Beanie Feldstein

Glee actress Lea Michele will take over the role of Fanny Brice in Broadway's Funny Girl starting in September, the musical announced Monday, ...

After stepping back from performing following those allegations, Michele has more recently returned to the spotlight with Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known, a HBO documentary about the Broadway musical Spring Awakening that Michele starred in from 2006 to 2008. Though Michele has expressed her interest in playing Brice for years, her casting is a controversial choice given the actress has recently come under fire for allegedly mistreating her Glee castmates. Ticket sales for Funny Girl have steadily gone down in recent weeks—the show grossed $1.26 million the week ending May 29—which is likely why producers chose to change up the casting and replace Feldstein.

Lea Michele, a known Barbra Streisand superfan, was previously rumored to take over for Beanie Feldstein, who started playing Fanny Brice in April.

Feldstein then shared in a statement posted to Instagram Sunday night that she would be leaving “Funny Girl” at the end of July — two months earlier than the initially announced date. “The people I have had the great joy of bringing Funny Girl to life with every night, both on and off stage, are all remarkably talented and exceptional humans.” “Funny Girl” received largely negative reviews. Michele has history with Fanny Brice; her “Glee” character, Rachel Berry, performed several “Funny Girl” songs on the show and even landed the role in the fictional universe’s revival. After Feldstein took a break from the show because she tested positive for the coronavirus, she announced in June that her last performance would be Sept. 25. By early July, that number dropped to just below 75 percent.

Beanie Feldstein confirmed her departure from "Funny Girl" on Instagram, writing that being in the show "has been a great joy and true honor."

The bittersweet comedy tells the tale of a Jewish girl from New York in the 1920s who went from burlesque to Broadway stages despite criticism that she wasn’t conventionally beautiful. Streisand starred in it on Broadway in 1964 and then won an Oscar in the 1968 film version. “Once the production decided to take the show in a different direction, I made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated,” Feldstein explained. She had said she would depart the show Sept. 25, but now won’t last past the end of July. Feldstein has missed several performances in recent weeks, including a weekend matinee. Michele, who started her career on Broadway in productions of "Les Misérables," "Ragtime," "Fiddler on the Roof" and starred in the original “Spring Awakening” recently returned to the work with the documentary “Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known.”

Beanie Feldstein is leaving her Broadway show early, but her replacement is no stranger to the stage.

The return to Broadway has the potential to be a big one. Lea Michele had made her interest in the role known since before the plan to revive Funny Girl was originally announced. Michele apologized for her behavior, but has been largely away from the big or small screen since. In addition to Michele taking over as Fanny Brice, it was also announced that Tovah Feldshuh was taking over the role of Mrs. Brice, which has been played by Jane Lynch. The new casting will take effect September 6. Whether she made the decision to leave herself due to the less than stellar reviews, or was asked to do so, is far from clear. Now the actress has decided to leave the show earlier than anticipated, but Funny Girl has found a big name to takeover as Lea Michele has just been announced as the new Fanny Brice.

Funny Girl, written by Jules Styne, Bob Merrill, and Isobel Lennart, opened on Broadway in 1964 with a relatively unknown musical-theater actor by the name of ...

After starring on Broadway as a child and breaking through as an adult in the Broadway production of Spring Awakening (remember, Michael Mayer!), Michele was cast as Rachel Berry in Ryan Murphy’s Glee—which, in some ways, was tantamount to a yearslong audition for the role of Fanny Brice. Rachel was obsessed with Barbra Streisand and performed several of Streisand’s songs on the show—most notably “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” which Michele also performed live at the Tony Awards in 2010. A theater kid at heart, Feldstein made no secret of the fact that it was always her dream to play Fanny Brice on Broadway. When she was three years old, Feldstein had a *Funny Girl–*themed birthday party, and in an interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers, Feldstein said that she decided not tell her mom that she was auditioning for the new production of Funny Girl. “I was like ‘If this doesn’t go my way, it’s going to hurt her so much more than it’s going to hurt me,’” she said. In an interview with the New York Times Style section, Feldstein shared that the entire audition process happened over Zoom. “The expression ‘lifelong dream’—that statement feels very applicable to me,” Feldstein told Vogue of the opportunity. Over the past roughly 60 years, there have been plenty of concerts and regional productions of Funny Girl, but never a Broadway revival. Babs would go on to achieve worldwide superstardom as a movie star, director, songwriter, recording artist, and woman who cloned her dogs and has a mall in her basement. For theater g(l)eeks across the world, Michele stepping into the role is, perhaps, the most chaotic thing to happen on Broadway since Avenue Q beat Wicked for best musical at the Tonys in 2004.

Lea Michele has been tapped to step in and lead the Broadway revival of the beleaguered “Funny Girl" this fall.

Any press is good press, I guess,” says theater, film and television historian Mark A. Robinson, the author of “Musical Misfires: Three Decades of Broadway Musical Heartbreak” and writer of the blog “The Music That Makes Me Dance.” The show will only continue to run toward breaking even with a name and someone who can do vocal justice to that glorious score. The bittersweet comedy tells the tale of a Jewish girl from New York in the 1920s who went from burlesque to Broadway stages despite criticism that she wasn’t conventionally beautiful. “I think the whole thing appears to be a PR nightmare, but clearly Beanie Feldstein is ready to move on. Streisand starred in it on Broadway in 1964 and then won an Oscar in the 1968 film version. Her Instagram post was notably liked by Broadway veteran Ramin Karimloo, who plays Brice's love interest in “Funny Girl” and is staying on.

After starring for the last three months as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl on Broadway, Beanie Feldstein announced that she's exiting the production earlier than ...

Ahead of Monday's formal announcement, it's also been reported that the show's producers are considering Lea Michele as a replacement, perhaps in addition with Feldstein's understudy Julie Benko. The actress, who had previously said her final show would be on September 25, revealed on social media that she'll be leaving her role earlier than expected. I will never forget this experience and from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank every single person who came to the August Wilson for the love and support you have shown me and our amazing cast and crew.”

Lea Michele will replace Beanie Feldstein as the lead of Broadway's revival of the extremely Jewish musical “Funny Girl.”

The revival of “Funny Girl,” the first on Broadway since Streisand originated the role, debuted in April amid sky-high expectations for Feldstein as the headliner. “Once the production decided to take the show in a different direction, I made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated.” Michele, who learned about her Sephardic Jewish ancestry on a 2016 reality show, will be joined in the cast by Feldshuh, who will be another “Glee” star, Jane Lynch, in the role of Fanny’s mother. In her exit announcement, she suggested that she was leaving early because the revival would be undergoing major changes. Her character on “Glee,” Rachel Berry, even starred in the show-within-a-show’s Broadway revival of “Funny Girl.” (Michele performed the show’s signature number, “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” on live “Glee” tours.) She sang a song from the show in a 2011 tribute to original star Barbra Streisand, whom Michele has said she considers her role model.

Sources tell Page Six that Beanie Feldstein was "basically fired" from Broadway's "Funny Girl" before abruptly quitting the show. Lea Michele is set to take ...

The Observer wrote that she has “a sweet, warm truthfulness that makes her more accessible. “Now, they’ve turned on her and kind of points fingers at her like she’s the reason the show isn’t working.” By the time the intermission seamlessly arrives, you’re in love.” “It’s not her fault. It was not a surprise to anyone.” An email went out yesterday from the producers letting the rest of the company know her last performance date and that the information would be released.

'Glee' actor Lea Michele will star in 'Funny Girl' on Broadway. The 'different direction' pushed Beanie Feldstein to exit two months earlier than expected.

(That is, until the release of HBO’s “Spring Awakening” documentary earlier this year, followed by numerous appearances at Broadway openings and the Tony Awards last month.) The “Funny Girl” lead is a gig that Michele has attempted to manifest for years. “Funny Girl” also will be Michele’s first major role since reports of her troubling behavior made headlines in 2020. This marks Michele’s first time on Broadway since exiting “Spring Awakening” in 2009. “I will never forget this experience, and from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank every single person who came to the August Wilson for the love and support you have shown me and our amazing cast and crew.” Lynch, however, will not be working with her former “Glee” co-star; she will now leave the production slightly earlier, on Sept. 4, and Feldshuh will play Mrs. Brice alongside Michele. And her singing is a mixed blessing. That date also was to be the final bow for Jane Lynch, who plays Brice’s mother in the musical. Michele will assume the role on Sept. 6, alongside newcomer Tovah Feldshuh as Mrs. Brice and current cast members Ramin Karimloo as Nick Arnstein and Jared Grimes as Eddie Ryan. She first started acting in Broadway’s “Les Misérables,” “Ragtime” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” and followed a six-season run on “Glee” with the short-lived TV shows “Scream Queens” and “The Mayor.” Playing Fanny Brice onstage has always been a tall order. Fanny Brice standby Julie Benko will play the title role from Aug. 2-Sept. 4 as well as on Thursdays beginning Sept. 8.

Michele will assume the role of Fanny Brice on Sept. 6. In the interim, Julie Benko will perform the title role from Aug. 2 through Sept. 4 and every Thursday ...

After graduation, her character goes on to star in the Broadway revival of “Funny Girl.” So, Michele certainly has practice belting the show’s greatest hits. The revival of “Funny Girl” opened on April 24 at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre to lackluster reviews. The revival, which came six decades after the original, only scored one Tony nomination for Jared Grimes’ take on Eddie Ryan, a dancer that Brice meets doing vaudeville. Michele will assume the role of Fanny Brice on Sept. 6. Michele’s casting as the incandescent comic and chanteuse Fanny Brice is proof, to some, that manifestation is real. Feldstein on Sunday night announced she would be leaving the show on July 31, roughly two months before she was slated to depart the production.