It's very enervating . . .

Diana and Barbra Bill Manhoff's 1964 comedy, The Owl and the Pussycat provided the two actresses associated with the role of Doris a chance to break new ground. For Diana Sands, who originated the role on Broadway, it was an opportunity to play a character without regard to race. For Barbra Streisand, who played the part on screen, it was a chance to prove that she could carry a film without singing a note.
By appearing in their respective versions of The Owl and the Pussycat, both Barbra Streisand and Diana Sands demonstrated that they were able to meet new and challenging professional goals that greatly enhanced their careers. Each performance was a landmark in its own right. Long before the character of Doris was ever invented, Barbra Streisand and Diana Sands worked together on the New York stage. They appeared (along side Dom DeLuise and others) in a two act off-Broadway revue called Another Evening with Harry Stoones in 1961 (right). The show closed after just one performance. Sadly, Diana Sands, who is best remembered for acclaimed performances in A Raisin in the Sun (both the Broadway and film versions) succumbed to cancer in 1973. She was 39.	Barbra, Sheila Copelan, Diana Sands and Susan Belink
By the way, theatergoers who couldn't get tickets to see Funny Girl at the Winter Garden in October of 1965 could have, instead, seen the Broadway versions of Hello, Dolly!, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever or The Owl and the Pussycat. We know that Barbra saw Diana Sands perform in The Owl and the Pussycat (in London) but wonder if she ever had an opportunity to catch original productions of Dolly or Clear Day  – which she would later bring to the screen.

Growing Up Doris:
A Groundbreaking Journey
 

1964	In 1964, Bill Manhoff wrote a sophisticated, two-person comedy called The Owl and the Pussycat. The show had a three week out-of-town run in Paramus, N.J. before it's Nov. 18 Broadway opening. Including all Broadway previews, the show played a total of 427 performances at the Anta (and later) The Royale Theatres. Pussycat ran for over a year. Diana Sands received a Tony nomination for her portrayal of Doris. At the time, Bill Manhoff was best known as a TV comedy sketch writer. In fact, The Owl and the Pussycat was his only stage production. Prior to, and after Pussycat, Manhoff wrote for shows such as Leave It to Beaver, Petticoat Junction, All in the Family, The Partridge Family and Sanford and Son. He received an Emmy nomination for a 1957 episode of The Real McCoys. Seven Arts Productions, headed by one Ray Stark, became the principal backers of The Owl and the Pussycat and produced it on Broadway. Stark and Seven Arts were so confident in the appeal of The Owl and the Pussycat that they also secured the film rights, even before the stage version opened in New York. The Owl and the Pussycat was hailed by most of the major New York critics with Diana Sand's performance generating universal acclaim. The two characters, billed as "Doris W." and "F. Sherman" were portrayed by Sands and budding star, Alan Alda. A unique element  particular to this production was its interracial cast, something that was rarely done on Broadway in the sixties. It was a groundbreaking move by the producers. At the time, Diana Sands said, "This is the first Broadway play in which I was cast as a person rather than as a racial type. I love doing it. When it's over, the owl and the pussycat leave hand in hand to dance by the light of the of the moon" (a reference to the 1871 children's poem by Edward Lear which inspired the title).
1966	In 1966, Diana Sands reprised the role of Doris in London. Her co-star was British actor Anton Rodgers. Rodgers might be best known to U.S. and U.K. audiences for his appearances on the television show Upstairs, Downstairs. The Owl and the Pussycat opened on March 2 at The Criterion Theatre in the West End. One notable theatergoer lucky enough to score a ticket was Barbra Streisand. While Funny Girl was still in rehearsals (it would open on April 13), Barbra had an opportunity to check out some of her West End competition. Barbra went to see her former co-star Diana Sands in a performance of The Owl and the Pussycat on March 17. Barbra was surely unaware that, four years later, she would be lighting up the silver screen with her own version of The Owl and the Pussycat.
1970	Barbra Streisand and George Segal were not the stars Ray Stark originally wanted for the film version of The Owl and the Pussycat. When Stark acquired the film rights in 1964, he envisioned Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as Doris and Felix. Even though Stark made a rather premature announcement that Liz and Dick would star in the eventual film version of Pussycat, the dynamic power couple ultimately turned him down. Seems Mike Nichols beat Stark to the quick. Nichols signed the pair to another, more sophisticated adult drama, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - a picture that garnered Elizabeth Taylor a Best Actress Oscar in 1966. George Segal was in the the picture as well and received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor. Ray Stark had to resort to Plan B. Barbra Streisand was under contract to Stark when he began casting The Owl and the Pussycat. Barbra liked the script. More importantly, it would give her a chance to stretch her acting legs in a film that did not rely on her to sing. But Stark did want Barbra to sing in the film, specifically a ballad that would underscore a scene illustrating the estrangement between Felix and Doris. After some forceful negotiation, Barbra won out. She would not sing in The Owl and the Pussycat, allowing audiences to see, as she said, "the me that's natural and very today."  With that bothersome issue of singing out of the way, Barbra took to the role of Doris with enthusiasm. In keeping with the idea of colorless casting, Stark had hopes that Sidney Poitier might agree to play the part of Felix opposite Barbra's Doris. But it was Buck Henry, hired on to adapt the play to the screen, who suggested George Segal. Segal ultimately won the part. It's not known if Poitier was ever asked. With Streisand firmly on board, Buck Henry started making significant changes to the story. He began by moving the setting from San Francisco to New York in order to take advantage of the particular New York dynamic Barbra Streisand brought to the screen. Buck Henry explained his new screenplay this way: "Lots of stuff in it was written for Barbra's rhythms and for that ingenious New York ear and accent which lends itself to certain patterns of speech that other actresses wouldn't sound good doing." That speech pattern of Barbra's which Buck Henry so admired inspired him to give his female star some new, salty nuggets of dialogue to speak, including one line that called for Barbra to drop her first cinematic "F-Bomb" (she'd drop another one, 26 years later, in The Mirror Has Two Faces). Pussycat suddenly became controversial. That particular turn of the "F" phrase,  along with a rather spicy bedroom scene, earned The Owl and the Pussycat an R-rating. (Fearful that the film would get an "X" rating, a nude scene that was shot never made it into the final cut). Even so, some theatre owners still refused to show the "R" rated version of the picture, perhaps an early indication that Barbra was in danger of being type-cast as a musical comedy star. In one of the travesties of modern film making, director Herb Ross succumbed to industry pressures by allowing an alternate "PG" version of the film to be circulated, one that toned down some of the objectionable dialogue with re-dubs. For the official DVD release, not only has the film been toned down, but some of the dialogue has been erased altogether. Sad. With an $11 million domestic box-office take, The Owl and the Pussycat was still considered a success. While it wasn't Barbra's most profitable film, it proved to Streisand watchers and all concerned that she was "an actress who didn't have to sing." She was now bankable as a performer outside the realm of musicals. The Owl and the Pussycat established Barbra as a multifaceted actress, paving the way for her to take on more dramatic roles down the road.