Funny Girl

Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif in Funny Girl

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Turner Classic Movies

Saturday, June 7 2:15 p.m.

If you are one of the few people still watching Glee, you’ll know that Rachel (Lea Michelle) has inexplicably been cast as the lead in a Broadway revival of Funny Girl, the musical that made Barbra Streisand a Broadway star and then a movie star. Playing the Vaudeville comedienne Fanny Brice from her girlhood to international fame, Streisand does everything from comedy to drama, owning every moment, and also, yeah, singing like no one else had or has since. She won her Oscar, and deservedly so, for Funny Girl, and she’s so charismatic and so endearing that you don’t notice that the movie itself is a little creaky. Rachel is a pale, parodic imitation of Streisand, and seeing the film allows you to experience the true greatness.

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