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Somebody sure is on Lea Michele’s side this season. Not only did the stage and screen star make her triumphant return to Broadway in Chess (now running at the Imperial Theatre), but she just celebrated one of Broadway’s ultimate honors- a portrait at the legendary Sardi’s.
“To say that I’ve waited my whole life for this is not an exaggeration,” she told BroadwayWorld’s Richard Ridge. “I’ve actually waited my whole life for this. I’ve been coming here since I’m eight years old ,for 31 years. I’ve come into Sardis and I’ve understood and been in such awe of the honor of getting a portrait. And I’ve wanted one since I’m eight and now I’m here!”
Michele is now entering her sixth month playing complicated Chess second, Florence Vassy in the first Broadway revival of Chess.
“I love her so much. I’m learning so much from her. I’m so inspired by her. You know, she’s the first woman that I’ve been able to play. I’ve played obviously the little girl and younger girls, and Fanny, although ending the show as a woman and a wife and a mother starts off younger. So this is the first time I get to enter a story as a grown woman. She has a incredibly tragic past and a deep history to her, but that is all something that she holds deep within herself.”
“[Being a part of this show] has meant more to me than I could ever say, bringing me back home to the Imperial Theatre to be able to still be a part of this amazing community after 31 years. And there are nights when all the stars align… when I know my children are at home, happy asleep in bed, when I am on that stage, when everything is just lining up and I feel so free and so fearless on this stage in this amazing show playing this part that I’m so inspired by. In that moment, I just feel overwhelmed with gratitude.
Watch in this video as she chats more about the audience’s response at Chess, the joys of being back in a Broadway show, and so much more.
