Lea Michele Might Take On ‘Funny Girl’ With ‘Glee’ Creator Ryan Murphy

Is Lea Michele destined for a Broadway return? It sure looks that way. Currently Michele is playing Rachel Berry on Glee, and the fact that her character is in the middle of her dream job as Fanny Brice in Broadway’s Funny Girl isn’t a coincidence. Michele is a Barbra Streisand enthusiast and the singer was the inspiration behind the character of Rachel Berry. Now the actress and Ryan Murphy are very close to making life imitate art.

Earlier in the year Michele said that the two were thinking about bringing a Funny Girl revival back to Broadway after Glee, and now Murphy has confirmed that tidbit and expanded on what this means for Lea Michele and fans of the show Funny Girl.

Currently doing promotion for the HBO film The Normal Heart, Ryan Murphy had this to say about Funny Girl:

“I have the rights to it. It’s something that we’re talking about. I’ve never done Broadway. I’ve always wanted to. Right now, we’re just sort of testing the waters with different people.”

Murphy admits that it’s a work in progress and that the Broadway show still has a way to go before it hits the stage.

“[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.”

While promoting her various upcoming projects, Lea Michele opened up to Broadway World about the possibility of bringing Funny Girl back to Broadway.

“We have someone really amazing in mind. We probably won’t have the opportunity to do it for a while, though, because we still have a long time left on GLEE. But, yes, you are right – Ryan does have the rights. And, when the time is right and I have had the chance to get some good rest for a while after Glee and I feel ready to do it then definitely we will do it.”

As for the leading man who will play Nicky Arnstein, Michele was a bit coy about who she and Murphy had in mind.

Right now in addition to carrying Glee, Lea Michele is promoting her first solo album and her new memoir Brunette Ambition. Fans can also see Lea Michele as Dorothy in the new film Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return.

[Image Credit: Twentieth Century Fox]