I hadn't checked the date of the original post and was shocked by how many people were talking about Jessie Mueller as sort of not having proven herself. What a difference 3-4 years make! I feel like Mueller's performance in BEAUTIFUL is the closest I've ever gotten (and will ever get?) to even remotely understanding how people felt when watching Streisand in FUNNY GIRL. I wasn't ready for the sheer level of genius she brought to the stage and the entire performance throughout, it'd be only a logical step for her to be in FUNNY GIRL, but it's great she is more interested in new work. I'd love for Encores! to bring back their Summer Encores! series, a 3-week run in New York at City Center starring Mueller seems like the perfect way to present this show.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"