but later asked to be let out of. Instead, he directed a much smaller film, The Collector, in England. The chapter offers a visual analysis of Wyler's claustrophobic mise-en-scène for this project as well his difficulties in drawing an effective performance from Samantha Eggar, who was making her film debut. His involvement with the film Patton is also discussed, although he had to shelve that film due to casting difficulties. Wyler's next project — his first musical — Funny Girl, is analyzed, as well as his relationship with its star, Barbra Streisand, in her film debut. The chapter concludes with a consideration of Wyler's final film, The Liberation of L.B. Jones, which remains among the most uncompromising films about race ever to be released by a Hollywood studio.

This chapter focuses on Barbra Streisand’s movies, beginning with Funny Girl in 1968 followed by Hello, Dolly! a year later. A roadshow release, Funny Girl dropped eight of the numbers, including the best title, “The Music That Makes Me Dance,” but added three songs associated with Fanny Brice, the most notable of which is her “autobiography” piece, “My Man.” Hello, Dolly! is considered one of Streisand’s best portrayals. The chapter also offers a commentary on Streisand’s third film, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970), along with other projects such as The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), What’s Up, Doc? (1972), Up the Sandbox (1972), The Way We Were (1973), For Pete’s Sake (1974), A Star Is Born (1976), The Main Event (1979), Yentl (1983), The Prince Of Tides (1991), The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), and The Guilt Trip (2012).

This chapter focuses on Barbra Streisand’s career in theater, beginning with her 1961 debut in New York via Another Evening With Harry Stoones followed by her very first Broadway role in I Can Get It For You Wholesale in 1962. Whereas Another Evening With Harry Stoones did nothing for Streisand, I Can Get It For You Wholesale gave the character “Miss Marmelstein” as Streisand’s breakout musical spot. The following year, 1963, Streisand’s first two albums were released, and in 1964, Streisand starred in her second Broadway appearance, Funny Girl, for which she was nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.

The premiere of Warner Bros.’s Finian’s Rainbow opens chapter eleven. The lovely score was offset by a bizarre plot and sloppy production values. It performs fairly at the box office. Funny Girl was heavily marketed and premiered in the fall of 1968. Under William Wyler’s direction, Barbra Streisand won raves and became an instant movie star. Box office revenue was huge. Fox readied Star! for premiere, but was shocked at public apathy. In stark contrast to Funny Girl, interest in the latest Julie Andrews film was nil. Fox’s Richard Zanuck tried to salvage his expensive project with reediting and even retitling the film Those Were the Happy Times, but nothing clicked. The film sank and left Fox with a huge debt. The chapter concludes with a look at the film landscape of late 1968, revealing why Star! held limited appeal.

This chapter describes Bob Fosse’s film Sweet Charity, which opened at the top of 1966 and was a compendium of then-current styles and sexual attitudes. Fosse conceived this American adaptation of Federico Fellini’s film Nights of Cabiria (1957) as a vehicle for Gwen Verdon, changing the title character from Roman prostitute to New York City dance hall hostess. He wrote several drafts of the show’s book before relinquishing those duties to Neil Simon. Nonetheless, in Sweet Charity, Fosse’s authorial voice was much in evidence. His staging exhibited a new fluidity, as well as a dark, ambivalent view of sexuality. Sweet Charity was also the vehicle by which Fosse would return to movies, this time as a director. Although full of arresting moments, the film was deemed too busy and full of gimmicky, self-conscious camerawork. Sweet Charity was a commercial and critical failure, but it allowed Fosse to explore the camera’s potential in presenting dance on film.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the values of theatrical liberalism caught the imagination of Jewish social scientists, who found it useful for explaining everyday behavior. At the same time, a newly emerging Jewish ethnic pride led to a celebration of “authentic” Jewishness in popular culture. This chapter explores the tension between these two impulses in the work of Erving Goffman, Sid Caesar's early television sketches, and the musicals My Fair Lady, Funny Girl, and Fiddler on the Roof. The debates over theatricality and authenticity reached a peak in the later 1960s and 1970s as theatrical activity spilled off of stages and screens, and boundaries between audiences and performers disintegrated.

This chapter explains how Ziegfeld became an icon for generations to come through the lavish biopic The Great Ziegfeld (1936). Burke is an adviser on the set of the film and is now working at MGM. Next, the chapter provides an in-depth look at other films that use Ziegfeldian production techniques. The chapter concludes with a summary of Broadway and other theatrical productions from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries that paid homage to Ziegfeld and his legacy.

This chapter introduces the reader to Barbra Streisand’s life and work, focusing on how being a singer and an actor, separately and together, have characterized her career. It first provides a background on Streisand’s family and early childhood as well as her determination to get into acting before focusing on her early mentors, including actor Barry Dennen, Peter Daniels, Allan Miller, and Martin Erlichman. It then considers how Streisand started as a singer and went on to establish an acting and a singing career on Broadway, first with a supporting role in I Can Get It For You Wholesale, and how she was signed by Columbia Records. It also examines how Funny Girl gave Streisand a new-star-in-town triumph, her free concert A Happening in Central Park, and some of the films she made such as The Way We Were, A Star Is Born, and Yentl. Finally, it mentions Streisand’s affair with hair-salon entrepreneur Jon Peters.

This chapter examines the work of Marvin Hamlisch. It opens with an extended commentary of his career, and also gives details on productions, with data and song information. Hamlisch studied at Juilliard and went on to receive his bachelor’s degree from Queens College. At twenty-one he wrote his first pop hit, Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows (lyric by Howard Liebling). But Hamlisch was just another Broadway piano player, serving as rehearsal accompanist for Funny Girl (Styne: March 26, 1964) and doing dance arrangements for minor musicals like Henry, Sweet Henry (Merrill: October 23, 1967) and Golden Rainbow (February 4, 1968). Then Hollywood producer Sol Siegel heard him playing piano at a party, hired him to score the 1968 Burt Lancaster film The Swimmer, and Hamlisch was on his way.