(upbeat music)
- Hello gorgeous.
It's the first ever Broadway revival of Funny Girl
since it debuted nearly 60 years ago.
The role of Fanny Brice made famous by Barbra Streisand,
now the part belongs to Beanie Feldstein.
Let's send it out to Charlie Cooper.
- Thanks Tamsen.
Then Fanny Brice is a longtime dream role for Beanie.
We sat down here at The Skylark to chat all about it.
(audience cheering)
So excited to have you here.
- I'm so excited to be here.
- This is the first revival of Funny Girl in 60 years.
This is huge.
Essentially, you have the titular role.
Talk to me about how that feels.
- It feels surreal.
I mean, that's really the only way to describe it, it's like
something that I've loved my literally my entire life
and I've always idolized
and has always been a part of who I am
kind of how I grew up and, and all of it.
And then, so there's like this childhood side of it,
where it's like, you know, just my first love
really was this was this story,
but then as an adult, it's like getting to be in this room
with this group of people, with this creative team,
it's been a really special experience with them
and with our company
and we have like nine onstage Broadway debuts
I think 22 people in the building
making their Broadway debuts.
So there's just like,
it's a real beautiful energy - Yeah.
- at the August Wilson right now.
- What drew you to that?
Like just Funny Girl in general
as a kid. - Yeah. I mean, I was two so
(woman laughing)
I'm just reaching here really for the answer.
But I think her ambition, I think,
you know, Fanny, the character of Fanny Brice
and the person that was Fanny Brice
she was just unrelenting, unapologetic,
of just like I know I can do this.
Like get outta my way, give me the opportunity,
open the door for me.
I can, I am a star.
I can, you know, I can be this person
you don't believe I can be.
And I think that's kind of intoxicating
even as like a little tiny girl,
I was like,
(Beanie gasping)
that energy of, I am, you know, in her words,
the greatest star, I can do this.
I can, just let me be myself
and kind of never change for anyone else.
I think that might have been, that might have been it.
- Talk to me 'cause I know you kind of mentioned
or alluded to so many people making
their Broadway debuts in the building.
What's that energy feel like
and like just being on stage with each other?
- It's the greatest,
I mean we have two girls in the company, Mariah and Masu
who cry every almost every day
and I'm crying along with them
because I remember when I was doing Hello, Dolly! like
and even, even now with Funny Girl,
there's not a minute that you take for granted
because when we all in this room know
when you grow up loving theater,
it's this powerful, palpable thing
and at the end of it's Broadway.
You just dream of this constantly
- You've done a lot of different roles
that have been incredibly captivating,
Booksmart, Hello, Dolly!.
What does this particular role mean to you?
- You know, I think if there's one sort of
maybe through line across different characters,
different women I've been lucky enough to play,
whether it's in something like Booksmart
or playing Monica Lewinsky, like you know,
completely different energies and narratives,
I think that I've played a lot of unapologetic women.
And I think that is kind of
one of my greatest gifts in my career
and Fanny is like the pinnacle.
I believe that she as you know, the real person
that was Fanny Brice, if there's any Jewish woman
that gets to be on a stage and perform
and be herself and make people laugh and sing,
it's because of Fanny Brice,
Bette, Barbra, Sarah Silverman, any of us
like we could just be traced back to Fanny 'cause she just
broke through so many glass ceilings
and really forced her way into rooms and onto stages
that weren't built for her
that she was trying to be kept out of.
And so to get to play a woman like that,
to honor a woman like that,
that is just it's, you know remarkable.
- How do you make the role your own?
- Well, as Fanny says, you can only, I mean,
when you're a bagel on a plate full of onion rolls,
you just are, like, I just,
and you know there's many types of bagels.
Maybe the person who played it before me,
the queen is sesame, I'm an onion,
you know like we can all be our own flavor of of bagel
and maybe Fanny herself was like a pumpernickel
or a cinnamon raisin, who knows.
(bright music)