Lea Michele to Star as Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL Starting 9/6; Beanie Feldstein Departing 7/31- Page 26

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 10:36pm

Yeah, I can understand the production taking cues from Beanie for the first few of Benko’a performances, but when it  became clear that Benko was going on for 25% of performances… they should have been promoting her.

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 10:56pm

Julie Benko has 15K TikTok followers, and she was simply letting people know that she was going on, in case they wanted to see her. She created a lot of great buzz on Beanie's wedding weekend, and I think she was entitled to capitalize on that, while also keeping her fans in the loop. Beanie only has herself to blame for giving Julie so many opportunities to shine, so complaining later that she was getting too much attention is a bad look. Granted, the COVID absences were unavoidable, but it seems like the rest were not.

Updated On: 7/12/22 at 10:56 PM

[DAME]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 10:58pm

Sutton Ross said: "I thought Benko's posts were in poor form

Wait, why did you think that? I thought Julie wanted to alert people to her going on so they could be aware so they could exchange tickets if they wanted to. I think she just wanted people to be in the know. There wasn't a whiff of negativity unless Im missing something.

I thought Funny Girl's socials not mentioning or supporting her was in poor form, honestly."

I AGREE WITH YOU!  The whole thing is just so ugly.  The whole thing is just one big ugly mess.  

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:01pm

very silly to lay any blame at Benko's feet or expect the producers to have silenced her. wow.

but i dont know how anyone could read that Daily Beast piece and not come away disgusted with these producers. YES its a business, but in business YOUR choices have consequences.  Mayer chose her, rehearsed her, they built a whole production around her- there is ZERO indication she faltered in previews, or performed in a way that they weren't expecting. THEY decided she was doing just fine, THEY got a healthy advance in ticket sales and saw full audiences leaping to their feet, and then.... the critics and 400 theater nerds didnt like and suddenly they werent sure of her capabilities? What insecure, disloyal phonies. 

 

I think the reaction to Beanie here has been totally unhinged, dont get me wrong, but some of it was shock/disappointment with what she was capable of. THE PRODUCERS KNEW ALL OF THAT FROM THE GETGO. So they're encouraging her, promoting her, working with her--they admit now that shes lovely with the rest of the company and "putting in the work", and then the critics are frosty and these boards are demonic, and SUDDENLY they decide she isnt good anymore? Where were they int he two+ months prior? Really outrageous. 

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:04pm

I mean, she wasn’t good from the get go. So that’s Beanie’s fault and the producers. Like I said, she should have been fired in previews.

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:06pm

That doesnt make any sense. People have been fired during previews for poor chemistry, for not connecting with material, for not being able to connect with the audience. None of that was the problem with Beanie here. They knew how she sang-- what happened in previews that would have compelled them to fire her? The sold out adoring audiences? The way she did exactly what they thought she would? Makes NO sense.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:08pm

The reason doesn’t matter because they all essentially boil down to: you’re not good in this role. Hundreds of actors have been fired in previews for less. Beanie was a disaster from the start and when the realized she couldn’t sustain what little she had to offer 8 shows a week, she should have been gone.

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:09pm

PipingHotPiccolo said: "They knew how she sang-- what happened in previews that would have compelled them to fire her? The sold out adoring audiences? The way she did exactly what they thought she would? Makes NO sense."

Reviewers sat and watched. That’s what happened in previews.

[Andres LaFrazia]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:10pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK4DNhUvH_4

Watch My Vid On My Thoughts On This whole drama 

Updated On: 7/12/22 at 11:10 PM

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:11pm

The decision to post footage of the sitzprobe was the fatal scrape along the iceberg. There was no saving the sinking of that ship from that moment on.

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:13pm

And the audience suffers.  They buy tickets, perhaps at some sizable expense, with the expectation that they are going to see a first-class production.  A BROADWAY SHOW !!  But they get less;  Perhaps much less.  And there's nothing they can do about it.

I'm sending my best vibes to Lea and all involved, that this version of "Funny Girl" will honor the memory of Fanny Brice and be respectful to the audience.

[David10086]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:20pm

For those who keep saying 'in the 60s and 70s producers would've fired her during previews', let's not forget the disaster musical known as 'Breakfast Tiffany's' starring Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlain in the mid 1960s. 

 

Moore was getting horrible reviews in Boston, where he musical did it's tryouts, yet she was never fired. Diahann Carroll was talked about to replace her in Boston and open the show on Broadway, but Carroll stuck by MTM (who was merely an acquaintance) and told everyone to give her a chance and let her have her day in the spotlight. 

MTM went with the show to NYC, started previews and the show ended up closing days before it was to open. 

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:26pm

Yes, but Mary Tyler Moore was a household name and Merrick closed the show in previews. So… very different. And I think it’s difficult to argue that most shows change a lot in previews post-2000 when compared to shows in the 50s-70s.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:35pm

OMG - you guys are not comparing this to the disaster that was Holly Golightly/Breakfast at Tiffany’s - totally different era and completely different circumstances….WTF?!?!?!

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:39pm

Agreed. The two are not analogous.  

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:40pm

It would have been insane to fire Beanie in previews, and it is equally insane right now because the producers and creative team knew all along exactly what she was capable of and what she was giving and still offered her the job. I have seen dramatic transformations in performances from rehearsals to previews, to performances after opening. I’ve also seen and heard radical growth in an actor’s voice…but over years, not weeks. And growth in rehearsals/previews is rarely a fundamental thing…it’s more that a person loosens up in the process and is able to find more nuance.

 

she should never had the role to begin with. Period. 
 

I suspect most cases of actors getting fired in rehearsals or previews etc is the opposite: actors who peaked in their audition who are stiff and unresponsive and incapable of surrendering to the process. 

[Alecohanian]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:42pm

Updated On: 7/13/22 at 11:42 PM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:48pm

Sally Durant Plummer said: "Yes, but Mary Tyler Moore was a household name and Merrick closed the show in previews. So… very different."

Let's also remember Merrick was a madman. He closed a show that was selling very well when others would have kept it going (as I said above...sometimes bad shows make money). And MTM was just one of many problems with that show.

[Bill Snibson]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:50pm

Saw this in previews with Beanie/Jane and really disliked it. I can’t say that this new casting will get me to re-visit it. I’ll spend my money elsewhere. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/12/22 at 11:51pm

I think the producers/creatives just really leaned into the "putting FUNNY back in FUNNY GIRL," and didn't stop to think about 2022 audiences wanted. We don't want nasal, cutesy singing. Especially from this show that requires such a broad range of talents. 

Beanie is a character actor. Musical theater is very based on type. That's her type. Fanny Brice is not a character actress role. Plain and simple. 

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 12:35am

but the "we" there is a tiny minority of broadway message boarders and even tinier minority of critics. im not saying those views dont matter- they do, they poisoned and killed beanie here-- but the notion that the producers would KNOW what shes capable of, KNOW how she sounds, and then fire her when the critics didnt agree, is ugly and wrong. You people keep repeating "fired during previews" like parrots, but what was happening in previews? What exactly would have compelled them to fire her once she was performing (to thunderous applause and high ticket sales!) exactly as she had been all along? 

what the collective mass here is REALLY saying is "once it became clear the critics didnt like her, they should have fired her"-- which would have been weak, ugly, horrible and pray tell contractually actionable. "You're hired but if NY Magazine decimates you in a review, we're going to let you go. GOOD LUCK!" Of course, what i suspect youre all REALLY saying is: "The producers took a gamble on trying to avoid a Barbra comparison by casting someone based on charm/personality, but since WE, the message board folks on the fringes of the theater community who think our opinion really really matters, since WE didnt like it, the producers should have THEN learned their horrible mistake and gotten rid of her on our say so." How unfair to Beanie that SURPRISE! the support from her producers/production was going to evaporate upon a frosty reception. 

And yes someone is now going to AGAIN say that in 1964 someone was fired in previews so that should have happened here, refusing to acknowledge the reality that here Beanie didnt fall apart during previews AT ALL, and just did what she was always doing to the best of her ability and with total professionalism and enthusiasm. Firing her in previews sounds all dramatic and theater-y but it makes absolutely no sense here. "Shes singing just like we always knew she would, in the production we spent months putting together, only now shes doing it to paying audiences who are cheering her on- get rid of her!" Purely ridiculous. 

[taragel2]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 1:10am

Whew. This is a lot. But they say any press is good press and this might be the most I've ever seen non-Broadway people talk about Broadway, so hey... 

Seems like the smartest PR thing Lea could do (aside from killing it in the role) is make Julie Benko her new bestie immediately. Do joint social media posts on Thursdays or whenever Lea has to step away. Celebrate that understudy! Get the desk lamp out and tell Groff to move on over!  

ETA: Just out of curiosity I took a look at Michele's tour dates coming up. Her DC and Boston dates in the next two weeks are sold out, and the following shows are "low ticket alert" status. I'd bet money it probably wasn't before this casting news (not many other shows on the City Winery tour pages seem to be.) The timing of all of this--Spring Awakening Doc/press tour, Tony's appearance, the casting, her tour even --. clever, very clever. 

Updated On: 7/13/22 at 01:10 AM

[Dancingthrulife2]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 1:25am

For those who have seen this production, how is it different from the London one? I saw the London revival with Sheridan Smith and thought she was quite good acting the role sans singing it. Are the set and other design elements significantly different? Does Lea or Julie warrant a revisit?

[Dolly80]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 1:45am

After her behaviour was exposed, at least hopefully she will be on her best behaviour. If she steps out of line- it will come out immediately and she will be gone. None of the cast will tolerate her abuse I’m sure, and the backlash if she’s kept on will be huge.

Hopefully she just gets on with the job and doesn’t behave badly.

[Dolly80]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 1:48am

Dancingthrulife2 said: "For those who have seen this production, how is it different from the London one? I saw the London revival with Sheridan Smith and thought she was quite good acting the role sans singing it. Are the set and other design elements significantly different? Does Lea or Julie warrant a revisit?"