Throwback Thursday at the Movies: Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice in Swan Lake Ballet from "Funny Girl"

The Forward has published a list of the 125 Greatest Jewish Movie Scenes of All Time. Compiled by Forward cultural reporter PJ Grisar and a panel of experts, the list includes scenes from a very wide range of films. 

As Grisar wrote in the introduction to the list,

If you were to edit the greatest Jewish scenes into a montage, how long would it last? Perhaps not the whole Parsha cycle, but it would be a real commitment to watch the entire thing. This list, which features some surprises, many obvious choices and surely just as many accidental omissions, is an attempt to capture the diversity and scope of Jewish moments in the film canon. Some highlight ritual, others language and still others a worldview or perspective that resonates with the shul-going, shiva-sitting, saw-you-at-Zabar’s set that’s been kicking around since Sinai.

In the coming weeks, we'll be using our Throwback Thursday posting to share some of these iconic, nostalgic scenes from films that resonated with us through the years. 

Today we take you back to 1968 when Barbra Streisand played the role of Fanny Brice in the movie version of Funny Girl. In a scene from the film, Streisand was dressed as a ballerina performing in a parody of the Swan Lake ballet.

As film critic Carrie Rickey described the scene, 

An exalted version of the ugly duckling. Barbra Streisand’s debut film reprises her stage blockbuster about vaudeville star Fanny Brice. In a scene highlighting Streisand’s triple-threat talents as a singer/dancer/comedian, she demonstrates that she is more than a swan. Behold the bird of paradise.

The lyrics that Barbra sings appear below the video clip.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

  

 #Throwback Thursday      #TBT

FANNY BRICE
What are ya gonna do? Shoot da swans? These lovelies? My swans girls?
Can't you see when you look at me
What a lovely creature is a swan- yoo-hoo!!
I'm all over fluffy white.
I wouldn't peck at you or bite
And have tiny twinkle toes to dance upon-
Oh was that good?

So you just gotta have a swan
Well you're out of luck
‘Cause a chicken wouldn't do,
It Would only cluck
And besides you couldn't say
"I saw a Chicken Lake ballet"
They would think you don't know nothin'
You are missing here a button
‘Cause a chicken's only good for consomme
Where upon, where upon,
Where upon where upon
A chicken or a duck is a mistake
When you do Swan Lake Ballet...