Funny Lady is a 1975 film starring Barbra Streisand, James Caan, Omar Sharif, Roddy McDowall, and Ben Vereen. A sequel to the 1968 film Funny Girl, it is a highly fictionalized account of the later life and career of comedienne Fanny Brice and her marriage to songwriter and empresario Billy Rose. The screenplay was by Jay Presson Allen and Arnold Schulman, based on a story by Schulman. The primary score was by John Kander and Fred Ebb, whose first success as a team had been the song "My Coloring Book," which had been written for Kaye Ballard, but was recorded by Streisand in 1962, who... popularized it. It was directed by Herbert Ross. Although she was contractually bound to make one more film for producer Ray Stark , Streisand balked at doing the project. She told Stark "that it would take litigation to make her do a sequel." However, Streisand liked the script, which showed Fanny to be "tougher, more acerbic, more mature...", and she agreed to do the film. The first actor to read for the role of Billy Rose was Robert Blake. Other actors were mentioned, including Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, but ultimately James Caan was chosen.
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| Release date: | 1975 |
| Directed by: | Herbert Ross |
| Rated: |  |
| Runtime: | 136 Minutes |
| Producer: | Ray Stark |
| Music by: | John Kander, Fred Ebb |
| Cinematography: | James Wong Howe |
| Screenplay by: | Arnold Schulman, Jay Presson Allen |
| Adapted from: | Funny Girl |
| Genre: | Musical, Comedy |