Photo: Rebecca J. Michelson
Micaela Diamondis marching back ontoBroadwayin style.
Now, the formerCher Showstar tells PEOPLE, the strong response toParade’s return is “still kind of blowing my mind,” adding that her second Broadway opening night is much different than her first.
Rebecca J. Michelson
“My dress feels like a perfect blend of Lucille and me. It’s feminine and soft, but strong and structured at the same time — and kind of romantic in a beautiful way,” she says. “I’m just a complete departure from who I was duringCher, which was all sequins and glitter and my body, and this just feels like my heart instead.”
For opening night, Diamond dazzled in an Aje-designed dress, accessorizing with Ettika earrings, Dolce Vita shoes and a vintage ring, a look she initially “pinned on Pinterest as inspiration” before she was “able to get that actual dress.”
There’s something about Lucille that just “feels so feminine and soft, and Lucille feels very stuck in between two worlds: one being Leo’s world and one being the South,” she says. “And this dress, all at once, feels very Southern and Jewish to me.”
UnlikeParade,The Cher Show(Diamond’s first Broadway endeavor at age 19), “felt very sexy, and [Cher] has been this symbol for like body-ody-ody,” Diamond explains, adding that she donned aBob Mackievintage dress when she openedCher.
PHOTO: Rebecca J. MichelsonPHOTO: Rebecca J. MichelsonPHOTO: Rebecca J. Michelson
“That is no longer really a priority in my life, which feels like such a relief in a lot of ways and is not a priority for this story in any way.”
Her Lucille Frank is a complete departure from young Cher. InParade, Diamond plays a Southern wife living in Atlanta when her husband, Leo, has been accused of raping and murdering his 13-year-old employee Mary Phagan.
While Leo continuously maintains his innocence, despite being convicted in 1913, Lucille fights tirelessly for his case to be reopened. (Leo’s death sentence was commuted to life in prison two years after his conviction, and he received a posthumous pardon decades after his death.)
Diamond says the musical ends in a “hopeful place” and that the story is “unfortunately so timely” followingantisemitic protestsoutside the theater on its first Broadway preview performance.
“What I think was special for me was that she said, ‘I couldn’t breathe the whole time. I kept having to remind myself to breathe.’ And I think she meant that for many reasons,” Diamond explains. “I think that the story really affected her. Something that’s so cool about the show is you know exactly what’s gonna happen, and yet you still find yourself holding your breath.”
Courtesy Micaela Diamond
She adds, “[My mother] felt that so intensely, especially the first few times she saw it. And I think she was also just holding her breath because we are linked in inextricably unexplainable ways, and she can feel my nervousness and me when I hold my breath.”
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Of her first performance back on Broadway followingThe Cher Show, she says, “There was nothing like that night, and I’m sure the opening [ofParade] is gonna feel crazy, too!”
source: people.com
