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- The Broadway Show is back with another stellar episode,
I'm Tamsen Fadal.
The Broadway revival of Funny Girl
opens on Broadway in April
and its star-studded cast for sure
led by Beanie Feldstein,
five-time Emmy winner Jane Lynch
and Tony and Olivier Award nominee Ramin Karimloo.
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Let's send it out to Paul Wontorek.
- Thanks Tamsen,
Ramin Karimloo will take on the iconic leading man role
of Nick Arnstein opposite Beanie Feldstein
in the spring's hotly anticipated revival of Funny Girl.
We met up in the heart of Times Square to talk all about it.
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People have literally been waiting
for Funny Girl to play Broadway ever since 1964
when it first opened at the Winter Garden Theatre up there.
- [Ramin] Yeah.
- Barbra Streisand and Sydney Chaplin.
It has never been back on Broadway,
there have been many attempts to bring it back to Broadway
and now it's finally coming and you're in it.
- That's crazy and I feel.
I didn't take it for granted,
but it was, it would really dawn on me
how important this show is to New York City.
Like this is part of your culture,
this is part of like a coming of age for many people.
It was their,
they grew up with it.
So there's a real nostalgia,
but also this is gonna be,
this generation's Funny Girl.
So I think it's gonna marry both worlds
and bring the story back
and it's got so much heart,
Beanie Feldstein is phenomenal
and it, an absolute joy to work with every day as well.
- I feel like one of the reasons
why we haven't seen Funny Girl on Broadway
in all these years,
almost 60 years is the Barbra Streisand thing.
This show made Barbra Streisand a star.
This is a legendary performance
and it's always been kind of like,
who's gonna take this on?
And Beanie Feldstein sort of came into our conscience
in the last few years.
Everyone's sort of fallen in love with her.
What's it like in the rehearsal room?
- As they say, it works from the top down
and she's a great leader
and she is a phenomenal Fanny Brice
but she's gonna be even better.
- Hello gorgeous.
- Nicky Arnstein, Nicky Arnstein
- I love it.
- I mean that's like iconic that's Barbra Streisand
and we all know those words,
that's you now.
Of course, we also talk about Omar Sharif
who played the role in the film.
- [Ramin] Yeah.
- Egyptian actor.
So it kind of has a link to Middle Eastern
handsome dudes like you.
- Well, listen, your words not mine and I
(Paul laughing)
those are big shoes that fill as well.
Omar Sharif's a ridiculously amazing actor.
But again, you just take one day at a time,
serve the piece as best as possible.
We got a amazing (indistinct)
Jane Lynch, Jared Grimes, this company is
- [Paul] Yeah.
- [Ramin] Like when Jared dances, I'm like
- [Paul] Oh my god, yeah.
- He's got this thing about,
he makes it look so effortless,
that it almost makes you think, oh yeah, it looks easy.
I can do that.
And you think, wait a minute, how are you doing all this?
He's, he makes me want to dance.
I'll put it that way.
- You have a lot of great stuff to do
with Beanie in this show.
The relationship between Fanny and Nick Arnstein,
her real husband.
- Yeah.
- Real guy, this is a real story
fraught with drama and romance, high emotions.
It's quite a story.
- Yeah. It's bittersweet, heartbreaking love story.
I remember when we did our first cold read,
we're getting choked up by the end.
I was like,
I don't know why I didn't anticipate this.
What was happening with this relationship
and the sort of where they start
at the beginning of the show to where they end,
is quite a journey and it's heartbreaking.
- Yeah, you're gonna break Beanie's heart every night
and we're all gonna be watching.
- Well,
without it, there's no story.
(laughing)
- So this is a revised book by Harvey Fierstein,
- [Ramin] Yeah.
- [Paul] Michael Mayer's the director
and there's new choreography by Ellenore Scott
and Ayodele Casel.
- Yeah.
- So this is really a new Funny Girl.
It's an opportunity to take a classic
and look at it with fresh eyes.
- Absolutely and with Ayodele bringing in that tap world,
it's a whole different, they're different cats, man.
These are the cream of the crop and seeing what they do,
it's, there's gonna be so much in the show
that stops the show and everyone shines
and everyone brings their A game like
their star power as their skills.
It's crazy to see in the room to experience it.
Then I think, what am I gonna offer?
( Ramin laughing)
- And the scores pretty fantastic.
- Yeah. It's a whole new world for me singing
that sort of jazzy swing.
- [Paul] Yeah.
- It's not in my wheelhouse, which is great
because every day I'm finding new things as a singer
but there's some new stuff
we're creating and adding
again, I didn't realize was gonna be in the show
and is there's a lot more singing,
- [Paul] Oh
- than since day one. So I'll put it that way.
- You didn't have the same background that a lot
of the musical theater performers on Broadway have,
it feels like you kind of came here on a roundabout path.
- Yeah. Like I was born in Iran.
We escaped cause of the revolution in 78,
moved to Italy and then from Italy,
as refugees went to Canada
and started life there, hard work and parents.
So I was brought up like a
what you call a typical Canadian kid back in the day,
hockey, everything was sports.
I was a bit rough around the edges.
I'd fight a little more and I should be fighting.
And I got suspended for a year of fighting
from my hockey team in high school.
And at that point I saw Phantom of The Opera and I
it was the first time I felt a lump in my throat.
Didn't know what these emotions were.
I thought, I don't know what I'm experiencing here
but I like it low and behold, I started getting
into Phantom more and I kept listening to it.
I'd skip school to go watch it.
Don't skip school, go to school, stay in school.
I'd skip school to watch Phantom of The Opera.
And I'd start meeting the actors
and I'd be asking questions and then
at this point I'm into like the De Niro, Pacino Brando,
all these like the studio actors,
started reading books on acting.
I think I want to do this. I wanna be the phantom.
And then my friend was giving me grief about it.
Like gimme a bit of rib.
I said, I bet you I'll become the Phantom.
Made a bet at 16.
And at 26 I phone him.
I said, guess what.
(Paul laughing)
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