One vocal reherasal down!

Okay, so I'm not really a "singer"...I don't read "music" and I don't really hear "notes."..how can that be, you ask? No answer.
I sang professionally for several years and was fortunate to have musicians who appreciated the way I sound when I sing and audiences that could also take it.
As for theatre, I stayed away from musical theatre because of the tendency of music directors to be a little too academic about something that, to me, is very organic. That being said, I love Gwen Starling. She enjoys the sound that I make, even when it isn't the note that she sees on the page.
She is exactly the musical director that I need.
Then there is the actual role of Fanny Brice. The only person I really have to sing with is the lovely and talented John Brigham, who is the Nicky Arnstein of my dreams. Win/Win for me.
John wants to sound good, so he's willing to help me hear what I don't hear naturally and I think he's sure that we'll get it right, by March.
Fanny is pretty much a solo act. Is that why I've always wanted to play that part? Probably.
I, too, am a "bagel on a plate of onion rolls" when it comes to musical theatre. I am perfectly at home on the stage, on my own terms.
I love a microphone, no that's not hyperbole, I actually love two microphones, and I have the pouch that I carry them in to prove it. Just ask anyone who has ever had to perform with me.
I love the light. I close my eyes, and I'm going to have to stop doing that, but I feel what I'm singing and it doesn't always lend it's self to looking at anything, except the image of the song as I "feel" it. I really do feel it.
So, off I go. This is going to be an adventure for everyone who knows what they're doing and asks themselves, how did she get cast in this role? She doesn't even read music!
Some things just go together. Fanny Brice and the Spotlight, Me and the dream of playing Fanny Brice. It's something I've been waiting my whole life to do, and I don't even know if I knew I was waiting until one day when I sat down with that Anita Sleeman character and started talking about what we would do "if we had a theatre". We would do Funny Girl. It went on our list and now we do have a theatre so that's the way that went down!
I will be musically directed, and dramatically directed and I will find Fanny Brice and I will lay her out on the stage in Fountain Inn.
She will be okay in my loving care, I promise.