(upbeat music)
- It's all about the best and brightest of Broadway
each and every week here on The Broadway Show.
I'm Tamsen Fadal.
I'm so glad to have you with us.
We're talking about Funny Girl, 2.0.
Lea Michele is starring as Fanny Brice
if you haven't heard.
Six standing ovations on her first night
in the part on Broadway.
Let's send it out to Paul Wontorek.
- A little over a year ago. - [Lea] Yep.
- I saw you in the dead of summer,
Broadway was not back yet. - [Lea] Right.
- You talked about your desire to come back to Broadway.
Here we are.
I can't believe only a year has passed
and you are now having this huge Broadway moment
starring in Funny Girl.
What a journey. - [Lea] I know.
- Did you see this happening at that point?
- No. (chuckling)
I didn't. (both chuckle)
- Yeah, I mean, it's wild.
A year ago I had just moved back to the city with my family.
I was still really in the thick of being a new mom,
and embracing that,
and embracing living back in New York again.
And now here we are a year later.
I mean, we were outside of the Eugene O'Neill Theater,
and I knew about the Spring Awakening reunion,
but I don't think I could say anything to you at the time.
And then just a few months later
when we did our concert
and I stood on the, you know,
the chair at the top of the show,
that's when I just felt this deep, deep, deep desire
that was there,
but it came to life at that moment,
and I said,
"I just would love to be back on the stage again."
- I mean, we've known about your love of this role forever,
and Rachel Berry's love of this role, obviously.
- Yes.
- You did this on Glee.
♪ Don't tell me not to fly. ♪
♪ I've simply got to ♪
♪ If someone takes a spill, it's me and not you ♪
♪ Who told you you're allowed to rain on my parade? ♪
- So it's very meta.
- Yeah. - For all of us.
Is it also for you?
You just talk about you doing Funny Girl
on Broadway for years.
- Yeah, Funny Girl has been a part of my life
in so many phases of my life.
You know, Michael Mayer told me to watch the movie in 2006,
when I was going through a breakup.
I was in Spring Awakening and that's when I first--
- Oh, wow. - [Leah] Yeah.
- Interesting.
- That's how I watched Funny Girl for the first time.
And then obviously, you know,
with the storyline that Rachel had
it was a huge part of my life when I was living in LA,
and when I was on the television show.
And now here again at 36.
So this role has been a part of my life
throughout so many different seasons.
But I've never felt more prepared, more ready,
to play this part than I do now.
- Well, that's the thing,
sometimes dreams get delayed for the right reason.
Right?
And things happen to you at the perfect time.
- Yeah.
And I was very content when when we decided to not do it
in 2014,
I was really okay.
I played the part so much on Glee and sang the songs.
And so I felt very at peace with it.
But I,
it really was when I did the Spring Awakening reunion,
again, that I just felt this extreme desire to perform.
- I don't know if you know,
but everyone's talking about this,
the fact that you are in Funny Girl on Broadway.
I mean, I can tell you in my personal life,
people who don't even follow theater,
everyone I see has asked me about you
being in Funny--
I mean, you are doing this under a microscope.
Does it feel that way?
And this is probably a first for you.
Cause when you were last on Broadway, Spring Awakening,
you were still-- - Yeah.
- Up and coming, Lea Michele.
- I'm loving living in the bubble
that is the safe home and space of this theater
and this cast.
If I did not know
and feel the support that I have from everyone,
this would be very scary for me.
But I've been rehearsing with everyone for a while now.
The cast who works so hard,
has given so much of their extra time
to be there for me
and to help me feel as prepared as I can be for this,
you know, experience.
That's where my head is at. - Yeah.
- I think if I think too much about the magnitude of this,
it could be quite, quite scary.
- Well, and this might say a lot,
I just had to explain to Ramin what a Gleek is.
- Oh my God, I know.
- Which says a lot.
- He said a second ago, he was like
"I think I should watch Glee."
I was like, "My husband's never seen Glee.
You don't have to watch Glee."
It's totally fine.
- But that says a lot
about the environment that you're actually working in.
You're working with theater artists
on creating a role instead of like
this anticipation of Lea Michele coming, you know,
with the baggage of being known as Lea Michele
and coming to do a show.
You're just able to work on the show.
- Yeah, completely.
But it is, you know,
when Ryan Murphy came to see my first night,
and he was so emotional.
And I really believe that there is, you know,
for me, I can't disregard, you know,
how much Glee has played a part in all of this.
Ryan did bring, you know,
"Don't Rain On My Parade" to that generation.
Our song was number six
on the iTunes charts when I sang it then.
And here we are now.
So it's really just such a full circle moment
in so many ways.
- Like you said, you've performed many of the songs,
we've heard you sing a lot of the songs.
You've sort of lived with the idea of doing this role
for a long time.
- Yeah. - But actually doing it.
What is it like actually being on that stage
doing it beat for beat?
Like, what's different about that experience?
- It's completely different.
Ryan said to me on Tuesday after the show, he said,
"I knew Act One Fanny, but I don't know, Act Two Fanny".
And I said, that's so funny
because I've always known act one Fanny:
the ambition, the drive, the energy, the blinders.
I've always connected to that.
But now having lived my life and having loss and heartbreak,
deep love, marriage, and a child,
life's ups and downs,
it's all of those experiences
that I'm now bringing to this opportunity and this role.
So it's completely different.
It's different singing these songs live on a stage
than in a recording studio.
And it's completely different singing them as Fanny.
And it being in her shoes, not Rachel playing Fanny,
or singing them in a concert.
- Yeah.
- And then also having, you know, Ramin,
and Tovah, and Jared,
and the entire rest of the cast to play off of
to bring this story to life.
- [Paul] Yeah.
- Singing the songs is one thing, it's thrilling.
It's incredible as a singer to be able
to just plant your feet and sing these songs
that are in my mind some of the greatest
musical theater songs in the world.
But to bring this story to life also...
I'm literally having the time of my life.
What I'm able to create with Ramin every night,
I think bringing this love story to life, Fanny and Nick,
and getting to sing with him,
it's incredible.
- So maybe Act One Fanny, is sort of
what the Glee fans are gonna come in
sort of ready for,
the act two is really what you really put your life into.
- Absolutely, yeah. - And your experiences,
I love that.
- That's a great way of putting it.
- You know, I asked Ramin what it was like to romance you.
And he said, "I don't know,
ask her what it's like to romance me."
(both laugh)
- It's easy. - Are you having fun?
(both laugh)
- He's wonderful.
I haven't felt this level of trust
since working with Jonathan.
In order to deliver an honest and truthful performance,
you have to have a co-star and a partner
that you know is just going to catch you,
and is gonna go there.
Even in rehearsals, you know,
Ramin would just deliver a level of emotion
in the performance with me
that was so real and true.
And he challenges me to constantly go there.
And I know we're going to just continue to--
- Yeah.
- To just have this relationship grow
and have people see Fanny and Nick.
- You know, I met you when you were still a teenager.
- [Lea] Yeah.
- And it makes me wonder,
were you like act one Fanny?
Were you sort of like, "Hey, look at me"?
Did you have that energy and that fire?
- Oh, completely.
I mean, you know, I got into a car crash
on the way to my Glee audition
and I still stormed into the audition,
pulled the glass out of my hair,
and I was like, "I'm getting this job today."
Fanny would do the exact same thing.
And that's something that I really wanted
when I saw the production
and I spoke to Michael
about things that I wanted to change.
Like, "Greatest Star" was really important to me to,
you know, change the movement
and have Fanny climb on the piano and jump around,
because in order for me to express my extreme desire
and determination,
I have to do that totally physically.
So I very much have, you know, can relate to that.
I'm a little older now, as Fanny says.
(both laugh)
- So I actually had to, you know, remember
that feeling of being, you know, just young
and desperate,
and looking at everyone
like how she says to Nick,
"So you're someone I should know?",
you know, are you gonna help me?
Are you gonna get me to the next place in my career?
- I remember specifically having a conversation with you
where you were supposed to do Eponine in Les Miz.
And you were like,
"I'm gonna do Spring Awakening on Broadway"
and the timing,
like, you had to sort of choose your path.
- I know, everyone told me "Don't do Spring Awakening."
"You know, Les Miz is a sure hit
and you're gonna play Eponine."
And I was like,
"I've been doing Spring Awakening since I'm 14.
I can't not see this through."
And funny enough,
I was living with Gideon Glick at the time,
and I got the call that I was gonna be Eponine.
And when I got the call
that I was gonna play Fanny Brice on Broadway,
Gideon just so happened to be walking down the street,
saw me on the phone, crying on the phone,
knew that I must be getting the call and snapped a picture.
And so he happened to be with me
the last two Broadway shows.
I've gotta keep him around me a little bit.
- That's crazy.
Gideon Glick, this is your weapon.
- Yeah, exactly.
- I know you had talent from the beginning,
as a child actress.
I mean, you've always sort of had this talent.
But did you ever have to have those moments that Fanny has
of sort of like, "No, hey, look at me"
like, "Pay attention to me."
Like, did you have to sort of ever like,
"Hey Mr. Ziegfeld, Mr. Producer."
- Here I am?
- [Paul] Yeah.
- I think for me, you know, it was hard.
I was doing theater,
and I wanted to branch out into television,
but there was really no one that ever,
you know, I couldn't find where I fit in there.
- Yeah.
- You know, luckily it was Ryan who created Rachel Berry,
and he molded the character for me.
That's why I fell in love with Barbra Streisand.
Because I saw someone that looked like me,
who acted like me,
and who was, you know, funny and awkward
but still beautiful.
I think if it wasn't for Glee
and Ryan giving me that chance,
you know, I don't know if I would've ever been able
to break out into that, you know, part of this business.
- Yeah.
Thank you, Ryan Murphy - Right.
- This role,
it was your dream role.
It was Beanie Feldstein's dream role.
It was Rachel Berry's dream role.
What is it about,
and Tovah just said,
that she thinks it is the greatest--
- It is. - The greatest role.
- It is.
It's the greatest role.
It has everything.
It has the drive.
It has the arc.
it has the power and the tenacity,
and the songs.
And the most incredible arc,
as I just said, of a character that you see,
you follow her along in this journey.
You root for her.
And anyone,
Beanie, Julie, Barbra,
who has climbed the mountain of Mount Everest
that is Fanny Brice,
is one of the most fearless women on this earth,
because it is such a hard role.
And I give anyone
who has done this so much credit.
You know, when I came into the dressing room
and Beanie had left a little something on the mirror
that just said "Brave."
And I was like, that's it,
you just have to be so brave to play this part,
because it's a mountain.
But as a performer,
I mean, I've been blessed in my life
to have played some really incredible
strong female characters.
Wendla, Rachel Berry.
And to add Fanny to the list it's a great, great honor.
(emotional piano music)