Actress Lea Michele has made her triumphant return to the Broadway stage in the Funny Girl revival, though her son wasn’t as enthused.
“[Starting Funny Girl was] the first time I’ve gone back to work [since he was born],” Michele, 36, said during a Friday, September 30, appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon about son Ever, 2. “I’ve been home with him for the past two years, 100 percent, and now I’m back to work.”
She added: “So, my singing coach was like, ‘You could try to incorporate what you’re doing, like, try to incorporate him into it, so he can be a part of it and you can be not away from him as much.’”
The Glee alum decided to take her vocal coach’s suggestion and asked her husband, Zandy Reich, to bring their son into the room “the other day” while she was going over her warmup exercises.
“I hit some, like, high note and [Ever] started hysterically crying,” Michele recalled to host Jimmy Fallon. “I’m like, ‘OK, that was a big fail!’”
The Spring Awakening star — who welcomed her baby boy in August 2020 — noted that she enjoys singing Ever lullabies before he goes to sleep, offering to sing ballads by Céline Dion or Barbra Streisand. However, the toddler is only interested in hearing either “The Green Grass Grows” or the theme songs to Peppa Pig and Daniel Tiger. “That one’s a real tough one for parents,” she quipped on Friday. “Just the same thing over and over.”
Michele — who married Reich, 39, in 2019 — even recorded a lullaby album, Forever, that she dedicated to her little one.
“Being a mom is one of the greatest gifts and I love being Ever’s mom. It was so special making my lullaby album as a tribute to him,” the New Year’s Eve actress exclusively told Us Weekly in May. “I wanted to sing songs that were special and important to me that had special meanings behind them. Those songs were songs that I listen to when I first found out I was pregnant and it’s so beautiful to get to sing them for my son now.”
Despite eight songs on the album to choose from to croon Ever to sleep, Michele admitted that her baby boy is “very picky” when it comes to the music selection.
“I love singing ‘Here Comes The Sun’ [by the Beatles] and ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay to him,” the actress told Us, before noting that Ever prefers “Twinkle, Twinkle” and “Happy Birthday.”
While Ever is particular in terms of what he wants to hear the Scream Queens alum sing, she’s found an adoring audience while playing Fanny Brice in Funny Girl.
“It’s been so awesome,” Michele gushed on Friday, after Fallon, 48, complimented her six standing ovations during her debut performance. “It’s been great. … To be back [on Broadway] and to be in the show that I’ve loved for so many years, but I’m such a fan of this production [with] this incredible cast, this incredible score.”
