The actress, who won over audiences as an alternative to Fanny Brice in ‘Funny Girl’, now stars in Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s ‘Harmony’
Just days after Julie Benko took her final bow as Fanny Brice in the revival Fun girlshe headed five blocks to the Ethel Barrymore Theater to settle into a new role on Broadway.
For the first time, Benko, who made her Broadway debut as a member of the ensemble in Les Miserables In 2014, she got her first major role on Broadway as Ruth in Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman’s play Harmony: The New Musicalwhich opened last month.
The musical tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, a six-member German vocal group in the late 1920s that was disbanded when the Nazis came to power.
After winning the audience as a substitute in fun girl – First taking on the role of Brice after Beanie Feldstein left the show, and later as Lea Michele’s replacement — Benko tells PEOPLE it’s an “honor” to be cast as Ruth, a Jewish activist married to a non-Jewish harmonist.
Read more from Bank as PEOPLE catches up with the star Harmonyher recently released holiday EP and her time Fun girl.
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The Complete Timeline of the ‘Funny Girl’ Cast Saga
About what? Harmony attracted you to want to be a part of the show?
I was really moved by the story and wanted to be a part of something really worthwhile to say, especially at this time. When I took the role, I thought, ‘Wow, this really speaks to the rise of anti-Semitism we’re seeing in our country.’ I took on this role last spring, and just in the last two months we’ve seen a huge increase in anti-Semitic rhetoric and hate crimes and all these things.
I’m so grateful to be working on this project right now because it’s really nice to have something that I can pour all of my feelings into because the show is so current and seems to be really relevant to what we’re all experiencing in the Jewish community today. I had the experience of October 7th, I had to learn how to deal with all these feelings of holding it all, the weight of anti-Semitism that we all experience in the series and not carry it around with me all the time. I’d be sitting in my dressing room on break and looking at Instagram like we all do, and I’d see some horrible new phenomenon just pop up on my feed and just be filled with so much, so much fear, so much anger, just so full of everything we’re going through, despair , all of that.
What was it like to be cast on Broadway for the first time?
There were a million Elphabs or Glindas from Wicked. And they all follow the path that Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth set for these characters. They decide where you walk and when you walk.
When you create a role, you decide what feels natural to you. It’s really creative and I think it’s scarier because you’re the one setting the path when you create the role. You can use all the creative skills you develop as an actor over time. It is my honor.
That’s part of why creating a new character and a new piece is so exciting because you never know what life will have in store for that next series. And there will always be some of your material and you will be able to contribute to something that will live on beyond you.
Steven Telsey, Blake Roman, Danny Kornfeld, Chip Zien, Eric Peters; Sean Bell and Zal Owenin in Harmony on Broadway.
Julieta Cervantes
Now that more than a month has passed since then It’s harmony officially on broadway, how are you feeling?
We are settling in really nicely. We just started to delve into everything and relax into everything. We are also all very close. It’s a really lovely group of people and so many people are making their Broadway debut, which is a really nice feeling to be a part of. There is so much excitement every day at work.
Working with Sierra Boggess (Mary) was a real pleasure. I learned a lot sharing the stage with her. And Chip Zien (the rabbi) is just amazing. He is so good on the show. He’s such a great dramatic actor and he’s so funny. But behind the scenes, he’s just a rebel. We don’t stop laughing.
Are you still in touch with yours Fun girl fellow actors?
I am in contact with a lot of people. Substitutes on fun girl, we’ve gotten really close and are in a never ending text thread. We are with each other forever and we go to all of each other’s shows, and a lot of them came to see the show.
I was doing Duolingo recently and a little sentence came up, I was doing French and it said Julie and Lea are going to a party, so I sent it to Lea [Michelle] and I said: ‘Lea, let’s go to a party.’ She said, ‘Sounds great!’
They will come to see Harmony.
You recently released a new holiday EP, Christmas with you. What was the inspiration for the project?
There are four songs, three of which are covers. The original idea was to make a Christmas album with all the songs of Jewish composers. Then I thought, ‘Oh, wait, but I’m also a Jewish composer and I could contribute.’
I got the idea for this song while I was on the subway and I just started it on my phone and got to [Funny Girl] theater and rushed to that little closet where I was working on it and wrote it all down and sent a little demo I made on the phone to my husband, who I work with.
He’s my arranger and pianist, and I sent it to him, and he said, ‘We’ve got to do something with this.’ We talked about recording and then it led to the EP.
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