Funny Girl to Close in September; Lea Michele, Ramin Karimloo, and More Extend Run
The Broadway revival of Funny Girl will end its run at the August Wilson Theatre on Sunday, September 3 after 30 previews and 599 performances. Current stars Lea Michele, Ramin Karimloo, Jared Grimes, and Tovah Feldshuh have all extended their contracts to be with the show until the very end.
Funny Girl is written by Isobel Lennart (original book), with a score by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill. For this revival, which opened in April 2022, the book was revised by Harvey Fierstein, with Michael Mayer directing. A national tour will launch in September 2023, with casting still to be announced.
When this revival opened, the role of Fanny Brice was played by Beanie Feldstein, with Jane Lynch as Rose Brice. After a tumultuous engagement that saw largely negative reviews, a single Tony nomination (for Grimes as Eddie Ryan), and dwindling audiences, the producers released Feldstein from her contract six months early, in favor of bringing in Michele to save the floundering box office numbers (which she did). At the same time, standby Julie Benko became a star when she took on the role of Fanny for a full month over the summer of 2022, and she now plays the role once a week.
Also in the cast are Peter Francis James as Florenz Ziegfeld, Ephie Aardema as Emma/Mrs. Nadler, Debra Cardona as Mrs. Meeker, Toni DiBuono as Mrs. Strakosh, Martin Moran as Tom Keeney, and Miriam Ali, Amber Ardolino, Daniel Beeman, Colin Bradbury, Kurt Csolak, John Michael Fiumara, Leslie Donna Flesner, Candice Hatakeyama, Curtis Holland, Masumi Iwai, Aliah James, Jeremiah James, Danielle Kelsey, Stephen Mark Lukas, Alicia Lundgren, John Manzari, Liz McCartney, Connor McRory, Justin Prescott, Katie Mitchell, Mariah Reives, Barbara Tirrell, and Leslie Blake Walker,
The production features choreography by Ellenore Scott, tap choreography by Ayodele Casel, scenic design by David Zinn, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Kevin Adams, sound design by Brian Ronan, hair & wig design by Campbell Young Associates, music direction and supervision by Michael Rafter, orchestrations by Chris Walker, dance, vocal, and incidental music arrangements by Alan Williams, and additional arrangements by David Dabbon and Carmel Dean.
