I'm the Greatest Star

"I'm the Greatest Star" is a popular song from the 1964 musical Funny Girl, written by Bob Merrill and Jule Styne, and originally performed by Barbra Streisand in the role of Fanny Brice, first in the Broadway cast, then again in the 1968 film adaptation.

Synopsis

Fanny Brice confidently imagines herself as a future star, though at the moment she is an unknown.

Analysis

Comparing Funny Girl to Fiddler on the Roof, The Jewish Daily Forward wrote:^[1]

"If “Fiddler” presented the audience with a representation of a sympathetic yet patriarchal and traditional Jewish male, the importance of “Funny Girl” is that gave us an enduring picture of the modern American Jewish woman. Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice was strong and assertive, funny, clever, sharp, talented and independent-minded. External beauty was secondary to these qualities, or perhaps to say that Brice in “Funny Girl” did not have to compromise the way she looked or the way she dressed in order to succeed. “Who is as glamorous as? Who’s an American Beauty rose with an American Beauty nose?” Brice sings in “I’m the Greatest Star,”".

Critical reception

Talking' Broadway wrote that Brice "comes out swingin' with "I'm the Greatest Star"".^[2] The New York Times wrote "Miss Streisand imagining herself in a radiant future in "I'm the Greatest Star," an appealingly quirky song, is not only Fanny Brice but all young performers believing in their destinies".^[3] Commenting on Pia Zadora's performance in the elad role, LA Time commented "She has the requisite pluck for "I'm the Greatest Star."^[4] Commenting on a stage rendition, Musical Criticism wrote "I'm the Greatest Star' didn't pack the punch that it might have."

References