Katerina McCrimmon on her journey to playing Fanny Brice in ‘Funny Girl’

On the surface, it might not seem like Katerina McCrimmon has much in common with Fanny Brice. McCrimmon is from Miami, while Brice was born in New York over a century ago, in a world that looks much different than ours today. But from the time she was a teenager, people could already see that McCrimmon had a Fanny Brice-esque quality to her.

When she was in high school, McCrimmon’s then-boyfriend’s mother told her she would play Fanny Brice someday. At the time, McCrimmon didn’t know of the famous vaudevillian and performer, originally brought to life by Barbra Streisand in the musical “Funny Girl,” first on the stage, then in the 1968 feature film.

Now, McCrimmon is bringing that prediction to life by playing Brice on the national tour of “Funny Girl,” headed to the Fox Theatre on July 30.

Ahead of the show’s run, McCrimmon spoke with Rough Draft Atlanta about her road to “Funny Girl,” how she has approached such an iconic character, and the upcoming album she hopes to put out within the next year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I read that when you were in high school, your boyfriend’s mother told you that you would play Fanny Brice someday. Which is sort of a crazy thing to happen, given what we’re going to talk about. I wanted to start there – before that moment, were you doing theater? How did that moment come about?

Katerina McCrimmon: I knew that I wanted to do musical theater. Well, I didn’t know what musical theater was until I saw my first show when I was about eight on a field trip. Once I saw that, I was hooked, and basically I haven’t stopped since. So when that happened, when I was speaking to my high school boyfriend’s mother, at the time, I was already 16, and I had been doing theater in community theater and in my school, and stuff like that. But I had never seen “Funny Girl” until she told me about it in high school.

What was the show you saw on the field trip?

McCrimmon: It was called “Madeline’s Christmas,” based on the cartoon with the French girls.

After that conversation, I assume you watched “Funny Girl.” What were your initial thoughts on it?

McCrimmon: Well, I could see why she told me that. Barbra’s [Streisand] performance in the movie is very quirky and very endearing. She’s very unique. You know, I’ve always felt like I was a bit different. So I felt like I resonated with her in that way. I really enjoyed the movie, and I enjoyed her performance, so it was exciting for me to think about. Once I saw the movie, I didn’t think about it again. I sang songs from the show in classes, you know, whether it be repertoire classes or voice lessons or concerts or what have you. Whether it be “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” or “People,” or “The Music That Makes Me Dance,” I would sing a lot of the songs from the show. The show did follow me in that regard.

You mentioned that you felt a connection to Fanny because you felt different as well. What do you mean by that? In what ways?

McCrimmon: I think a big part of Fanny’s story is that she’s not a conventional beauty. [Laughs] On stage, I am surrounded by these 5’10” glamorous, gorgeous women in our cast. It’s really fun … I am really short compared to all of them. I’m barely 5’3”. I think, especially in high school, we all come to terms with growing into our bodies, and growing into ourselves and feeling beautiful and confident.

What’s so beautiful about Barbra’s performance is that you could tell that as the movie progresses, she finds that beauty within herself. I’m still quite young, I think, relatively speaking, and in my late 20s, and I’m still finding that confidence – you know, finding myself beautiful, finding the things about myself that I can admire. When I saw that movie for the first time, when I saw “Funny Girl,” I remember thinking, oh boy – I totally resonate with the way that Barbra’s finding that in herself. Because I still haven’t quite found it just yet. I always felt different, because I never really felt conventionally beautiful. And I think now that I’m getting older, I’m grateful for that. But it can be hard to deal with when you’re younger.

Sure. I’ve been listening to Barbra’s memoir on audiobook. It’s quite long, so it’s taking me a long time, but she talks about that quite a bit. You said the songs followed you around without you realizing it or searching them out. I was reading an interview with you where you talked about loving the music and the score, and I wanted to ask, what do you think it is about the score that makes it so timeless and moving for you?

McCrimmon: Well, they just don’t make music like this anymore. A lot of the score is based in jazz, and that’s what makes it so rich. And not only that, I think that the beauty of the music and the lyrics is that it lets the audience kind of figure it out for themselves. It’s not spoon fed to the audience. The lyrics are poetic, and they allow you to find your own meaning. I think between the jazz influence and the lyrics, there’s something really special happening in the score of “Funny Girl.”

Could you talk a bit about how you came to the show and the audition process, and what you were doing beforehand?

McCrimmon: I went to college for musical theater, and I was the class of 2020.

Oh wow.

McCrimmon: Yeah. I didn’t really have a graduation ceremony, I didn’t have a theater showcase – you know, all the things you’re promised. The plan usually is to graduate, when studying theater, and then move straight to New York. That didn’t happen for me, because of the pandemic. I moved to New York a little later, and luckily I booked something right away. I booked a play at Hartford Stage – a really Tony Award-winning regional theater. I got to work, and then I did a few other regional shows, all the while still auditioning. I still kept my day jobs. I was teaching chess, I was walking dogs [laughs]. I was a barista, all at once! I was teaching lessons and auditioning, waiting for the right thing to hit.

I got [the “Funny Girl” audition], and suddenly everything flooded back to me about the movie, and my high school boyfriend’s mom, and all the times I’ve sung the songs. I was like, oh wait! Here it is! I think it’s so interesting, because they’ve waited so long to do this show because Barbra made it so iconic. It was almost like people felt like nobody could do it justice the way that she did. So I’m so grateful that it’s finally happened for me 60 years later, that finally someone gets to take a stab at it.

I’m glad you brought that up, because it is such an iconic performance. People always get asked, how do you step into those shoes, etc. And I think you’ve talked kind of eloquently about not wanting to take any of that with you. So by that token, what is your process like, as far as approaching the character and leaving everything that’s been done before you at the door?

McCrimmon: You know, it hasn’t really been difficult for me. I watched Barbra when I was a teenager, and that was a while ago. I just really approached the role knowing that I was right for it, and knowing that I could just take it like any other. Because as an actor – obviously different people, different actors have different processes, but for the most part it’s the same. You get the script, you read the script. You go through the scenes, you see what the character wants. You approach it objectively at first, and you see the story as a whole, and you see how the role you’re playing fits into it. And then you become the character. But you know, as long as you’re not copying, then it should be fun. It should be play. It should be what I’ve studied to do, most of my life.

So I didn’t really have a problem with that. I think a lot of people who have spoken to me about it have, like you said, asked me, you know, “How do you not copy it? How do you not compare yourself?” And I just don’t [laughs]. I don’t know. I feel like, in so many ways, I am Fanny. So I don’t have to try [laughs]. And obviously, I’m not Barbra Streisand. I’m not going to be Barbra Streisand. So there’s no point in trying to be her.

I read that you  have an album coming out, “Holy Animals.” When did you make that album and what was that process like?

McCrimmon: I started writing – well, I wrote a few songs in my closet when I was, like, six years old … so if we don’t count that, I really started writing about, I want to say three or four years ago. You know, it was really just for fun at first. And it still is, maybe for fun. But I got my first guitar, and my mom had taught me a few things here and there when I was younger, different strumming patterns and stuff like that. But besides that, I’m pretty much self taught. I’m not a great guitar player, but I’m good enough to write music.

The music that [is on the album] I would say is mainly folk, folk/pop-ish? Indie-ish? Genres are hard these days.

Sure, they’re blending.

McCrimmon: Everything’s blending. It’s becoming more and more difficult to label something when it comes to music. When it comes to this album, I kind of just word vomit. I just start playing my guitar, and I sing and see what comes out, and then I write it on paper and edit after that. If I’m lucky, I can write a song in 20 minutes. If I’m not, it’ll take me a few weeks.

It’s been really fun, and you know, it’s interesting – because now that I’ve announced that the album is coming, there is a sort of pressure for it to be “successful,” whatever that means. Whereas before it was really just for fun, and it was a passion project. So I’m hoping to still keep that element of fun, and keep it mainly for myself even though it will be out for other people to hear. It is my first album, and I hope to make more and I hope to learn from this one. But since I’ve been on tour, it’s been hard to do both. So I think once I finish the show, I’ll definitely have more time to devote to the album and get back to the studio.

I was going to say, you’d be a superstar if you were able to do both at the same time.

McCrimmon: Right? There’s no way!

“Funny Girl” will play at the Fox Theatre from July 30 to August 4. Tickets can be purchased online.

The post Katerina McCrimmon on her journey to playing Fanny Brice in ‘Funny Girl’ appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta .