Lea Michele to Star as Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL Starting 9/6; Beanie Feldstein Departing 7/31- Page 27

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 2:25am

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. 

We matter a hell of a lot more than the tweens on Twitter bitching about everything because we can actually afford tickets. This opened months ago so enough about the "frosty reception" she was initially given. Not at all. It's simple: The advance was drying up, interest was waning, and nobody wants to pay hundreds of dollars to see someone who belongs in the Chino Community College's production of Funny Girl. She is a wealthy white woman who has never been told no. How dare they do this to her!

 It's just business, it's not personal until she made it that way.  

[gypsy101]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 2:50am

BroadwayGirl107 said: "Michele has a decent voice, but has probably sang one of the worst "Don't Rain on My Parade"s I've ever heard and he acting is excruciating."

her voice is stunning as was her DROMP. you know we saw that episode of glee too, right? she also has given many good acting performances.

lmao. nice try though.

[WestEndGal]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 4:28am

I just dipped into theater twitter (not on tik tok) and my god, some of the takes on Beanie and Michele are just wild and ridiculous, lol! It is a place with zero context and zero nuance. I find this branding by some of Lea as this terrible racist to be bizarre though. Not diminishing Sammie Ware’s experience of how Lea treated her, but she literally said herself that she’s not calling Lea a racist (and many people have said Lea didn’t discriminate with who she was a diva to) but if you read theater twitter you’d think she was a rabid white supremacist or smtg!

On a different note, I find it a bit sad that this drama may have damaged Beanie’s future Broadway career. She clearly has a love of Broadway and MT, and Funny Girl was a dream role for her. I hope she isn’t put off from future roles (she was applauded for Hello Dolly) and I hope producers still consider her for roles that suit her going forward. 

[martinsmithfan]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 5:26am

I did a write up about this in the r/Broadway subreddit and it’s only kind of related but this situation with Beanie Feldstein and every surrounding her now cut short time with the show reminds me of when Martin Smith was brought in as the third principle Phantom in the West End production of POTO in 1989…you can read about that here if you like, it’s an interesting story and again shares some parallels with Beanie:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Broadway/comments/vx969c/beanie_feldsteins_situation_in_funny_girl_reminds/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

[fbueller]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 6:16am

I would be more interested in a ‘The Making Of Funny Girl 2022’ play/musical than seeing the actual show!

[jlindsey865]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 7:01am

I agree. I, too, dipped into musical theatre Twitter.

Listen - I have no doubt that Lea has treated coworkers badly in the past.  But other than a few fairly vague Twitter posts that claim Lea made threats of inappropriate behavior and, in general, acted like a “mean girl”, I haven’t found much more than that.  Is that how a person should act?  Absolutely not.  Is Lea the first artist (of any sex, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, etc.) to act like a jerk?  Absolutely not.

I’m not saying that people shouldn’t be held responsible, but I don’t think the reaction to the news matches Lea’s past behavior.

Lea is talented.  I think this was a good casting move considering the whole fiasco that has been this revival.  

 

 

[Auggie27]

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

Much of theater Twitter is taken up with the victimization of Feldstein, invariably tethering all of the problems to a culture that doesn't accept "women who look like her." (Never mind the drop at the box office, attendance issues, or -- dare I say it? -- vocal challenges.) And they reference some set of reviews that body shame her, even though if anything reviewers were generous about casting a Brice that didn't adhere to preconceived notions about leading ladies. 

But as some of us here have noted, 98% of the posts are among people who haven't seen the damned show. I have spent the last month arguing with people who school me about Feldstein being entitled to "make Fanny her own," even though none of them have seen the performance. When I explain that I actually witnessed it, and that my take on the show's disappointment is informed by my 2 hours and 50 minutes experience, they dismiss the position as irrelevant. And last night, I was told by two people that Lynch is clearly "lying to save face" about wanting to work with Michel. How could anyone know that?  This recast after 4 months has become a kind of Rorschach test -- either you're solidly in camp Feldstein or you're unaware of your biases and prejudices toward "women who look like her" or even anti-LGBTQ, as someone else noted. Really? 

Maybe we just, you know, thought that the casting was a creative mistake and that the ever-flawed, un-revived show doesn't work around this performance. Something that happens repeatedly. It doesn't make this some 2022 bellwether for how inclusive casting needs "a wake-up call." Oh, it does, to be sure, but it has zero to do with this actor and this show.

Updated On: 7/13/22 at 07:10 AM

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 7:50am

Alecohanian said: "Moreover, lets be sure to cut one of my favorite numbers, 'Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat'. While it pains me to suggest and hope for this, Lea Michele should under no circumstances be in a position where she is wearing bagels at her waist singing as a Jewish archetype. I am in no position to deny a persons religion but Jewish, she is not.”

Lea Michele is absolutely of Jewish descent. Her father is a Sephardic Jew. While she may not practice Judaism (she was raised Catholic, since her mother is Catholic), she is ethnically half-Jewish.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 7:50am

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?"

Same book but the set design and costumes are completely different.  The London version was very barebones and smaller orchestra.  The Broadway version has colorful full sets and colorful costumes so it’s a more visually lavish production than the London version was.

 

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 9:05am

Sutton Ross said: "We matter a hell of a lot more than the tweens on Twitter bitching about everything because we can actually afford tickets. This opened months ago so enough about the "frosty reception" she was initially given. Not at all. It's simple: The advance was drying up, interest was waning, and nobody wants to pay hundreds of dollars to see someone who belongs in the Chino Community College's production of Funny Girl.She is a wealthy white woman who has never been told no. How dare they do this to her!

It's just business, it's not personal until she made it that way."

I heartily agree that the "tweens on twitter" are irrelevant, which I guess is a reference to the perennially-outraged who now have their guns set on Lea Michele as a white supremacist, which i think we agree is detached from reality. being a garbage person is one thing; being a racist is another. Little debate Lea Michele is or has been the former; zero evidence she's the latter. (No matter what Sam Ware and George Salazar would have you believe. My eyes are rolled hard.)

but what do the twitter tweens, or any of your post, have to do with the notion that Beanie should have been fired during previews when she was doing what the producers saw her do for the 3 months+ prior? Are you actually suggesting that the vipers on these message boards should have been taken seriously by the producers, and that they should have upended their show because max 300 ppl here didnt like her? SHE WAS DOING WHAT THEY ASKED HER TO DO AND PERFORMING AS THEY HAD SEEN HER PERFORM. I genuinely struggle to comprehend how anyone can blame Beanie for not saying "Listen, thanks for the opportunity, the paycheck, the support, I'm loving doing this show, its my dream, and yes you all tell me its working but I just heard that some snide theater fan doesnt like my tone so, maybe I should quit right now" ---which is essentially what youre demanding of her.

AND the kicker of course is if she HAD done that, you would 1000% scream about how unprofessional she is, and how she couldnt hack it, etc etc. 

Cant think of a better example of the irrational reactions to Beanie on these boards than someone actually typing "its business, its not personal!" literally immediately after saying "shes a wealthy white woman who has never heard 'no' before"-- yeah, doesnt sound personal at all, you're just staying the facts, right? Unreal.

Updated On: 7/13/22 at 09:05 AM

[David10086]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 9:08am

CarlosAlberto said: "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?!?!?!"

I wasn't comparing the two at all. Read my post again. 

I was pointing out the fact that despite many posters here saying "in the 60s and 70s this kind of drama didn't take place, and no one got fired before a show opened", it happened - with Mary Tyler Moore in 'BAT'. Had nothing to do with comparing MTM to Beanie, or 'BAT' to 'FG' at all - just pointing out that firings did happen in the 60s. Yet comprehension escapes some members of this forum. 

[Kad]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 9:32am

The fact that everyone is focusing solely on Feldstein and Michele is great news for the people actually responsible for this whole mess, director Michael Mayer and Sonia Friedman and the rest of the producing team. Their decisions here should give anybody, particularly actors and future investors, pause. 
 

Beanie shouldn’t have been cast, and when that became clear, she shouldn’t have been thrown to the wolves and then humiliated by producers carelessly letting word of her replacement leak. 

Updated On: 7/13/22 at 09:32 AM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 9:32am

Numerous classic Golden Age era musicals and plays have fired actors during out-of-town tryouts and Broadway previews. The original actress cast as Eve Harrington in APPLAUSE was fired out-of-town and Penny Fuller replaced her.  Lainie Kazan was fired from SEESAW during its out-of-town tryout but not after Michelle Lee was rehearsing secretly and getting ready to replace her.  Let’s not go into the ANNIE girls. The list is endless.  Smart producers make changes quickly when they see things aren’t working out.  Sonia Friedman is responsible for refusing to make changes though she saw this sinking ship before it even left the harbour.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 9:49am

Kad said: "The fact that everyone is focusing solely on Feldstein and Michele is great news for the people actually responsible for this whole mess, director Michael Mayer and Sonia Friedman and the rest of the producing team. Their decisions here should give anybody, particularly actors and future investors, pause.


Beanie shouldn’t have been cast, and when that became clear, she shouldn’t have been thrown to the wolves and then humiliated by producers carelessly letting word of her replacement leak."

This is exactly it. The whole situation has been handled incredibly poorly by the people who actually have decision making power, and none of this should have ever happened. Ultimately they've put both these women in a terrible position, and frankly they should be called out for it. 

Updated On: 7/13/22 at 09:49 AM

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 9:55am

All this hate towards Beanie is INSANE!

Yes her performance hasn't impressed but the producers, director etc knew this in rehearsals and went ahead anyway throwing her to the wolves because it was too late to replace her. All she has done is taken on a dream role and was clearly reassured by those who cast her that she was doing great. She's given all she has got each night, she is apparently lovely and kind to everyone at the theatre and people are acting like she's some monster. 

And let's not forget that this is not a good show or production, the critics said as much, this failure is not just down to her performance.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 9:55am

David10086 said: "CarlosAlberto said: "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?!?!?!"

I wasn't comparing the two at all. Read my post again.

I was pointing out the fact that despite many posters here saying "in the 60s and 70s this kind of drama didn't take place, and no one got fired before a show opened", it happened - with Mary Tyler Moore in 'BAT'. Had nothing to do with comparing MTM to Beanie, or 'BAT' to 'FG' at all - just pointing out that firings did happen in the 60s. Yet comprehension escapes some members of this forum."

Technically MTM wasn’t fired - Merrill just chose  to close the show.  Facts escape some members of this forum. 

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 10:02am

https://www.onstageblog.com/editorials/2022/7/13/the-way-funny-girl-producers-are-ignoring-lea-micheles-troublesome-past-is-disgusting?fbclid=IwAR0euav37z2NdY57Hr3zwravGnqNmPMmgfMtVV9rA12_KH_KOc9HnYnUXRA   Here's more wood for the fire.  Onstage Blog's thoughts on the casting of Lea Michele.  

[HogansHero]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 10:40am

Kad said: "The fact that everyone is focusing solely on Feldstein and Michele is great news for the people actually responsible for this whole mess, director Michael Mayer and Sonia Friedman and the rest of the producing team. Their decisions here should give anybody, particularly actors and future investors, pause."

There has been very little mention of Michael Mayer through all of this. I agree with your post but I am curious if there is something pointing at him in this mess, other than the fact that he agreed to direct the show with the carved-in-stone Beanie casting, and then did not do a very good job of it. I'm asking, not suggesting.

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 11:02am

I gotta be real. I can’t stand Lea Michele. I never liked her, I met her once and she was unpleasant and rude, and I don’t think her voice is good enough to make up for her terrible acting.

But the complaints about her are mostly things that happened, what, 7 or 8 years ago? More? A decade?

 

I have to believe that people can change. And just because we don’t see evidence of it publicly doesn’t mean it can’t be true. 
 

and sometimes folks don’t reach out privately to apologize because they don’t know if it will just reopen wounds of a person who has moved on.

 

I doubt Michele become like…Sutton Foster level of delightful. But people can and do change. For things to get better, we need to allow for people to change.  The outrage over her casting to me in this regard just shows me that those folks don’t actually want change—they just want to condemn.

 

I think there’s plenty to be upset with here: the treatment of Feldstein and replacing her with someone who they probably wanted all along but shied away from because of OPTICS is gross. And I don’t think Michele will be good, so I think they are making a mistake in that regard. But I have to at least believe she’s learned something in the past few years and grown from it. What are we even doing if we don’t hold space for that? This is not like…a Woody Allen situation. 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 11:28am

Scandal.

Updated On: 7/13/22 at 11:28 AM

[SomeOtherMe]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 11:29am

Okay, but all this drama aside... A serious question...

How much of a box office success are we actually expecting Lea to be? The only people who are truly excited for this are theatergoers and maybe a small minority of GLEE fans but other than that... Who is Lea's demographic? It's not like she also has a huge music career and none of the projects she's done after Glee have become big hits. I imagine this will bring a boost for the first few weeks but after the people who really want to see her as Fanny do so... What will be left?

Updated On: 7/13/22 at 11:29 AM

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 11:31am

Patti LuPone FANatic said: "https://www.onstageblog.com/editorials/2022/7/13/the-way-funny-girl-producers-are-ignoring-lea-micheles-troublesome-past-is-disgusting?fbclid=IwAR0euav37z2NdY57Hr3zwravGnqNmPMmgfMtVV9rA12_KH_KOc9HnYnUXRA Here's more wood for the fire. Onstage Blog's thoughts on the casting of Lea Michele."


Do the writers of OnStage Blog do anything other than complain? Their entire agenda seems to be to “call out” bad behavior and moralize about how the theatre industry needs to “do better.” Geez.

[joevitus]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 12:06pm

CarlosAlberto said: "David10086 said: "CarlosAlberto said: "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?!?!?!"

I wasn't comparing the two at all. Read my post again.

I was pointing out the fact that despite many posters here saying "in the 60s and 70s this kind of drama didn't take place, and no one got fired before a show opened", it happened - with Mary Tyler Moore in 'BAT'. Had nothing to do with comparing MTM to Beanie, or 'BAT' to 'FG' at all - just pointing out that firings did happen in the 60s. Yet comprehension escapes some members of this forum."

Technically MTM wasn’t fired - Merrill just chose to close the show. Facts escape some members of this forum."

Agree. And not just technically. MTM was never fired from Breakfast at Tiffany's. The show closed. It's like claiming Angela Lansbury was fired from Prettybelle. 

[MsPiety&Rectitude]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 12:10pm

The Distinctive Baritone said: "Patti LuPone FANatic said: "https://www.onstageblog.com/editorials/2022/7/13/the-way-funny-girl-producers-are-ignoring-lea-micheles-troublesome-past-is-disgusting?fbclid=IwAR0euav37z2NdY57Hr3zwravGnqNmPMmgfMtVV9rA12_KH_KOc9HnYnUXRA Here's more wood for the fire. Onstage Blog's thoughts on the casting of Lea Michele."


Do the writers of OnStage Blog do anything other than complain? Their entire agenda seems to be to “call out” bad behavior and moralize about how the theatre industry needs to “do better.” Geez."

OnStage blog is speculative, emotional trash and Chris Peterson’s “articles” are the worst of the worst, with no standard for truth and nothing constructive/new to add. No one should take it seriously.

[lesmizsaigon]

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

Funny Girl, or, The Revival of the Musical Sensation in 2022 and The Mess That Followed