Just a few days after Julie Benko gave her final bow as Fanny Brice in the revival of Funny Girl, she headed five blocks down to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre to settle into a new role on Broadway.
For the first time, Benko, who made her Broadway debut as an ensemble member in Les Misérables in 2014, is originating her first major role on Broadway as Ruth in Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's Harmony: A New Musical, which opened last month.
The musical tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, a six-person German vocal group in the late 1920s that was disbanded as the Nazis came to power.
After winning over audiences as an alternate in Funny Girl — first taking over the role of Brice after Beanie Feldstein left the show and later as an alternate for Lea Michele — Benko says it's an "honor" she gets to originate the role of Ruth, a Jewish activist married to a non-Jewish member of the Harmonists...READ MORE