Lea Michele as Fanny - Funny Girl — Page 69

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PipingHotPiccolo said: "Jarethan said: "

The irony is that the same people who obsess about the casting of FB probably loved Nathan Lane play Max Bialystock, even though his ancestors came from Ireland and he was raised a Catholic. But that's okay. The same people are pushing for Alex Newell, born a biological male, to be cast as Effie, born a biological woman. One could argue that 'authentic' casting would rule out AN, but they don't care. The pure arbitrariness of some of these strong opinions is tiresome.

."

Infuriating how many people keep banging their head against a wall to make a pointless point. Not only is Max Bialystock, ya know, FICTIONAL, but The Producers did not promote itself as emphasizing the importance of Max Bialystock's heritage, did not emphasize the Judaism in the book in marketing/promotions, and was not produced in the context of a push for representation. I agree that representation is a nice idea but should not get in the way of solid casting, but IGNORING this context to make the same point again and again is just downright offensive by now in that it simpy discards the concerns raised by people (and not just Jews, another slur that keeps getting bandied about here)."

But also… Hamilton.. so …

I’m sure there are plenty of examples of people playing real life people who don’t really resemble them. (Heck Bradley cooper has a big fake nose to play Bernstein&hellip

We have friends that travelled to the city this weekend in their second attempt to see Lea in the show. She was out again . I’m a little dumbfounded by some of these absences. Especially when they occur after a Julie Thursday and she makes posts from her “happy place” at the beach. Not saying she wasn’t really sick or on vocal rest. It just rubs me as a little insensitive when people have spent money on tickets , travel , and lodging to see you in a show. That’s all.

"So Lea Michele is still Lea Michele? Shocking!

(i too have been surprised by how little sniping she has gotten in these parts for missing so many shows- something I very much would NOT come after her for, but does everyone remember when Beanie took a pre-scheduled weekend off to go to a wedding or something?)"

Maybe because Lea saved this show and made it the Broadway show to see.

hearthemsing22 said: "It's truly insane how much people waste their time being like "she's missed "x" amount of shows, she shouldn't have been hired! Have Julie Benko take over!". Like shut up. Don't they realize 1. actors are not machines and they are entitled to time off and 2. People miss shows all the time but I agree because the show says when she's out so much, people feel the need to attack her. It's ridiculous and they need to get a life."

I will never understand why the social media manager of the FG Instagram account doesn't turn off comments on the "Lea will be out" posts. All it does is rally the Julie stans, and demand she be given the Fanny role full time.

Granted, Lea does tend to call out when she has planned time off, but who knows why? Maybe she figures an extended vocal rest is in order. The problem is, it's frustrating as hell for people who have traveled from out of town for the sole purpose of seeing her.

I'm at the point where I can't wait for the show to close just not to hear this anymore.

I would love to have a count of how many performances Lea was in and how many she missed. She couldn't do anything about Covid, her son's hospitalization and pre-arranged engagements, but it still seems like she missed a lot. Would also love to see a count of the number of performances she performed, Beanie performed, and Julie performed. It would just be a really interesting piece of theatre trivia.

Overall, however, remembering that Carol Channing missed one performance in her entire career (if I remember correctly, it was because she broke down and took an over-the-counter pain medicine and was so affected by it that she could not go on.

I have been very lucky in that department. In 57 years of theatregoing, I have been disappointed by absences maybe 5 times. Seriously. It wasn't that long ago that people had to be really sick to miss a performance.

I think it is particularly unfortunate re LM because I would suspect that, at this point, 80% of ticket sales are because of her.

"Seriously. It wasn't that long ago that people had to be really sick to miss a performance. "

Sports stars regularly miss games now due to "load management", fancy way of saying they are given time off to rest. I am willing to give her all the rest she needs because she literally saved this show.

I think it is particularly unfortunate re LM because I would suspect that, at this point, 80% of ticket sales are because of her.

Not trying to be snarky but I would say 95% of ticket sales are because of her.

Jarethan said: "I would love to have a count of how many performances Lea was in and how many she missed. She couldn't do anything about Covid, her son's hospitalization and pre-arranged engagements, but it still seems like she missed a lot. Would also love to see a count of the number of performances she performed, Beanie performed, and Julie performed. It would just be a really interesting piece of theatre trivia."

Id love to see these numbers. I do NOT begrudge Lea for taking time off--its a tough role, shes made those producers millions of dollars, letting her do her own thing sorta comes with the territory.

But I *do* remember the reaction when Beanie missed shows and the response is... different.

PipingHotPiccolo said: "Jarethan said: "I would love to have a count of how many performances Lea was in and how many she missed. She couldn't do anything about Covid, her son's hospitalization and pre-arranged engagements, but it still seems like she missed a lot. Would also love to see a count of the number of performances she performed, Beanie performed, and Julie performed. It would just be a really interesting piece of theatre trivia."

Id love to see these numbers. I do NOT begrudge Lea for taking time off--its a tough role, shes made those producers millions of dollars, letting her do her own thing sorta comes with the territory.

But I *do* remember the reaction when Beanie missed shows and the response is... different."

The reaction was different because she took a lot of personal days off and when Julie came on for her, people realize how much better Julie is. That’s very different than how things are now.

PipingHotPiccolo said: "Jarethan said: "I would love to have a count of how many performances Lea was in and how many she missed. She couldn't do anything about Covid, her son's hospitalization and pre-arranged engagements, but it still seems like she missed a lot. Would also love to see a count of the number of performances she performed, Beanie performed, and Julie performed. It would just be a really interesting piece of theatre trivia."

Id love to see these numbers. I do NOT begrudge Lea for taking time off--its a tough role, shes made those producers millions of dollars, letting her do her own thing sorta comes with the territory.

But I *do* remember the reaction when Beanie missed shows and the response is... different."

The reaction was different. But different things was feeding that reaction at the time. People were rattled by her performance, the reviews, the box office, her appearance at a event the same day she missed a performance and posing for a pic with a defiant smirk (anyone have a link to that?), the allegations of nepotism. It was a poo poo storm.

Updated On: 7/25/23 at 10:17 PM

"But I *do* remember the reaction when Beanie missed shows and the response is... different."

Lea is a star and the show would not still be running without her stepping into the role and getting rave reviews. Millions of dollars in ticket sales and merchandising are due to Lea reviving the show. Due to that, people will be more forgiving of her taking time off. Seems to me most of it has been for fairly good reason, she missed shows due to getting COVID and health issue with her child. I do not follow Beanie and have no idea why she missed shows. My feeling is if her bosses were ok with it, then it is no problem (that is why there is understudy for that role)

Updated On: 7/25/23 at 10:43 PM