The daughter of Freydele Oisher drom Bessarabia. Michaels began performing with hermother at age 7on the Yiddish stage and throughout Canada. In 1965, after signing with ABC Paramount and starring at New York's Copacabana, as well as Las Vegas and London, Marilyn starred for a year as Fanny Brice in the National Company of Funny Girl. She reprised the role six months after the year-longrun ended when Carol Lawrence was injured before her turn as Fanny at the Westbury Music Fair in Long Island, New York. During Funny Girl, Marilyn made appearances on'The Dean Martin Show and The Red Skelton Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and The Jonathan Winters Show. In 1973 she starred as the only female performer in the Emmy-nominated co- medy series The Kopykats for ABC's Kraft Music Hall. Marilyn made her Broadway debut at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in the origi- nal cast ofCatskills on Broadway, which won the Outer Circle Critics Award for Best Comedy. She performed in her own revue, Broadway Ballyhoo, at Harrah's in Atlantic City, and was the host of the radio show The Broadway Hour on WEVD-AM New York. She has written two articles for The New York Times regarding the proposed revival of Funny Girl, and has composed the score, as well as co-written the libretto, to a new musical comedy, Alysha, with son Mark Wilk.