“This was my dream come true,” Lea Michele gushed from the stage Sunday after her final performance in “Funny Girl,” the Broadway revival that the actress breathed new life into when the future looked bleak a year ago.
Michele’s sudden entry into the production, which ended with her star’s departure, extended the run to nearly 600 performances and allowed her to recoup her capitalization costs – far from a guarantee on Broadway. At Sunday’s matinee, the actress reveled in the show’s success, receiving seven standing ovations, including for the haunting barnburner “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and the thoughtful ballad “People.”
“I was truly given the greatest gift that exceeded that dream, and that was the unconditional true love and support of this cast who worked so, so, so hard,” Michele added. “When I walked in, I was embraced with open arms.”
Just as Michele was reversing the show’s fortunes, Funny Girl seemed to have reversed its fortunes. Three years ago, Michele’s fame was tarnished by a wave of criticism of bullying behavior and prima donna attitudes. Since landing the lead role in the show, Michele has been reprising the role of an acclaimed Broadway star, announcing Tony nominations, appearing on late-night shows and booking a solo concert at Carnegie Hall this fall.
At her final show at the August Wilson Theater, Michele treated the audience to an additional song, “My Man,” which features lyrics from an original by Fanny Brice, the groundbreaking Jewish entertainer whose life is the basis for the musical.
Although the song was not part of the score in any of the Broadway productions, the show’s original star, Barbra Streisand, sang it at the end of her final performance in 1965 and then in the 1968 film adaptation.
Michele said the song has been an important theme to her since she sang it on the television series “Glee.” “My Man” in the series is dedicated to a character played by Cory Monteith, who Michele dated both on television and in real life. Monteith, who struggled with substance abuse, died in 2013 from a combination of heroin and alcohol.
“The whole thing about life imitating life, art imitating life really touches me,” said Richard Gruber, who saw Michele in “Funny Girl” seven times and sat in the second row of the theater at Sunday’s performance .
Gruber, 69, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, flew in Sunday morning for the final performance and flew back Sunday evening.
“I just find them captivating,” Gruber said, holding a white rose that the production gave to audience members at the front of the house to throw at the curtain call.
Over the years, theater producers have struggled to revive “Funny Girl” because of its inextricable ties to Streisand, who was 21 when the original production first premiered on Broadway. (Streisand is not known to have attended any performances of the revival.)
Streisand has long been an idol for Michele, who started as a child actress on Broadway, rose to prominence as the lead in “Spring Awakening” and rose to household name on “Glee” as an uptight but talented high school glee club member. In a mix of television and reality, Michelle’s character Rachel Berry landed the role of Brice, and Michele performed several songs from the musical on the show.
Michele had long been discussed as an option for a revival of “Funny Girl,” but the series’ director, Michael Mayer, who directed Michele in “Spring Awakening,” said last year that he sensed she wasn’t ready to work to return after the birth of their child. Actress Beanie Feldstein was cast in the role, but when the show debuted in spring 2022, it received mediocre reviews. The series received a Tony nomination for Jared Grimes, who plays Brice’s dance coach and sidekick.
When Feldstein exited the show earlier than expected, Michele was tapped to replace her, sparking a flurry of press attention, social media debate and, after she made her debut, rave reviews that boosted ticket sales. A tour with Katerina McCrimmon begins Saturday in Providence, Rhode Island
With “Funny Girl,” Michele made her first appearance in a Broadway cast in 15 years. She hinted that the next gap won’t be that big. The actress told Variety that she has already booked her next job, hinting that it is a show that she expects people to recognize her from, but this is very different to the one she brought me back to Broadway.