Lea Michele to Star as Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL Starting 9/6; Beanie Feldstein Departing 7/31 — Page 21

Lea will bring true talent and Broadway quality to the role. That is why I buy a ticket.

It is truly scandalous that this producer pushed his daughter, and tried to play the "woke" card to let her get away with the lack of talent and suitability for the role and music. That kind of behaviour needs to be stopped. And luckily, it seems that this problem solves itself.

If we would try to cancel every person who ever made a snarky remark or joke backstage, there would be no Broadway performers left. I care about quality, not about backstage sensitivity. That is why I love Patti Lupone too. Can't wait to see the show in good shape!

KJisgroovy said: ""While I don’t remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or color of their skin, that’s not really the point. What matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people...I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused. We all can grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect my own shortcomings...listened to these criticisms and I am learning and while I am very sorry, I will be better in the future from this experience.”

Feels like an apology. Could she have gone further? Yea absolutely. Is she still probably not a nice lady, yea probably. But she did apologize. You do have to allow space for people to grow."

As an apology, her handlers/PR team could have issued a better statement. This one was too cookie cutter, down to the growing part.

CarlosAlberto said: "Jordan Catalano said: "There’s a LOT of discussions like this going on today and they’re not going to just stop."

There's a lot of people who remain angry at Lea Michele even after apologizing: I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused -which the lady in that tiktok video that Jordan linked claims she never did.

People are going to hear what they want to hear and feel what they want to feel and I guarantee you that if Lea Michele went to the top of the highest mountain right now and gave a heartfelt apology for all that she has allegedly done it still would not be enough for these people.

Lea will go on, play this role and she may even surprise some people, make a comeback and get all her flowers and guess what? These people will still stay mad. That is too bad for them because holding on to that much hate and vitriol is not healthy.

At this point they are not hurting Lea Michele - they're hurting themselves."

It seems indisputable that she was awful to a lot of people over her career, in particular to those who had less power than she did. When she did apologize—only after being called out—her apology did not take ownership of her behavior. I don’t blame anyone for not accepting it. And while she needed to apologize, no one is required to accept an apology from someone who has harmed them. That doesn’t make the victim small or petty. It’s okay to write someone off when they hurt you.

Obviously the producers are betting it won’t matter. They’re probably right. She will likely be quite good. Bad people win all the time.

PipingHotPiccolo said: "BrodyFosse123 said: "Not even an Emmy Award nod for Beanie or even the series. "

I guess we can add being passed over for an Emmy Award to the list of fictitious failings assigned to Beanie Feldstein on these boards. (the nominations havent even happened yet).

"

I noticed this, too. I'm thinking WTF is he rambling about - the nominations for 2021-22 haven't even been announced yet.

BJR said: " I was upset by MJ. While others don't care. For whatever their reasons.

As it should be."

still cant believe MJ is a thing at all, just absolutely wild, but now IT is the non-controversial, hum-drum show on 52nd street.

skies said: "KJisgroovy said: ""While I don’t remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or color of their skin, that’s not really the point. What matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people...I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused. We all can grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect my own shortcomings...listened to these criticisms and I am learning and while I am very sorry, I will be better in the future from this experience.”

Feels like an apology. Could she have gone further? Yea absolutely. Is she still probably not a nice lady, yea probably. But she did apologize. You do have to allow space for people to grow."

As an apology, her handlers/PR team could have issued a better statement. This one was too cookie cutter, down to the growing part."

No apology would be good enough for you or anyone else who’s holding onto this.

Playland said: "Sorry to ask - I'm late to the discussion.

What was the thought process to give Beanie the role in the first place? I had seen her in Hello Dolly and she was fine but why were people so excited when she got the role of Fanny?

I'm not trying to be snarky - I just don't know.



"

Doing even the least bit of digging in these threads would reveal that answer, but since you asked:

No one actually knows the truth. Depending on who you ask, Michael Mayer approached her directly; or her parents/team threw some money around to get the production going; or she did some kind of work session with a MD to see if she could handle the role. Regardless of HOW she got the role officially, she’s an actress on the rise with some critically-acclaimed credits on her resume in both film and TV and she was slated to star in what (I can only assume) the producers and her team thought was going to be a perfect marriage of hit TV show aligning with a big Broadway headlining moment.

The people that were excited (myself included) have enjoyed her enough in those past projects to overlook the fact that any evidence of her singing abilities was… lacking, let’s just say. The detractors (probably rightfully so, in hindsight) argued that without the vocal ability/stamina, there’s simply no point to mounting FG at all. Frankly, the detractors were sort of right in the vocal department, as she really is not good. She’s just not. It doesn’t help that the show is also not good and the “revisions” make it worse, and that the production around the lead performance is so lackluster and sad to look at.

As for whether this will hurt her chances of working again, I think folks are taking far too much glee (no pun intended) in this. It’s not like she did anything malicious. She’s a young actress trying to make her stamp on the entertainment industry and took a dream opportunity that would have been near impossible to pass up. She probably learned a lot more from this experience than she would have if she had actually been appropriate for the role.

CarlosAlberto said: "OhHiii said: "skies said: "KJisgroovy said: ""While I don’t remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or color of their skin, that’s not really the point. What matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people...I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused. We all can grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect my own shortcomings...listened to these criticisms and I am learning and while I am very sorry, I will be better in the future from this experience.”

Feels like an apology. Could she have gone further? Yea absolutely. Is she still probably not a nice lady, yea probably. But she did apologize. You do have to allow space for people to grow."

As an apology, her handlers/PR team could have issued a better statement. This one was too cookie cutter, down to the growing part."

No apology would be good enough for you or anyone else who’s holding onto this."

Exactly the point of my last post.

"

Ok? This wasn’t a response to you.

OhHiii said: "No apology would be good enough for you or anyone else who’s holding onto this."

Auggie27 said: "It is worth nothing that the infamous incident and apology are prominently featured in the NY Times recast announcement this morning. Many assumed it was mere social media chatter, off-stage/set action kept alive by soft news/entertainment "gossip" sites. Yet it was deemed significant enough to warrant inclusion in an article about her big career move, and include Michel's full apology. We can suspect that neither the production nor her team expected this in the Funny Girls news."

Youuuu have not a clue. The producers were well aware what the risks were and everything. They don't live under a rock. They know about it, deemed it not sufficiently concerning to not move forward, and Lea Michele will be playing Fanny Brice come September on Broadway. And from what I hear, the box office looked MIGHTY good yesterday. The way people are obsessing over this and screaming into the void of social media like it's going to change a single thing is delusional. There's a Michael Jackson musical on Broadway. Lea Michele in Funny Girl pales in comparison. Move on.

A Director said: "shocktheatre said:
Break a leg, Lea. I sincerely mean that.

Well, ain't you a little ray of sunshine!"



Yeah, that was a very disturbing comment. Surprised the Moderators let it stand

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "OhHiii said: "Lea Michele in Funny Girl pales"

PLEASE may she look more pale, less orange by the time she reaches the stage in Funny Girl

It is hard to overstate how little "controversy" like this matters at the box office, at the end of the day. TOOTSIE closed because audiences weren't connecting with it, not because of any online "backlash." The online chatter around COMET sent Patinkin running, but it did not hurt the box office more than the box office was already hurt. Etc..."

This is correct.

The vast majority of ticketbuyers have no clue about controversies like these, which are largely contained to a very insular, and very online, Broadway community, which skews younger and/or toward people already in the industry.