Lea Michele to Star as Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL Starting 9/6; Beanie Feldstein Departing 7/31- Page 30

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 6:27pm

whatever2 said: ">Delusional take. If you’re going to stir the pot, at least be good at it.

I've been a subscribed to this board for 16 years. I don't post so much anymore, but i do read daily. I've always found CarlosAlberto to be a completely competent pot-stirrer.

i declare this post a shot and a miss.

(I believe that's a sports reference.)

:)"

Except they were talking about Call_me_jorge, not Carlos.

[whatever2]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 6:29pm

oh, dear ... well they've been quite good over the years, too.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 6:55pm

This controversy and the many thoughts and opinions of this board reminds me somewhat of what the board used to be like years ago.  In the final analysis, I hope that all this publicity (negative and otherwise) will amount to positive grosses for the show.  I do hope I'll be able to visit NYC in late fall or winter.  I really want to see "Funny Girl", on a Thursday.   

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 6:59pm

This controversy and the many thoughts and opinions of this board reminds me somewhat of what the board used to be like years ago. 

Charley, why can't it be like it was?

[Robbie2]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 8:44pm

Beanie Feldstein’s surprising return to ‘Funny Girl’ stage after Lea Michele announcement

https://nypost.com/2022/07/13/beanie-feldstein-emotionally-returns-to-broadways-funny-girl/ 

[Dancingthrulife2]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 8:48pm

“Surprising return”? I don’t recall her announcing she was leaving the show immediately…

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 8:52pm

Ramin looks like he’d rather be anywhere else. 

[shocktheatre]

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

Poor Beanie. It's just awful what's happened to her. Land sakes.

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 9:27pm

shocktheatre said: "Poor Beanie. It's just awful what's happened to her. Land sakes."

Lol good one. 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 10:20pm

This sh$&show just gets worse by the minute; a masterclass in crisis mismanagement.  

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 7/13/22 at 10:56pm

That statement by the producers is definitely them trying to take control over the story but now we all know for sure that they ended Beanie's contract six months early and that's sure to infuriate Beanie and her camp. I'm still not convinced Beanie makes it to July 31 in this show.

[Penna2]

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

Mr. Wormwood said: "That statement by the producers is definitely them trying to take control over the story but now we all know for sure that they ended Beanie's contract six months early and that's sure to infuriate Beanie and her camp. I'm still not convinced Beanie makes it to July 31 in this show."

If she's smart, she'll finish the month and give it her best. Leave a winner, not a whiner. (I know, I know.)

Updated On: 7/14/22 at 11:02 PM

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

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

This is a lovely interpretation of "Don't Rain On My Parade" from Naya Rivera (RIP).  https://youtu.be/TvnxXj9K_74

[Sally Durant Plummer]

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

The Funny Girl plot was one of the few redeeming things about Glee season 5. Though it was cringe to watch Naya waltz down the theatre vom as if Broadway auditions still happen at Broadway theatres and you get a full pop re-arranged song instead of 16 bars. She killed it though. A great rendition, though I prefer her "Girl On Fire."

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

[skies]

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

It will be interesting how the chemistry and potential revisions in the show will shift with Lea Michele.  Most of the appeal of the original show was that this gawky funny gal had THIS voice, and poor relatively inexperienced  Beanie has  neither the comic timing nor the singing chops to pull it off.  Again, does not have the Voice.  Above all, FG is a star vehicle  and it collapses without that center.

Now Bigger more established  “names” than Lea Michele have bombed on BW, so I’m amused an alumni from  a hit TV show from 8-10 years ago is going to raise the box office to make it now this runaway hit.   I think it’s future success will hinge more on how Lea clicks with the show, as opposed to Glee fans magically crowding the box office.

However at least with Lea FG has a legit fighting chance because she CAN  sing and this is far from her first BW rodeo.  Having said that, there are serious  issues with how this show was constructed , and even with an infinitely better lead it might not be enough.  

 

 


 

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 7/14/22 at 12:21am

skies said: "there are serious issues with how this show was constructed , and even with an infinitely better lead it might not be enough."

Oh I don't think anyone is expecting this production to be fully "fixed" by Lea joining the show. Julie is significantly better than Beanie, but act 2 still doesn't really work with her. I HOPE they will retool some of the Follies musical numbers (His Love Makes Me Beautiful, Rat A Tat, etc) to suit Lea and Julie, whose "comedic" sensibilities are quite different than Beanie. Those numbers really work for Beanie, not so much for Julie. We shouldn't expect any major overhaul of the design or writing.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/14/22 at 1:05am

The fact that people involved with the production are putting out statements in response to the various rumors and speculation (e.g. Jane Lynch's comments about Michele, and today's joint statement) serves as an important reminder that (a) we don't actually know what's going on behind the scenes, and (b) these people aren't in ivory towers; all the petty drama-mongering gets to their ears, and worsens an already tense workplace situation for everyone involved.

For the record, I'm not trying to get on a high horse, because I also need these reminders sometimes, and I'm not immune to the allure of petty drama.

Updated On: 7/14/22 at 01:05 AM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/14/22 at 1:35am

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/14/22 at 1:39am

I love when we get Broadway drama because it rarely happens. 

What I can't understand is these people on Twitter talking about Beanie's weight? Like that was never an issue. No one talked about it. It's not about anything physical. And I wish they could understand that. 

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 7/14/22 at 1:49am

When you try to tell them that barely anyone ever mentioned her weight, they claim it's an unconscious bias. There's no way to win with the woke mob.

[Penna2]

Posted: 7/14/22 at 1:56am

Serious question re: Lea and Beanie - 

Are there real bad feelings between them? I am completely out of the loop with TV gossip. As mentioned before had no idea who either of them were before FG. I can understand Lea being upset about not being cast initially, but why would she be upset with Beanie? Same with Beanie. You can't blame someone else for achieving something you want for yourself (well, you can). 

They just seem so very different for their paths to cross to create a feud seems odd to me.

 

[JasonC3]

Posted: 7/14/22 at 4:25am

TaffyDavenport said: "When you try to tell them that barely anyone ever mentioned her weight, they claim it's an unconscious bias. There's no way to win with the woke mob."

I'm not suggesting you are wrong about this in relation to Beanie and Funny Girl, but the very nature of unconscious bias is that it is unmentioned or rarely stated yet it informs one's thinking or beliefs.

This is why we can A/B test something like hiring practices, replacing a woman's name on a resume with a man's name and seeing how it affects the hiring committee's perceptions of a candidate's qualifications.

Or the orchestra audition example from Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink describing how having players hidden behind screens led to more equitable hiring decisions because no inferences could be made about the players' gender or appearance ... only their musical performance could be evaluated.

Updated On: 7/14/22 at 04:25 AM

[WestEndGal]

Posted: 7/14/22 at 6:13am

When you remove the toxic social media element from all of this, there’s no real drama at all - it’s simply a case of a performer getting poor reviews, and the producers making a decision to cut their run short because of diminishing box office returns. But with social media being so gossipy and toxic these days (especially theater twitter and tik tok) it has fuelled all the drama. We’ve had:

- Beanie bought her role because of her rich and industry insider family

- endless Lea Michele memes and b*tchy comments about how distraught she must be about Beanie’s casting

- OTT praising of Julie Benko

- the almost gleeful response when Beanie got poor reviews

- more Lea Michele memes about how Beanie’s poor showing was all part of her evil master plan to steal the role from her

- completely OTT takes about how Lea Michele is the worst human that ever lived and a danger to the theater community ….

etc etc etc

Being a theater fan used to be fun and exciting, and inclusive. Now it feels anything but. It’s tiring.  

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 7/14/22 at 7:17am

TaffyDavenport said: "When you try to tell them that barely anyone ever mentioned her weight, they claim it's an unconscious bias. There's no way to win with the woke mob."

Unconscious bias literally means people are not conscious of the bias, so no, it would not be mentioned.

 

Personally, I think people are insane if they think the level of some of the disdain expressed towards Beanie from some has absolutely nothing to do with her weight because we live in a society with a very problematic relationship to plus size women. 
 

I also think people are crazy if they think that’s the only reason why she’s not being celebrated in this role. At the end of the day, she just couldn’t handle it—the acting, or vocally. The show was not working with her because of the work she was doing, and that why we’re here.

 

But yes I’m seeing some vitriol slung towards her that seems extreme and makes me wonder if we’d do the same to someone who’s a size 2. 

[Auggie27]

Posted: 7/14/22 at 7:27am

Ripped Man is 100% correct. Suddenly, we're told that whole swaths of us spent four months body shaming this actor. In truth -- and I've been here through all of it -- that issue never got any closer than dislike for unflattering costuming or staging that sent Fanny rolling downstage, a critique of Mayer's poor handling. I have read most posts here and elsewhere, and the topics tethered to this production are: 1) the star's difficulties handling the vocals; and 2) flaws in the show itself, amplified by the casting. It's interesting that discussion of Feldstein's inability to persuasively suggest the sophisticated Brice is presumed to be thinly veiling body shaming. As if finding her characterization too adolescent, particularly in the troubled act, is about her appearance rather than acting.

On Facebook whole threads in the last 48 hours -- carefully parsed by those who haven't seen her performance, I point out -- seek to shame "social media" for "forcing her out of the show." When some of us cite box office numbers, that precipitous drop matched by a second week, indicating a dwindling advance, they quickly say "Broadway puts money over people!" Which is a bizarre point of view about a for-profit industry with staggering operating nuts. This strange concept is floating above this production -- the opportunity provided this actor transcends the results. She was to be cheered, $199 - $249 required per ticket irrelevant. Because her casting was "groundbreaking."  Broken ground in art is in the eye of the behold. And in this case, consumer. 

This board, which has contained some of the smartest analysis of the production and performance that I've read, was called into play as "destroying this young woman."  Reviews and box office ignored, those who post here can apparently ruin a career. Preposterous theory -- as if audiences read every word -- and again generally embraced by those who haven't gotten anywhere near the August Wilson like the rest of us.

Updated On: 7/14/22 at 07:27 AM