Ryan Murphy Intent on Teaming with Lea Michele for FUNNY GIRL Broadway Revival

Lea Michele may be leading a Broadway revival of FUNNY GIRL on GLEE, but the proposed plans of her taking the role to the actual Great White Way seem to be gaining traction.

As previously reported, Ryan Murphy has secured the rights to the beloved stage show, and plans on mounting a revival in the future, with Michele potentially starring.

"It's something that we're talking about," he told Entertainment Weekly. "I've never done Broadway. I've always wanted to. Right now, we're just sort of testing the waters with different people."

If all comes together the show would still be a few years out, he confirmed: "[Lea] and I have made no mistake of our mutual love for that property, so if it could come together at a time that she'd be willing to make that commitment to go back to Broadway - which I don't know that she is right now - it would have to be the right director and the right leading man."

In an earlier interview with Teen Vogue, Michele also said she and Murphy were intent on bringing FUNNY GIRL back to Broadway. She said: "I want to do movies. I have some exciting things coming up! And I would also love to go back to Broadway. Ryan Murphy just bought the rights to Funny Girl, so we're hoping to do that at some point!"

FUNNY GIRL is a musical with a book by Isobel Lennart, music by Jule Styne, and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of Broadway, film star and comedienne Fanny Brice and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nick Arnstein. Its original title was My Man.

The Broadway production opened on March 26, 1964, catapulting the original star Barbra Streisand to worldwide stardom. The musical was directed by Garson Kanin and choreographed by Carol Haney under the supervision ofJerome Robbins. Streisand reprised her role in the 1966 West End production at the Prince of Wales Theatre directed byLawrence Kasha. When Streisand became pregnant and had to drop out of the show, her understudy, Lisa Shane, wife of Italian Job Director, Peter Collinson, took over, and continued to perform until the show closed.

The show was scheduled to return to Broadway in 2012, in a production starring Lauren Ambrose and Bobby Cannavale and helmed by Bartlett Sher. The revival was postponed (and eventually cancelled) due to the 'economic climate.'