“It’s going to be sort of like a reopening, in a sense,” Michele tells me of her Funny Girl premiere. She cites new songs and arrangements, but the real thirst—and spiking ticket prices—is for Michele’s new Brice.
“I think that a lot of people might have had an idea of how I would be playing Fanny based on some of the things I did on Glee, but this character is a combination of everything that I’ve learned in my life,” she says. She has become inextricably linked with her Glee alter-ego, the Tracy Flick-ian striver Rachel Berry, but Michele also sees glimmers of herself in Brice’s constant, propulsive motion.
“I’ve always found Fanny to be this ball of energy,” she says, speaking in her signature velvety voice. “It definitely resonates with me, a version of my younger self, that just had this endless drive—very Rachel Berry.” In Brice’s Act I youth, however, Michele promises hints of awkwardness and shyness.
Precious few women have embodied Fanny Brice on Broadway: Streisand, who originated the role as a newcomer in 1964; Feldstein; standby Julie Benko, Feldstein’s interim replacement, who will continue to play Brice on Thursdays; and understudy Ephie Aardema. “I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Beanie and Julie play Fannie, and everyone has their own individual version,” Michele says. “Beanie’s so hilarious. Julie’s so incredible.”
Michele’s praise for Feldstein could be interpreted as a tacit rejection of the Twitter narrative that imagines her as Feldstein’s enemy, relishing in her tepid reviews. Michele declined to discuss being pit against Feldstein, pointing me instead to a recent People interview in which she revealed she had written Feldstein a letter after seeing her in Funny Girl.
Why didn’t Michele get the role of Brice when the Funny Girl revival was first cast? “I don’t really know. You’ll have to ask the producers,” she says. She laughs heartily before quickly recovering her composure.“I don’t know when that was all decided.”
Mayer told The New York Times that Michele “was at the top of the list for Brice,” but she and her husband, businessman Zandy Reich, had only recently welcomed a son, Ever, in August 2020, and Mayer “sensed she would not be ready to return to work.” Around the same time, in June 2020, former Glee co-stars Samantha Ware, Heather Morris, and Amber Riley accused Michele, explicitly and implicitly, of mistreating fellow cast members on set. Michele subsequently released an apology on Instagram, saying she “clearly acted in ways which hurt other people.”
For all the latest fasion News Click Here
