We finally know who will play Fanny Brice when Broadway's current Funny Girl revival goes on tour later this year: newcomer Katerina McCrimmon. Hailing from Miami and Cuban-American, McCrimmon was recently seen in the ensemble of The Light in the Piazza at New York City Center Encores! and was an understudy in Broadway's The Rose Tattoo in 2019. McCrimmon was also heavily featured in a recent edition of Playbill's Songwriter Series.
Joining her in the cast will be Grammy-winning "Don't Cry Out Loud" singer Melissa Manchester, who starred in the national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance, as Mrs. Brice, along with Stephen Mark Lukas as Nick Arnstein, Izaiah Montaque Harris as Eddie Ryan, Walter Coppage as Florenz Ziegfeld, Leah Platt as Emma and Mrs. Nadler, Christine Bunuan as Mrs. Meeker, Eileen T’Kaye as Mrs. Strakosh, and David Foley Jr. as Tom Keeney. Further casting is to be announced.
The tour is scheduled to begin with a September 9-16 run at Providence Performing Arts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, with more than 30 cities set to follow. See the full itinerary at FunnyGirlOnBroadway.com.
“Fans have adored Melissa throughout her 50-year musical career, and Katerina is a star in the making who embodies the rising stardom of Fanny," says production director Michael Mayer. "We could not be more thrilled to have this dynamic and talented duo lead the Funny Girl tour."
Funny Girl, which premiered on Broadway in 1964, features a score by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill and a book by Isobel Lennart, newly adapted by Tony winner Harvey Fierstein for this revival. The original production propelled a young Barbra Streisand to international fame; she would reprise her stage performance in the 1968 film adaptation, winning an Academy Award and a Golden Globe in the process. The biomusical tracks real-life singer and comic Fanny Brice from her humble beginnings in Brooklyn, New York, to fame and fortune onstage in the Ziegfeld Follies and as a radio and screen performer.
The production, which opened on Broadway April 24, 2022, at the August Wilson Theatre, is directed by Michael Mayer with choreography by Ellenore Scott and tap choreography by Ayodele Casel. Much of the Broadway creative team will reprise their work for the tour, including music supervisor Michael Rafter, scenic desiger David Zinn, costume designer Susan Hilferty, lighting designer Kevin Adams, sound designer Brian Ronan, and hair designer Campbell Young Associates. Joining the creative team are music director Elaine Davidson and co-sound designer Cody Spencer. 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; and additional arrangements by Carmel Dean and David Dabbon.
The touring stage management team will include production stage manager Jovon Shuck, stage manager Stacey Taylor, and assistant stage manager Mariah Young.
Funny Girl's national tour is being produced by NETworks Presentations in special arrangement with Sonia Friedman Productions, Scott Landis, and David Babani.
