\u201cThat was my dream come true,\u201d Lea Michele gushed from the stage on Sunday after her final performance in \u201cFunny Girl,\u201d the Broadway revival that the actress breathed new life into when its future looked grim one year ago.<\/p>\n
Michele\u2019s sudden addition to the production, which closed with its star\u2019s exit, stretched its run to nearly 600 performances and allowed it to recoup its capitalization costs \u2014 far from a guarantee on Broadway. At Sunday\u2019s matinee, the actress basked in the show\u2019s success, and received seven standing ovations, including for the insistent barn burner \u201cDon\u2019t Rain on My Parade\u201d and the reflective ballad \u201cPeople.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was truly given the greatest gift that surpassed this dream and that was the unconditional true love and support from this cast, who has worked so, so, so hard,\u201d Michele added. \u201cI was embraced with open arms the minute I came in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just as Michele reversed the show\u2019s fortunes, \u201cFunny Girl\u201d appeared to have reversed hers. Three years ago, Michele\u2019s celebrity had been clouded by a wave of criticism over bullying behavior and a prima donna attitude. Since she stepped in as the show\u2019s lead, Michele has reassumed the role of a celebrated Broadway star, announcing Tony nominees, performing on late-night shows and booking a solo concert this fall at Carnegie Hall.<\/p>\n
At her final show at the August Wilson Theater, Michele gave the audience an extra song: \u201cMy Man,\u201d which includes lyrics from an original performed by Fanny Brice, the pioneering Jewish entertainer whose life is the basis for the musical.<\/p>\n
Although the song was not part of the score in either Broadway production, the show\u2019s original star, Barbra Streisand, sang it at the end of her final performance in 1965 and then in the 1968 film adaptation.<\/p>\n
Michele has said that the song has been an important one to her since she sang it on the television series \u201cGlee.\u201d A belter about devotion to a man despite him being a constant disappointment, \u201cMy Man\u201d was dedicated in the series to a character played by Cory Monteith, who Michele dated both on TV and in real life. Monteith, who had struggled with substance abuse, died of a combination of heroin and alcohol in 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole thing with life imitating art imitating life really gets me,\u201d said Richard Gruber, who saw Michele in \u201cFunny Girl\u201d seven times and was seated in the theater\u2019s second row at the performance on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Gruber, 69, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., flew in Sunday morning for the final performance and had a return flight Sunday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just find her riveting,\u201d Gruber said, clutching a white rose that the production gave audience members at the front of the house to toss at curtain call.<\/p>\n
Over the years, theater producers had trouble reviving \u201cFunny Girl\u201d because of its inextricable association with Streisand, who was 21 when the original production first opened on Broadway. (Streisand is not known to have attended any performances of the revival.)<\/p>\n
Streisand has long been an idol to Michele, who started as a child actress on Broadway, became a known entity as a lead in \u201cSpring Awakening\u201d and rose to become a household name in \u201cGlee\u201d as an uptight but talented high school glee club member. In a blending of TV and reality, Michele\u2019s character, Rachel Berry, landed the role of Brice, and Michele performed several of the musical\u2019s songs on the show.<\/p>\n
Michele had long been discussed as an option for a \u201cFunny Girl\u201d revival, but the show\u2019s director, Michael Mayer, who has directed Michele in \u201cSpring Awakening,\u201d said last year that he had sensed that she was not ready to return to work after the birth of her child. The actress Beanie Feldstein was cast in the role, but she drew middling reviews when the show opened in spring 2022. It received one Tony nomination, for Jared Grimes, who portrays Brice\u2019s dance coach and sidekick.<\/p>\n
When Feldstein bowed out of the show earlier than expected, Michele was tapped to replace her, fueling a flood of press attention, social media debate and, once she made her debut, rave reviews that bolstered ticket sales. A tour, featuring Katerina McCrimmon, starts on Saturday in Providence, R.I.<\/p>\n
With \u201cFunny Girl,\u201d Michele made her first appearance in a Broadway cast in 15 years. She has indicated that the next gap won\u2019t be so significant. The actress told Variety that she has already booked her next job, hinting that it is a show she expects people will recognize, but that is very different from the one that drew her back to Broadway.<\/p>\n