Lea Michele and the company of Funny Girl will implore you to not rain on their Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade when they perform the rousing act one finale number November 24 during the televised holiday tradition.
Playbill was on hand when the company rehearsed their number outside Macy's in Herald Square. Get a sneak peek at the upcoming performance below, which features new choreography. In the show, Michele usually performs "Don't Rain On My Parade" solo on stage. For the parade, the ensemble is now dancing around Michele, making the former solo song a big group number.
@playbill Watch @leamichele and the cast of @FUNNY GIRL rehearse for The Macy’s Thanksgiving day Parade! #theatretok🎭 #leamichele #funnygirlbroadway #broadway #fypage ♬ original sound - playbill
The entire parade, featuring performances from Broadway's Funny Girl, A Beautiful Noise, Some Like It Hot, and The Lion King, will air from NYC on NBC and stream on Peacock November 24 beginning at 9 AM in all time zones. Get a backstage look at the Broadway performances by following @Playbill on Instagram; Funny Girl's Amber Ardolino and Some Like It Hot's Adrianna Hicks will be taking over our feed, showing what happens before and after the performances seen on TV.
Funny Girl, playing at Broadway's August Wilson Theatre, currently stars Michele as Fanny Brice, Tovah Feldshuh as Rosie Brice, Ramin Karimloo as Nick Arnstein, 2022 Tony nominee Jared Grimes as Eddie Ryan, Peter Francis James as Florenz Ziegfeld, Ephie Aardema as Mrs. Nadler, Debra Cardona as Mrs. Meeker, Toni DiBuono as Mrs. Strakosh, and Martin Moran as Tom Keeney.
The ensemble features Amber Ardolino, Daniel Beeman, Kurt Csolak, Leslie Donna Flesner, Afra Hines, Masumi Iwai, Aliah James, Stephen Mark Lukas, John Thomas Manzari, Katie Mitchell, Justin Prescott, Mariah Reives, and Leslie Blake Walker. Rounding out the company are standbys Liz McCartney and Jeremiah James and swings Colin Bradbury, John Michael Fiumara, Danielle Kelsey, and Alicia Lundgren.
Featuring music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Bob Merrill, Broadway's current revival of Funny Girl features a revised book penned by Harvey Fierstein, adapting Isobel Lennart's original. The biomusical tells the story of real-life singer and comic Fanny Brice from her humble beginnings in Brooklyn, New York to fame and fortune as a star of the Ziegfeld Follies. The original 1964 production propelled a young Barbra Streisand to international fame; she reprised her stage performance in the 1968 film adaptation, winning an Academy Award and a Golden Globe in the process.
The production is directed by Michael Mayer with choreography by Ellenore Scott, tap choreography by Ayodele Casel, music supervision and direction by Michael Rafter, scenic design by David Zinn, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Kevin Adams, sound design by Brian Ronan, and hair design by Campbell Young Associates. Casting is by Jim Carnahan and Jason Thinger. The production also includes orchestrations by Chris Walker; dance, vocal, and incidental music arrangements by Alan Williams; additional arrangements by Carmel Dean and David Dabbon; music coordination by Seymour Red Press and Kimberlee Wertz; and vocal supervision by Liz Caplan.