Lea Michele

2022 - 7 - 11

Beanie Feldstein Beanie Feldstein

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Image courtesy of "Forbes"

Lea Michele Replacing Beanie Feldstein In 'Funny Girl' On ... (Forbes)

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.

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Image courtesy of "Variety"

Lea Michele Replaces Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice in ... (Variety)

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.

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Image courtesy of "The A.V. Club"

Well, Lea Michele is going to star in Funny Girl after all (The A.V. Club)

The Glee alum will succeed Beanie Feldstein in the Broadway revival in September.

Current Funny Girl standby Julie Benko will take over the role in the interim period between Feldstein’s July 31 departure and Michele’s September 6 start date. Having one’s entire Broadway run overshadowed by the mere specter of another actor, only for that actor to come in and snag the role, can’t feel good. Rumblings that Michele might join the production first began when Feldstein’s initial departure was announced, but her path to the Funny Girl stage began long before that.

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Image courtesy of "St. Louis Jewish Light"

Lea Michele will replace Beanie Feldstein in 'Funny Girl' (St. Louis Jewish Light)

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.

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Image courtesy of "Vogue.com"

Here's Everything You Need to Know About Lea Michele and 'Funny ... (Vogue.com)

A cross-section of Broadway aficionados, “Glee” fans, and people who generally gravitate toward drama stood by for news at 1 p.m. sharp on Monday—not about ...

“I believe you told everyone that, if you had the opportunity, you would ‘s— in my wig!’ amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood.” It’s not every day that the internet breathlessly clamors for musical-theater announcements, but this was a special case: the latest development in a lengthy saga surrounding the long-awaited return of Funny Girl and which actress would—could possibly—helm it in the long shadow of Barbra Streisand, who originated the role in the 1960s. With that said, was she unpleasant to work with? In season 1, episode 13 of Glee in 2009, Michele belted out “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” Funny Girl’s biggest, schmaltziest show tune, establishing herself as a logical choice if Funny Girl were ever revived. In 2015, Glee creator Ryan Murphy had obtained the rights to revive Funny Girl on Broadway, providing a vehicle for Michele. On Watch What Happens Live in 2017, Michele told Andy Cohen: “I just talked to Ryan Murphy the other night. But if I’m going to go back [to Broadway musicals after starring in Spring Awakening], that’s what I’d really like to do.” Alas, Broadway World subsequently reported that Murphy no longer held the rights to the show.

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Image courtesy of "E! Online"

Lea Michele Confirmed to Star in Broadway's Funny Girl After ... (E! Online)

Hours after Beanie Feldstein announced she was stepping away from the role of Fanny Brice in Broadway's Funny Girl, the production announced that Lea ...

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Image courtesy of "The Cut"

Will the Internet Ever Get Over Lea Michele's Funny Girl Casting? (The Cut)

Lea Michele will finally play Fanny Brice in 'Funny Girl' on Broadway, a role she's been publicly campaigning for for over a decade. As announced on Monday, ...

Now, just a handful of months later, Feldstein announced on Sunday that she would be leaving the Funny Girl revival ahead of schedule, writing on Jane Lynch, who famously played Coach Sue Sylvester on Glee opposite Michele for six seasons, also announced that she would be leaving the show the day before Michele will make her debut on September 6, and not at the end of the month as had previously been announced. When it was first announced that Feldstein would be playing Fanny Brice on Broadway, Lea Michele trended on Twitter as people imagined her jealousy at losing out on the role. Lea Michele has been campaigning to star in Funny Girl for years, ever since she sang “Don’t Rain on My Parade” in the season-one mid-season finale of Glee in 2009.

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Image courtesy of "CityNews"

At 'Funny Girl,' Lea Michele is in, Beanie Feldstein is out | CityNews ... (CityNews)

NEW YORK (AP) — Lea Michele has been tapped to step in and lead the Broadway revival of the beleaguered “Funny Girl” this fall, an announcement made just ...

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Image courtesy of "TownandCountrymag.com"

Lea Michele, Fanny Brice, and the Art of Trying Too Hard (TownandCountrymag.com)

Top: Lea Michele as her Glee character Rachel Berry, performing the role of Fanny Brice. Bottom: Barbra Streisand in the original film. Michael StillwellGetty ...

At the same time that Michele was playing a girl with no chill who could sing on TV, Anne Hathaway won an Oscar for Les Misérables—and was unfavorably compared, in her forthright earnestness, to the nonplussed Jennifer Lawrence, whose whatever attitude toward fame was endlessly fawned over and deemed quintessentially cool. When it comes to fame, and especially to famous young women, having no chill can be the kiss of death for one’s so-called likeability. Along with that jolt of nostalgia, Michele seems to be benefiting from her unlikely position as the underdog Fanny Brice. After she lost out on the role of a lifetime, lackluster notices for her presumed revival have found her back on the upswing. “I don’t know the woman whatsoever,” Feldstein said in the spirit of Mariah Carey, adding that Michele had written her a nice note of congratulations. In other words, the character of Lea Michele in the public imagination is not unlike Fanny Brice, the aspiring comedienne and vocal powerhouse whose ascent to stardom is the subject of Funny Girl, the musical that catapulted Barbra Streisand into her own stratosphere. For little reason other than she was at the height of her TV fame, Michele performed “Don’t Rain on My Parade” at the Tony Awards in 2010.

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Image courtesy of "Jezebel"

The Lea Michele/Beanie Feldstein 'Funny Girl' Casting Saga Just ... (Jezebel)

Gossip is swirling around Feldstein's departure and Michele's casting in the Broadway revival.

- Cardi B claimed the Shade Room is gaslighting her by posting negative stories about her and blocking her ability to comment. However, a source in that story also claims, contrary to the last Page Six story, that producers were “absolutely aware” Feldstein was making her announcement and had approved its language. Delicious. “A source tells us that following poor reviews of Feldstein’s performance and declining ticket sales, producers turned sour on the star and fell off the Beanie bandwagon,” according to the item. “She’s like, ‘You brought me here in the first place!’” Freedom is just around the corner, Beans. That announcement of Feldstein’s, by the way, “blindsided” producers, according to Page Six. “A Broadway insider tells us that producers were planning on making the announcement on Monday–but Feldstein, 29, “beat them to the punch when she posted on Sunday evening,” read the rag’s report. In a follow-up story, Page Six reported that anonymous sources claimed that Feldstein was “basically fired,” which maybe gives her Instagram goodbye a distinct you-can’t-fire-me-‘cause-I-quit flavor.

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