EDGE Interview: Broadway Sensation Julie Benko on her Timely, Impactful Role in 'Harmony'

In "Harmony," Julie Benko plays a Jewish resistance fighter in pre-WWII Germany. This follows her career-changing stint as an understudy in the recent revival of "Funny Girl" where she put her stamp on Fanny Brice. EDGE talks to her about that role and her current one.

In 1954, Carol Haney sprained her ankle and her understudy Shirley MacLaine with no notice stepped into the role of Gladys in "The Pajama Game" on Broadway. The rest is legend. Oscar-winning producer Hal Wallis was in the audience, loved her and signed her to a 5-year Hollywood contract. And in those five years she starred in 2 Oscar-winning best pictures and received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress.

There have been other big-name standbys, understudies and alternates (google the difference) who have gone out there a youngster but came back a star, to paraphrase from the iconic "42nd Street" moment. But the original "Funny Girl" offered the reverse -- an instance of a star not being born for going on at short notice. That was when Lanie Kazan, Barbra Streisand's understudy, went on for the ill star on a Wednesday matinee. But before going on, Kazan pulled an Eve Harrington and contacted her press agent, which insured that her performance would get attention. That news also got to Streisand, who dragged herself to the theater and went on that evening. The next day, Peter Daniels, the show's assistant musical director and Kazan's boyfriend, was fired, and Kazan left the show, claiming she quit and a new understudy -- Linda Gerard – was brought in.

In the recent and first Broadway revival of the musical, a similar scenario played out to Julie Benko, but with a much happier ending. What happened was in a "what-the-heck-were-they-thinking move," the producers cast Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice with Benko as her understudy. But Feldstein proved to be so wrong it made one wonder if anyone should ever play Fanny Brice again. After all, the role made a Streisand a star overnight and has been indelibly linked to her forever. In addition, a number of attempts to revive the show failed. Perhaps the memory of Barbra as Fanny should endure. Full stop.

That was the consensus conclusion until Benko took to the stage as Fanny in April of 2022 and continued to do so periodically for the next year, wowing audiences and receiving the kind of deserved adulation reserved for established and venerated theater veterans. Fans began attending specifically to see the, now, alternate and soon full-time Fanny–it was truly the birth of a bonafide star. Benko had done the impossible, she created her own Fanny.

A few months after the show closed, Benko ricocheted into rehearsals for the new Barry Manilow/Bruce Sussman musical, "Harmony," which tells the true story of the Comedian Harmonists. The group consisted of six young men (both Jewish and Gentile) in 1920s Germany who found fame but were soon persecuted for including Jewish singers as the Nazi regime took hold. "Harmony" is frighteningly timely with antisemitism on the rise all over the world.

Benko plays Ruth, a Jewish resistance fighter, constantly on the offense, as if she knows what is coming. And when the worst begins to manifest, Ruth proves to be a fierce, brave and heroic figure.

In "Funny Girl," Benko was onstage for most of the running time. In "Harmony" when she departs the scene, one longs for her return.

An NYU Tisch grad, Benko made her Broadway debut as understudy to Cosette in the 2011 revival of "Les Misérables," ultimately taking over the role. "Fiddler on the Roof" followed in 2015. Her off-Broadway credits include, "Rags," "Bar Mitzvah Boy," "Once," "Our Town," and "The Fantasticks."

In 2017, Benko released a jazz album, "Introducing Julie Benko," which included the song, "Tomorrow is a Day For You," that she penned celebrating the legalization of same-sex marriage. She has since put out two other albums, "Hand in Hand" with her husband, Jason Yeager and the recently released EP "Christmas With You."

"Harmony" is the first time she is originating a part on the Great White Way.

EDGE had the pleasure of chatting with Julie about her career, the show and the current scary state of the world. (During the interview, she proudly displayed a signed photo of Fanny Brice, given to her by her husband on closing night that says, "All good wishes.")

EDGE: In Act 2 of "Harmony" Ruthie says to her (gentile) husband, "We fight because you married a Jew in this lousy Jew-hating country, and you won't stand up to them. That's why we fight." There couldn't be timelier words.

Julie Benko: That was a very hard scene. All of Act Two was really hard. It was always heavy. But then we were in tech when October 7th happened. We started previews October 17th, 10 days had gone by and Act Two suddenly felt even more timely than when I signed up for "Harmony," because it spoke to me, specifically, as I was seeing the rise of anti -semitism in this country. And then I would be scrolling through Instagram at intermission, and I would see new horrible things happening here in New York, having nothing to do with the conflict really over there. But, suddenly, you're seeing swastikas in the Hamptons! And this girl getting beaten up in Grand Central Station, because she looked Jewish... I would see these things on my phone and I'd go out on stage and just be filled with all of the despair and the rage and the sadness and all the feelings, especially as I saw so many of my people in my community who didn't seem to notice. So, when I went on in that scene with my husband, it (she quotes the line) became this thing that I was saying to the people who I felt wouldn't stand up for their Jewish friends.

EDGE: Do you find that Ruthie helps you work through your rage, sadness...?

Julie Benko: Yeah... It took a few weeks for me to not feel the weight of it all the time; and not to have that weight break me down--learning how to find that balance has been tricky, but I think that I've found a way to live with it and tap into it in a way that I need to do justice to the story and the character without totally letting it envelop me.

And I am grateful to be in a show, given everything that's happening, where I can go on a daily basis and core my feelings into this character and into her story. It feels like I'm doing something of value and contributing, as an artist, to the conversation, in some way. I come out of the stage door every night and meet these fans who can't stop crying after the show is over. And they're saying, thank you so much for playing this role. Thank you for representing... so I get to see that it is having that kind of impact for people who need it and that's really meaningful.