Streisand & Gould at Drat! The Cat!
... a collection of articles from the 1965 opening of the Broadway musical starring Elliott Gould.
Barbra-Archives Notes:
- Drat! was directed and choreographed by Streisand's television specials director Joe Layton.
- Streisand and her husband Elliott Gould reportedly invested $750,000-$100,000 each in the show.
- Streisand's record company, Columbia Records, invested in the show, too.
- Streisand recorded two songs from the show: “He Touched Me” (sung by Gould in the show as “She Touched Me”) became a Streisand classic; and “I Like Him” was the flip-side of Streisand's single (Columbia catalog #4-43403).
- Another contributing factor to Drat's demise was that New York was in the middle of a newspaper strike and therefore Drat! had no means of advertising itself.
September 22, 1965
Barbra Streisand was ready to offer Producer Ray Stark $8,000 to close Funny Girl for one night, Oct. 9, so she could attend the opening of husband Elliott Gould's musical, Drat! The Cat! But the premiere had to be delayed one day, to Sunday, when Funny Girl is closed—so Barbra can see the show, and pocket the 8Gs.
Everything was bubbly as Funny Girl Barbra Streisand, 23, gave Husband Elliott Gould a loving kiss backstage at Broadway's Martin Beck Theater after Elliott opened in a mock Sennett musical called Drat! The Cat! Then some of those cool New York cats—the critics—spoiled the party. They decided that, while Elliott was charming enough as a simple-souled cop who falls in love with a cat burglaress, they weren't so charmed by Librettist Ira Levin's prat-falling plot. As Mrs. Gould commiserated with her husband, the producers closed the play after a six-day run.
End.
