When she was 16 years old, Katerina McCrimmon received a sorta-kinda prophecy that she would star in “Funny Girl.”
That divine divination has come true for the South Floridian who plays Fanny Brice in the Broadway national tour running Nov. 14 to 26 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.
“So I was on vacation with my boyfriend at the time, with his family,” McCrimmon recalls. “We were all hanging out in the hotel room, and his mother looked at me and was like, ‘You are just so funny. Like you’re so quirky … have you ever seen the movie ‘Funny Girl’? And I go, ‘No.’ My family, like they don’t come from a theatrical or artistic background. And she said, ‘Tonight we’re watching the movie because you’re gonna play Fanny Brice one day.’ ”
For the uninitiated, the musical “Funny Girl” follows vaudeville legend Fanny Brice from her humble beginnings on N.Y.C.’s Lower East Side to international fame as a star of stage, screen and radio (and her troubled relationship with gambler Nicky Arnstein). In the milieu of musical meta, “Funny Girl” is bona fide showbiz lore, shooting Barbra Streisand to super-duper-stardom in 1964. For the movie version four years later, Streisand went on to win an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.
“We watched it. And I remember thinking like, ‘Yeah, there’s Barbra. And I see what she’s seeing. You know, she’s funny, she’s ruthless, she’s brave, and she’s got a hell of a voice. I was like, ah, yeah, I totally see that. That’s cool,” McCrimmon continues. “I really enjoyed the movie. And then I forgot about it. I totally forgot about it, and it wasn’t until my audition came that I was like, I remember.”
The Miami native is in rarefied showbiz company since the pedigree of the show has stretched from the 1960s to the 2022 revival on the Great White Way.
For that iteration, Harvey Fierstein reworked the book and — after Beanie Feldstein debuted as the lead for a little over four months — Lea Michele of “Glee” notoriety took over the role, making the box office go boffo. Throughout it all, the musical score by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill endures with songs such as “People,” “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star” and “Sadie, Sadie.”
Grammy winner Melissa Manchester has played Fanny Brice’s mother on the tour, but she recently made this statement through her social media accounts: “To my fans, friends and theatergoers across the country, a few days ago on my way to the theater, I took a fall and injured my knee, which will unfortunately require surgery and time for recovery. I am heartsick to be away from my beautiful castmates, as well as the exquisite world of FUNNY GIRL. I am sorry to disappoint those of you who were hoping to see me in this historic production. I can’t wait to return to work and rejoin our beautiful world at the earliest possible moment!”
Here is more about McCrimmon in excerpts — edited for brevity and clarity — from an interview.
Q: You saw the movie “Funny Girl” as a teenager, but what did you know about the stage musical before your audition as a young adult?
A: I knew there was a revival, and had just been on Broadway and was currently on Broadway when the audition came out for the tour. And I knew kind of the history, a little about the fact that it hadn’t really been done because it’s — I can confidently say after doing it for, I think, 50 performances now we’re already at — the hardest role in the musical theater canon. And it’s hard to find somebody who can carry the show in that way. It’s exhausting. I think that’s probably why, coupled with the fact that Barbra Streisand is incomparable. A lot of people are wanting and expecting Barbra when they see the show. So I think that’s often why people are hesitant to do a production of it, which is why you so rarely see it. … Not many people are familiar with the musical version. You know, you had to be however many years old to have seen it in the ’60s when Barbara was doing it on Broadway. So I think a lot of people are more familiar with the movie than they are with the musical, and there are quite a few differences between the two.
Q: So what do you think you and Fanny Brice have in common?
A: I’m finding more and more every day. I would say I’m a pretty funny person in everyday life. And little things like we both proposed to our husbands. I proposed to my husband, she proposed to her husband at the show. We both know that theater and performance is our calling and knew it from a young age, and nothing will get in our way to fulfill our destiny. Because I just think it would be such a disservice, when you know what your calling is, to not follow that. That’s something that I’ve been learning from Fanny every single night.
Q: Is there some sort of “Easter egg” you’d like for SoFlo audiences to know about — maybe some little thing that might get overlooked in all the musical production numbers and iconic scenes?
A: I’ll always say pay attention to the blue marble egg, because it’s there more times than you
think. It’s a literal “Easter egg,” right? And, I mean, I think it’s fun that Miami is mentioned a couple of times in the show. So that’s always fun when you hear your hometown like, oh, there it is.
Q: What in the show still gets you every time?
A: I think what’s beautiful about the show is that it exists on both sides of the spectrum of extreme comedy and extreme drama. You know, Act One is just nonstop belly laughs. Act Two is a little more grounded in reality and watching a marriage face difficulty. I think that what gets me emotional every time is probably the last 10 minutes of the show. I won’t spoil it as to why, but it’s just heart-wrenching and heartbreaking and also extremely triumphant, and doing it feels like a boxer coming back into the ring after being smacked down. You know, it’s quite a unique feeling. And I’ve never gotten the experience to do it in a musical in this way. So that’s always thrilling.
But comedy-wise … two come to mind. One is the dinner scene with Nick Arnstein when he’s seducing her and we sing, “You are woman, I am man,” because the audience is with us. And it’s just a joke a second. It’s so hilarious. And then also going back a little farther when she first meets Nick Arnstein, and there’s this whole bit where Nick is fighting with the club owner to make her more money and she’s just like in awe of this new species of man that she’s never met before in her life. I think it’s so exciting as Fanny to discover him for the first time and just (be) like, “Nicky Arnstein, Nicky Arnstein, what a beautiful, beautiful name,” just so in awe of him.
Q: Obviously, your immediate family has seen the show while you’ve been on the road, but now you’re going to have your family of friends, your neighbors, everyone you ever met in SoFlo come see this run in Fort Lauderdale, so what’s that feel like?
A: I get chills thinking about opening night at the Broward Center because I have people that I went to elementary school with messaging me saying, “I have my tickets.” I haven’t spoken to them in 20 years and I’m like, “What? You’re coming to see me?” So I’m very curious to see their faces … at the stage door there to cheer me on. It really gets me emotional because it’s where I started my journey. South Florida is where it all began. And now I get to bring the show to everybody who has brought me to this place.
Q: Where exactly was home here in SoFlo?
A: I lived in the same house all my life in Miami and I lived in, I would say, the Westchester area — so kind of by (Florida International University).
Q: I know you graduated from Florida State University in 2020, but where did you go to high school?
A: I went to New World School of the Arts, and I owe so much of where I am today to that school. It was like a bubble of love and joy and safety. I can’t speak highly enough about New World, and I hope that it’s getting the funding that it needs and the backing and support that it deserves because so many brilliant artists come out of that school, and I’m just so honored that I can call that my alma mater.
Q: Did you spend any time in Broward or Palm Beach counties?
A: I did have some friends that went to Dreyfoos (School of the Arts). I remember taking the Tri-Rail and … my mom was so worried, she was like, “Oh my God, you’re just going by yourself to the Tri-Rail,” and that was its own crazy experience. But I performed at the Broward Center. I performed at the Kravis Center. I was a backup singer for Kristin Chenoweth when I was in high school, and we got to experience that, so I do have some very fond memories in the Fort Lauderdale/Palm Beach area.
Q: How did you first get bitten by the theater bug?
A: As soon as I could speak, I could sing. And I knew that. I didn’t know what musical theater was; the concept of musical theater was not something in my vocabulary. I just knew that that’s what I wanted to do … So maybe at 5, I was already singing in the shower. I was already watching TV, following dancers and their movements. But when I was 8, I saw my first musical and that was at Actors’ Playhouse (at The Miracle Theatre) in Coral Gables … I remember watching “Madeline’s Christmas,” (with) 12 little girls on stage, all my age … I turned to my mom and I was like, “I think this is what I want to do.” Literally the next day we went on The Miracle Theatre website, and we saw that there was an audition for a children’s play with adults. So it was like a professional production but they were looking for kids, and I auditioned soon after and I got it. … I thought it was the coolest thing ever to be doing a show for the first time with all these older people. I felt very important, very special. But my favorite part was I got to eat doughnuts onstage.
Q: What is it about “Funny Girl” that you think will resonate with today’s audience?
A: You know, the book is solid. It’s hilarious and it’s really heart-wrenching. Because anyone can relate to a troubled relationship. Anyone can relate to two people in love who don’t know how to make it work, right? People who are fighting for each other, but in all the wrong ways. It’s that that I think is incredibly relatable. And I know that because of the oohs and ahhs and gasps that we get in the second act, right? Everyone is still following along. And the show is so long and everyone’s attention spans are so short now with TikTok and social media. It’s really an honor to witness that the audience is with us, and I think it is because it’s still relatable even after 60 or so years.
Q: If you could whisper something in the ear of everyone that’s walking into the Broward Center to see the show “Funny Girl,” what would it be?
A: Get lost for a little bit. Get lost in the story.
WHAT: “Funny Girl”
WHEN: Tuesdays through Sundays from Nov. 14-26
WHERE: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
COST: $45-$121
INFORMATION: 954-462-0222; browardcenter.org
