Glee creator Ryan Murphy believes in his characters so much, he’s dreaming of a Funny Girl revival that would give top billing to Lea Michele’s fictional alter ego. “I keep saying that with the new Funny Girl revival, they should just say it’s Rachel Berry in Funny Girl,” he told tvline.com. “Get Lea [Michele] to do that, but as Rachel Berry. It would be a crowd-pleaser.”
As previously reported, director Bartlett Sher says that Michele is not in the running to play Fanny Brice in his February 2012 L.A. revival of the musical, telling The New York Times, “I don’t see how she could possibly be available because she is doing Glee. Michele has sung songs from Funny Girl on Glee and the 2010 Tony telecast (and, presumably, would want to be billed as herself in a stage revival!).
In other Glee news, Murphy told TVLine that season three will be less oriented toward celebrity guests and musical tributes and more on “character, character, character….we’re not going to have any guest stars, and we’re going to do fewer songs.” Good news for fans of Mr. Schuester, who received short shrift in season two: “Matt Morrison last year didn’t have the big, huge arc he had in season 1,” Murphy admitted, “but he will in the upcoming season.”