Lea Michele as Fanny - Funny Girl — Page 15

brdwybound04 said: "Any chance this show gets recorded to preserve Lea’s incredible vocals??"

they are morons if they don’t record it. regardless of her recording 5 of the songs on Glee her performance of the songs is much more nuanced from the intervening decade it would be worth it to have it on record (not mentioning the shame it would be to have the first ever revival of the show unrecorded). seems like an easy win to me - plus Vanessa Williams and Brooke Shields got their recordings when they were replacements and they’re nowhere near the vocal level of Lea

Azúcar! said: "I think BWW jumped the gun on the reviews announcement. I imagine that between her COVID and the Jewish holidays most critics have not had a chance to see her. I was also hoping for a big official reopening night like was done for Bernadette in Dolly. But these producers don’t make good choices."

I think they even took the link down?

LesWickedly said: "I actually think having Lea replace makes for way more success than others have suggested, saying she should have just opened. Yes, she'd most likely be giving the same incredible performance and sure more critical praise overall, but I think so much of her success in the show is the "saving the day" aspect of it. A year ago if she had ben announced as Fanny, I and many others would have been bored and not excited about it. It took seeing someone else (love Beanie as a performer and don't think she's deserving of half the hate that has been thrown her way), to realize that yup, I just wanna see Lea Michele do this. "

Totally agree.This story just gives and gives with the twist and the turns. Folks who gleefully declared that Lea would never play Fanny Brice on a broadway stage a year ago had to eat crow! You can't make this stuff up! Here's the SMASH reboot. LOL!

I keep thinking what an awesome book this all would make. Not just the bts of the revival, but the drama with the original too. Sort of like one of those inside baseball books they do after every election cycle when lips get loose and folks start talking on the record. I'd probably be the only nerd reading it, but God would I read the heck out of that thing! I guess I'll just have to wait for the Waiting in the Wings video, but he seems kind of biased going by the quick vid he put out after the initial casting announcement.

If they had already made a recording of this revival, I'd be with the people saying there's no point, but I can't see a better reason to record now. This isn't like putting Brooke Shields' vocals in an already recorded and released album or re-recording a new album of the same production like Vanessa Williams in Spider-Woman. This would be the one and only preservation of *this* revival.

It seems like the stars are aligning and I hope (if only to get Lea's ELECTRIC Cornet Man and The Music That Makes Me Dance on recording alone) that the producers finally decide to make the second good decision of this revival - the first being Lea's casting. Please!

NY Times review:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/29/theater/funny-girl-review-lea-michele.html

Lea Michele, who took over the role on Sept. 6, turns out to be that stupendous Fanny. Yes, she even lights up like a light. Both vulnerable and invulnerable, kooky and ardent, she makes the show worth watching again.

How thrilling for all involved. The must see event of the Fall. The cast recording will happen hopefully!

"Benko, who is still the Thursday night Fanny, sings the role very well, so you never worry, as you did with Feldstein, that she might not make it through the songs. Then too, Benko gets closer to the dark heart of the comedy, backfilling its shtick with something like anger. Still, good as she is, her voice and the rest of her performance don’t yet match; she even has a different accent when acting the role than when singing it. Michele matches throughout. Her voice, an exceptional instrument, is not an ornament but a tool, and she knows how to use it"



Yep.

Very interesting NYTimes review - the catching headline and opening paragraphs are the kind of things the Producers could only have hoped for because I assume the average reader won't bother to go any further and just buy tickets. However, the review itself can get quite negative at points. Benko also gets her own mini-review at one point, and it's not exactly a rave!

"She can’t make it good, though. Michael Mayer’s production is still garish and pushy, pandering for audience overreaction. A confetti cannon tries to put an exclamation point on a dud dance. Many of the minor players overplay. The lighting by Kevin Adams would make a rat clap, and the unusually ugly set by David Zinn seems weaponized against intimacy. It looks like a missile silo."

"Benko, who is still the Thursday night Fanny, sings the role very well, so you never worry, as you did with Feldstein, that she might not make it through the songs. Then too, Benko gets closer to the dark heart of the comedy, backfilling its shtick with something like anger. Still, good as she is, her voice and the rest of her performance don’t yet match; she even has a different accent when acting the role than when singing it."

I also appreciate calling out the audience here. One of the most annoying things ever about theatre right now is the people that apparently LOVE it so much when people hit the money note they LITERALLY SCREAM OVER IT. It's actually SO STUPID.

"Unfortunately, you may not hear it [Don't Rain on My Parade]. Despite the amped-up vocals, the amped-up audience is often even louder than Michele. (On Tuesday, one of her several mid-show standing ovations was actually mid-song.)"

And ouch, apparently Lea Michele isn't actually a Funny Girl after all.

"In a way, she’s almost too serious for the show; comedy, at any rate, isn’t her (or its) best suit. That’s a problem when the title is “Funny Girl.” Still, when Michele is given a good situation to play, as when Nick seduces her in a restaurant, she gets good laughs. Other times, as in an embarrassing in-joke added post-Feldstein, coyly referring to a song sung on roller skates in the 1968 movie, she looks lost, even as the audience yuks on cue."

In my opinion, had Lea Michele opened the show to this mixed NYTimes review without a flashy headline I think the hype would not quite be the same right now. The stars have aligned for Lea Michele and she has replaced at exactly the right time for her. Now it'll go down in theatre history.

"The lighting by Kevin Adams would make a rat clap,"



This had me howling. But this is definitely a rave for Lea Michelle. The nit picking on the comedy is more about the book than her.

Not sure if I am apparently one of those ‘hateful’ members. Sorry that apparently quoting and describing the the NYtimes review which says comedy isn’t her strong suit and she ‘looks lost’ at tImes as not exactly a rave would be considered ‘hateful’. I would be excited to see the show with her and would buy a full price ticket to see her now if I could. But I think I’m just saying a spade is a spade. The language clearly says she AND the show (not just the show) have issues being funny. That is not a rave. At best perhaps it’s a qualified rave, perhaps mixed is too strongly negative.

binau said: "Not sure if I am apparently one of those ‘hateful’ members. Sorry that apparently quoting and describing the the NYtimes review which says comedy isn’t her strong suit and she ‘looks lost’ at tImesas not exactly a rave would be considered ‘hateful’. I would be excited to see the show with her and would buy a full price ticket to see her now if I could. But I think I’m just saying a spade is a spade. The language clearly says she AND the show (not just the show) have issues being funny. That is not a rave. At best perhaps it’s a qualified rave, perhaps mixed is too strongly negative."

I wasn't referring to you...

But go ahead and get defensive and over-explain things I wasn't even questioning nor care about.

So much wasted energy...SMDH.

Updated On: 9/29/22 at 02:25 PM

binau said: "Not sure if I am apparently one of those ‘hateful’ members. Sorry that apparently quoting and describing the the NYtimes review which says comedy isn’t her strong suit and she ‘looks lost’ at tImesas not exactly a rave would be considered ‘hateful’. I would be excited to see the show with her and would buy a full price ticket to see her now if I could. But I think I’m just saying a spade is a spade. The language clearly says she AND the show (not just the show) have issues being funny. That is not a rave. At best perhaps it’s a qualified rave, perhaps mixed is too strongly negative."

I do not think it was meant at you. But try as you may.. both the NYT review and Washington Post reviews are raves for her. What you mention in the times review is what I would call a quibble. And we all already know about the show itself. It reads a little like you are trying to rain on her parade. But just like Beanie .. all you could do is try.. but you do not succeed... just like Beanie.

Hahaha. Someone should make a documentary of Lea Michele’s journey to the show and include some of this fandom in it. Or perhaps Jesse Tyler Ferguson can do some dramatic line readings of our posts again. The idea of our online culture assigning me as the Beanie of this situation is witty.