Queer Voices
Queer Voices
August 22nd 2024 - PODCAST EXCLUSIVE: Katerina McCrimmon of FUNNY GIRL!
If you are planning on or have seen FUNNY GIRL at the HOBBY CENTER, this one is for you!
Brett Cullum talks to Fanny Brice herself in this podcast exclusive conversation with Katerina McCrimmon of FUNNY GIRL, the national Broadway tour! Katerina talks about getting cast in the role of a lifetime and what it is like to step into the legacy Barbra Streisand and Lea Michele created.
FUNNY GIRL runs at the HOBBY CENTER through August 25th!
You can read Brett's review of the show at:
https://www.broadwayworld.com/houston/article/Review-FUNNY-GIRL-at-BROADWAY-AT-THE-HOBBY-CENTER-20240821
Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:
https://www.facebook.com/QueerVoicesKPFT/ and
https://www.instagram.com/queervoices90.1kpft/
I'm Brett Kellerman. Today I'm joined by Katarina McCrimmon, who plays Fanny Bryce in Funny Girl at the Hobby Center. It's going to be playing August 20th through the 25th, and so welcome, katarina, good to see you.
Speaker 2:Good to see you too, Brett Hi.
Speaker 1:Hi. Now you are from one of my favorite cities in the world, Miami, and you got a degree from Florida State University. Is this right? Is that where you kind of that's right, yeah, yeah. So did you grow up in Miami too, or?
Speaker 2:Born and raised. I'm a proud Miami girl. I would never live there again, but I'm really, really proud to be from there and I brag about it all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, how I mean? I know you've got a lot of New York credits obviously.
Speaker 2:So how did you get to New York and how did you get into acting? So I started theater when I was eight years old. I saw a musical on a field trip when I was in the third grade and basically it was all these little girls in a production of Madeline's Christmas and most of them were around my age and I remember thinking, wait, I want to do that. And then after that I auditioned for the next show of that season for Actors Playhouse in Miami and I got it. I booked my first audition and I had a great time. It was a show, it was a children's show based on a book called Understood Betsy and I played Betsy's best friend, molly, and then, ever since then, I haven't stopped. You know I've been doing theater since I was eight. I'm in my mid-20s now and you know it's been a wild ride.
Speaker 2:I started to go to performing arts schools in Miami middle school, high school Then I went to Florida State for their musical theater program and I was actually the class of 2020. And I didn't have a graduation ceremony, I didn't have a showcase, I didn't have anything like that. But I got lucky because I actually made my Broadway debut while I was still in school, which is a whole other story. But basically in 2019, I was in the production, the Broadway revival of the Rose Tattoo by Tennessee Williams, which is a play I did that I came back and I finished out my senior year of school and I finished out my senior year of school, but it was all virtual. And then after that I stayed in Tallahassee for a little bit.
Speaker 2:I moved to New York in August of 2021. And that was when the pandemic was still kind of figuring its way out. We were all trying to figure out how to get through it together and I did my first show back at Hartford Stage and it was another play, all Wilderness, and that was the first play that Hartford Stage did in the pandemic. You know, since the pandemic had begun and you know, ever since then I've just been working and auditioning and then I got this. I got Funny Girl.
Speaker 1:It's funny because you are talking about a lot of heavy plays. I mean, for somebody that majored in musical theater, it sounds like you've done some pretty. I mean Tennessee Williams and yeah, I got lucky.
Speaker 2:I mean a lot of people tell me your voice is amazing. I have such a great voice, but really my my favorite thing to hear is like you're such a strong actor, cause I think a lot of actors want that. You know, actors who sing want to be recognized for their acting before anything, because the whole point of theater is the story. So yeah, I mean I got lucky with with my, with my plays, and I still I still audition for plays and I still want to do plays just as much as I want to do musicals.
Speaker 1:What are your some of your favorite shows that you've done so far?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, some of my favorite shows I mean funny girl, funny girl has been a blast. I mean you know, I know we'll really get into it.
Speaker 2:But you know, I've never had so much fun on stage and laughed so hard whether I'm supposed to or not but you know I've had a lot of fun also in not leading roles. You know, in college I did a production of the Addams Family where I played one of the ancestors in the back, just like a ghost, and I got to dance. I got to dance my booty off and that was really fun. Because I'm not much of a dancer I wouldn't consider myself a dancer first but I can move and we had a lot of fun learning the choreography in that show and it's fun to create your own character. You know, I feel like when you're, when you're in the ensemble, you you have a lot more freedom to create your own backstory and and just like run with it, whereas if you're a principal then you have to really stay by the book and make sure that you're telling the story as accurately as possible. You know.
Speaker 1:Now that's what makes me nervous about this. Role for you is Fanny Bryce. I mean, what a legacy, and everybody has this idea of who Fanny Bryce is, so it seems daunting to step into her shoes. How did you get there? How did you decide? This is how I'm going to do her, my way.
Speaker 2:I think what really worked for me is the fact that I didn't have a lot of knowledge of Funny Girl. I saw the movie once when I was a teenager and, funny enough, my boyfriend at the time I was in high school and I was on vacation with his family and his mom told me that I would play Fanny Bryce one day. Like she looked at me and she was like, have you seen Funny Girl? And I'm like no, and she goes well, you need to watch it because you're going to play Fanny Bryce one day. And that was crazy. So that day we watched the movie and that was the only time I had seen it until I once I got the audition and I didn't watch it. You know, when I got the audition I was like I'm not going to see the movie because I don't want it to influence my choices. And so I had the best freedom, which was I got to approach it as something new.
Speaker 2:You know, I think I didn't have any preconceived notion of what Fanny Bryce should be, because I just I approached the text like any actor would. I saw the scenes and I understood oh, she's kind of funny. Oh, she's very tongue in cheek. Oh she, you know she flies off the seat of her pants. You know, those are all things that any actor could, could gather from the text. And then that, well, the music, that's a different story. The music has been in my life and you know I, when I was 12, I would sing Don't Rain on my Parade in my bedroom and I sang People in high school at the Kennedy Center, which was a full circle moment, because then we played the Kennedy Center and then, you know, I sang the music that makes me dance in my senior recital in school. So the music has always been like with me. But when it comes to the story, I got really lucky in the fact that I got to approach it as something completely new and just bring myself to it.
Speaker 1:I think what's funny about Funny Girl is, I think, that a lot of people experience it that way. I know all the songs, backwards and forwards. Everybody knows the music. I mean, when I was 12 years old I was probably singing Don't Rain on my Parade. Okay, we all get that. But what I think is interesting is like what's different about this version of Funny Girl? Because I think that the script kind of had a redo with Harvey Fierstein and things like that, so this is a little bit more updated, is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it moves really well and a lot of people who see the show say that they're like you know, it's so, it's so much, it's so improved Since the the show in the 60s. It's less clunky, you know. I mean, harvey Fierstein is such a brilliant writer and he was able to just like take the scenes and lift them. We've been lucky because we've had a lot of audience members who were lucky enough to see the production with Barbra Streisand. I've had so many people tell me that at the stage door and it's, it's something. It's something else to be able to hear their experience, and now their experience again, 60 odd years later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, oh my gosh, that, just that gives me chills. Just thinking about it, that's crazy. Well, I'm going to ask you this, and it's going to be hard, but what's your favorite number in the show?
Speaker 2:You know it changes, it changes, but I think I'm the greatest star is probably my favorite, especially because it's it's kind of where I'm at in my life right now. You know, I'm still relatively young and I feel like, you know, at that point in Fannie's journey she's just starting out her career and she's like, just like, hear me, hear me, I promise you that I've got something to show, I got something to share and and that's like the first time you really see her gift and I feel like I'm finally getting to share that with people.
Speaker 1:What do you like about touring? How long have you been doing this with the show?
Speaker 2:Well, I've been on the tour for about a year. We'll hit a year in Houston and I, you know, the thing I love about touring is the people you meet on the road. The people that you travel with become like your family. The thing I don't like about touring is the constant traveling. It's hard on your body and you know, living out of a suitcase is not something you get used to. So you know, it's definitely. You's definitely. You take the good with the bad, and there are things that I would never change about touring. You know, getting to see the country, getting to see cities that I never thought I would ever see, you know, and I'm so glad that I did.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask like ideally, and you don't have to tell me what is literally next for you, but is there anything that you want to do? Is there like some dream role that you have that you're like you know what? If I could tour with this show or if I could be on this and Broadway, I would love to do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I get this question like three times a day and I never know how to answer it. I mean I'm open to anything. I'm open to. You know I'm. I'm open to TV and film. I'm open to Broadway. I'm open to. You know I haven't been on Broadway since 2019 and I'm like itching to get back. And also I'm working on some music stuff right now. I just recently recorded let's just say I, I will. I was in the recording studio recently working on some music with some friends and I have my own album that I'm working on of original music called Holy Animals and it's like folk music. So I have a lot of like. My hands are in a lot of different things, so I'm excited to see whatever flourishes first, I guess.
Speaker 1:Katerina McCrimmon. Where can we find you? What do we? How do I find you on the web? How do I find you on the web? How do I find you on the socials?
Speaker 2:TikTok Instagram. Yeah, I'm on Instagram. My handle is breathekaterina B-R-E-A-T-H-E-K-A-T-E-R-I-N-A, and you can keep me. You can keep updated on what I'm doing and what I'm releasing. I've got lots of projects happening, so you don't want to miss out for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, you've already got me intrigued, so I'm going to be stalking you online a little bit to see what, what your projects as they unfold, and things like that.
Speaker 2:Thanks, brett.
Speaker 1:But we are so excited to see you in funny girl. This has been a show that I've been looking forward to for like a year since they announced it, so I'm very excited and my spouse is just dying. He's like listen to the soundtrack his entire life and what's funny is he likes the Diana Ross and the Supremes recording of the soundtrack.
Speaker 2:I was like who knew that? You know, I have to give that a listen.
Speaker 1:It's definitely. It's very Diana Ross, of course, but just the idea of Diana Ross ross doing fanny bryce as opposed to barbara streisand, it's kind of fun. It's kind of kitschy and fun. So I like that I like, yeah, yeah, listen and then get back to me and let me know. All right, well, thank you so much. Break legs in houston running august 20th through the 25th broadway at the hobby center funny girl it's, you've heard about it. Please, thank you.
