Lea Michele is Breathtaking in Funny Girl
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| Lea Michele as Rachel Berry in the fifth season of the Fox hit series Glee. |
In the later seasons of Glee, Michele's character, Rachel Berry, a self-proclaimed Barbra Streisand fan, won the role in a fictional Broadway revival. Over the course of season five we got to see and hear her perform hits from the show like I Am the Greatest Star, People, Who Are You Now?, You Are Woman, I Am Man, as well the title song Don't Rain On My Parade in season one, and My Man in season two. It was apparent then, as it is now, that Michele was born for this role.
I had the pleasure of getting to go to New York for my birthday last week, and the top of my to-do list was to see Lea on Broadway. Since departing Spring Awakening in 2008, she hasn't graced the Broadway stage with the exception of a one-night only Spring Awakening charity concert last November, which reunited the original cast. The concert was the subject of the HBO Max documentary Spring Awakening: Those You've Known, which proved that Michele's voice is as stellar as it ever was. Fortunately, I was able to procure tickets through a secondhand market for the two o'clock performance on my birthday, could it be any better?
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| Lea Michele brings the house down in the signature song, "Don't Rain On My Parade." |
As soon as Lea walked onto stage and uttered the iconic "Hello Gorgeous," I knew that this would be an experience that I would never forget. Even though Funny Girl is hardly a favorite of mine, I was held in rapt attention as I got the privilege of seeing a true performer own the role in a way that few could, especially with such big shoes to fill. Obviously, Barbra Streisand's interpretation of Fanny in both the original Broadway production as well as the film adaption is legendary and will remembered forever, but Lea Michele's iteration is pure perfection. Her live rendition of Don't Rain on My Parade, the act one closer, was so amazing that she had to pause for the ear shattering applause and standing ovations she was receiving. My favorite thing about her performance is that she made it her own instead of just doing a great impression of Barbra.
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| Lea Michele as Fanny Brice and Ramin Karimloo as Nick Arnstein in "You Are Woman, I Am Man." |
The rest of the cast was phenomenal as well. Ramin Karimloo, who plays Fanny's love interest Nick Arnstein oozed sex appeal, and his sultry voice was like a whole-body massage. In one scene, he walks on stage with his bathrobe open, fully displaying his chiseled pecs and rock-hard abs. Not to objectify him, but he is one hot guy; the fact that he has the voice of an angel only makes him even better. I wish I'd have gotten the opportunity to see him as The Phantom or Raoul in Phantom of the Opera and its short-lived sequel Love Never Dies, as Jean Valjean, Enjolras, or Marius Pontmercy in Les Miserables, or as Gleb in the original cast of Anastasia on Broadway. His star power perfectly matched Michele's, giving us a couple with intense, believable chemistry.
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| Tovah Feldshuh as Mrs. Brice and Lea Michele as Fanny Brice. |
Another cast member that wowed me was Tovah Feldshuh as Fanny's mother, Mrs. Brice. Sadly, I had not heard of her before Funny Girl, but I will definitely be checking out her work after her performance. My only prior experience with Funny Girl was limited to the film adaption where the role of Mrs. Brice is minimized exponentially from the stage version. As funny as Lea was as Fanny, Tovah stole the show in several scenes as her witty, acerbic mother.
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| Lea Michele and the company during the final bows. |
I was sad when the show was over, because I was completely mesmerized by the performances. Sadly, this was my first time seeing a legitimate Broadway play; I've seen Rent on tour three times, Dear Evan Hansen on tour once, and Wicked in Chicago once. None of these prepared me for the utter joy of what I was about to encounter. I was hoping to get to see either Six or Moulin Rouge! also while we were there, but time did not allow for that. Still, I'm glad I went with Funny Girl. Lea definitely did not disappoint and missing the show would have been an egregious sin.
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| Lea Michele doing stage door autographs |
I had seen on a Glee fan page on Facebook that Lea was doing stage door after the show, so I bought a window card and tried to get in line with the hundreds of other fans lined up by the door. In my heart, I was thinking that she probably wouldn't do stage door for the afternoon performance since she had about two and half hours before she had to be back for that evening's eight o'clock performance. We were quickly told that she would not be coming out, because she had to do an interview between shows. I was disappointed but understood. As fate would have it, we were wandering around the city later that night and stopped in to see if we could get an extra playbill since one of ours got soaked. The lovely lady at the door gave us several playbills and told us to come back around ten and we'd be first in line at the stage door. We happily obliged. We waited almost two hours, but at almost eleven, the stage door opened and out came Lea. She smiled and said, "Hi, guys!" It was obvious how flattered she was. The signing was quick, but I understand that she had been at the theater all day and was probably dying to get home to her toddler, Ever.
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| She signed my window card! |
I highly recommend this production. If it's possible for you to go, then go see it! You definitely won't regret it. Lea doesn't do Thursday night performances, but her alternate, Julie Benko is amazing in her own right and deserves every bit of recognition that she gets.
Last but certainly not least, I hope that Barbra is proud of this production and the impact that she has had on so many in the theater, music, and film worlds.
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