Interview: You Should Hear How Melissa Manchester Talks About FUNNY GIRL

Having landed more than a dozen hits – “Midnight Blue,” “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” “You Should Hear How She Talks About You,” and “Through the Eyes of Love” among them – on the Billboard charts in her long recording career, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Melissa Manchester knows what it’s like to be a part of pop-music history.

And now, Manchester is making musical theater history, too, playing Mrs. Brice in the first major national tour of the Bob Merrill and Jule Styne musical “Funny Girl,” which Broadway in Boston will present at Citizens Opera House, February 4–16. She’s also revisiting a show she first saw as a child from the Bronx.

“I saw the original Broadway production as a little girl and grew up with the standards from the show. It was the musical that made Barbra Streisand a superstar, and it was unforgettable,” recalled Manchester by telephone recently from a Florida tour stop. “About 20 years after that original production, Jule Styne called me to talk about starring in a revival. At the time, the music was so singularly associated with Streisand that I passed on it, and that revival ended up not happening.”

The current national tour is based on the much-ballyhooed 2022 revival, which featured a revised book by Harvey Fierstein, based on Isobel Lennart’s original, and direction by Michael Mayer.On Broadway, the production starred Beanie Feldstein, and later Lea Michele, as Fanny Brice, the stage, film, and radio performer famed for her appearances with the Ziegfeld Follies and her headline-making marriage to suave gambler and con artist Nicky Arnstein. Manchester plays Fanny’s mother, Rose Brice, a role originated on Broadway and played in the 1968 feature film adaptation by Kay Medford, and played in the recent revival by Jane Lynch and later Tovah Feldshuh.

“I auditioned for the revival, but I was quite happy to be offered the national tour. Over the years, I’ve crisscrossed the nation on concert tours, but I’ve never really seen it. A tour like this one is luxurious, because I get to be in the same place for a week or two. And this is primarily an acting role, which I love, because when I’m doing concerts, I have to live like a monk,” says Manchester with a laugh. “With ‘Funny Girl,’ I feel like an honored guest at a wonderful party.”

A party with terrific music, too, including songs like “I’m the Greatest Star,” “People,” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” Manchester also has high praise for the book, especially Fierstein’s updates.

“The original had very one-dimensional characters. Harvey’s book, however, gives each of us an emotional journey,” says the singer and actor. “Rose is not a stage mother. She’s a single mother and a saloon keeper. Rose’s husband has left the family and she’s now seeing Fanny make mistakes with men. Rose loved Fanny differently, maybe more, than her other children because Fanny was so different. The show really resonates because it has grown into the present day in the way in which it deals with issues including addiction and co-dependency. This new version is much more than a quaint throwback.”

For Manchester, whose father, David Manchester, was a bassoonist with the Metropolitan Opera and whose mother was one of the first women to design and found her own clothing firm, Ruth Manchester, Ltd., “Funny Girl” offers more just than a chance to play a role.

“My own mother died 10 years ago. When I started working on this show, I couldn’t physically get the character or the language down until I could get Rose’s voice to match my mother’s voice, and my aunts’ voices as well,” she says. “My sister has come to see me several times on the road and each time she’s told me that I look and sound like our mother. That makes me happy, because I’m doing this role as my mother, not as Melissa Manchester.”

Manchester’s own richly familiar voice can be heard on her latest album, “Re:View” – her 25th – released last month, with Dolly Parton, Kenny Loggins, and Dave Koz joining Manchester on new versions of her classic hits, including “Whenever I Call You Friend” and the ballad that became her first chart-topper.

“I wrote ‘Midnight Blue’ with Carole Bayer Sager and recorded it for my third studio album, “Melissa,” in 1975. It became my first hit, going to number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. It was written as a male–female duet about a challenged relationship,” says Manchester. “For ‘Re:View,’ I brought in Dolly Parton to do it with me as a duet. Dolly is just amazing. She is everything really, and our duet works beautifully.”

The veteran performer is delighted with where her career and life find her today.

“I’m proud of the new album and this tour is such a spectacular adventure, and a great way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of my career,” she says.

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