The breakout star of the Glee cast on Rachel Berry, Broadway auditions and how you can achieve your dreams
Lori Majewski

It’s just after 9 a.m. on a gray and rainy Saturday the kind of morning that has even the most energetic Los Angelenos hitting the snooze button and crawling back under their comforters. Lea Michele, however, is hard at work.

Strapped into a safety harness, the 5’3″ actress—who’s dressed in black knee-length workout pants and a matching zip-up top, her long, dark hair pulled back into a tight ponytail—is attempting to scale a 24-foot climbing wall at Rockreation, an indoor wonderland of sculpted vertical terrain. It’s a tough ascent, but Lea summits with ease, pulling herself up peg by … Read the rest

On FOX’s runaway hit “Glee,” Lea Michele’s character Rachel Berry isn’t shy about breaking into song when the time is right.

On a very different set constructed in the historic Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles, the actress channeled that same energy into a viral video for the new Dove Intense Repair Conditioner. Parodying Dove’s “Favorite Things” campaign, Michele belts out the famous tune while getting pro tips from celebrity stylist Gretta Monahan.

Clad in a thick and comfy terry cloth robe for a behind-the-scenes dressing room shot, Michele sat down with StyleList to chat exclusively about her own guilty pleasures and beauty must-haves.

StyleList: The Dove Hair campaign is all about taking care of your hair while enjoying your … Read the rest

News, views and reviews about the multi-talented women of the musical theatre and the concert/cabaret stage.

LEA MICHELE
This season presented Lea Michele a problem that any actress would be happy to face: Should she star as Eponine in the Broadway revival of the epic musical Les Misérables or should she create the role of Wendla in the Broadway mounting of Spring Awakening? The young actress says that it was the hardest decision she has yet to make, but after spending six years working on Spring — including the production’s acclaimed, much-extended, Off-Broadway engagement at the Atlantic Theater Company — she would opt for the Steven Sater-Duncan Sheik musical that is based on Frank Wedekind’s 1891 expressionist play. Spring … Read the rest

Michele, one of the breakout stars of Fox’s musical comedy Glee, is a tiny, petite wisp who speaks in soft, dulcet tones. But in person, she’s formidable.

“I always knew what I wanted to do,” says Michele, 23. And that was being on stage.

As a kid growing up in New Jersey, Michele began auditioning for and booking theater gigs, appearing in Broadway productions of Les Miserables, Ragtime and Fiddler on the Roof. It was her turn in the December 2006 hit musical Spring Awakening that earned her a Tony nomination and led her to Glee.

The series showcases Michele’s acting, dancing and singing talents, has garnered her … Read the rest