Lea Michele to Star as Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL Starting 9/6; Beanie Feldstein Departing 7/31 — Page 34

Sally Durant Plummer said: "PipingHotPiccolo said: "the audiences go wild for her vocals every night.”

Where is style?
Where is skill?
Where is forethought?
Where's discretion of the heart?
Where's passion in the art?
Where's craft?"

For anyone interested, there are boots of Beanie and Ramin singing You Are Woman and Who Are You Now on You Tube, along with him singing Temporary Arrangement. IMO the Who Are You Now was her best number in the show - her soprano worked with the song. He overwhelmed her at times, but I wouldn't expect him to "dumb down" and believe he brought her singing level up in this number.

Actually, with the exception of "People" and whenever they got really nasal, I thought her vocals were good, and sometimes lovely, although I didn't like most of her phrasing. She sang the songs, but didn't interpret them. My bigger issue was with her characterization and line delivery in the book scenes. All the dialogue felt forced, and she never commanded the stage. It needed to be a natural fit, but it just never clicked for me, and I didn't believe for one second that she was Fanny Brice.

Watching videos of Sheridan Smith in London, her voice really doesn't sound any better than Beanie's, but it works for me, because she's successfully channeling a believable character through her phrasing, facial expressions, and physical performance.

Updated On: 7/14/22 at 09:32 PM

And have you attended EVERY performance to hear these audiences go WILD for her "vocals"?

They are a bored child on summer vacation who has never been to New York. Obviously. Because no one in the world thinks she can sing well, at all. Like, not even the goddamn producers of this entire show.

Hilarious.

ManOfLaMuncha said: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnW5oE1CSkg



too bad Jim's not still around!"

This is a gem. Thank you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgXd-J7bQ0g

A video that compares Babs, Beanie, Julie, and Lea in snippets of DROMP.

You can hear how much weaker Beanie's vocals are compared to the other three.

https://youtu.be/EgXd-J7bQ0g Barbra, Beanie, Julie and Lea Singing "Don't Rain On My Parade".

1. Barbra was....Barbra! 2. Beanie was....pleasant. 3. Julie was on FIRE! 4. Lea has a strong voice.

I went and watchrx the comparison video being talked about and while Julie Benko clearly has a more trained voice, I found I still didn't like her inflections/phrasing as much as Barbra/Lea. Not sure if I'm just used to hearing this song a different way or if there's something about the music direction that just falls flat for me. But the versions from this revival just don't seem to have the same urgency/passion

chrishuyen said: "I went and watchrx the comparison video being talked about and while Julie Benko clearly has a more trained voice, I found I still didn't like her inflections/phrasing as much as Barbra/Lea. Not sure if I'm just used to hearing this song a different way or if there's something about the music direction that just falls flat for me. But the versions from this revival just don't seem to have the same urgency/passion"



I admit that—especially after hearing all the raves for Benko—I was also a little underwhelmed by Julie’s take.



Lea admittedly sounds really good, but she also has by far the best quality recording represented here. Barbara is head, shoulders, feet above the rest. Don’t think you can even really compare.

Yeah, if that audio of Feldstein’s “Don’t Rain On My Parade” is an accurate depiction of what is happening every night at the August Wilson, no one here should delude themselves in thinking that rendition is worth even a mediocre high school production of Funny Girl.

Updated On: 7/15/22 at 12:35 AM

While I'm not positive, I believe this was Julie's first performance as Fanny. If not first, from that initial weekend. So, the rookie of the group and in light of the others - a knockout.

Beanie's version was fine, she just never owned the stage when she sang. Not a natural singer like we see with Streisand or Ramin, if we want to use someone from the show...forget the training. I'm sure they put her through the ropes in the months leading up to rehearsal. I kept wishing she would just let loose and not worry so much about where she was placing her notes.

Barbra was Barbra - her instrument is wonderful and she knows how to sell a song.

Lea's excerpt was from a concert I imagine, so not playing with the same restrictions as the others. I found her voice strong and her performance intense - not afraid at all to have anyone hear her sing, but a little too mimic-y of Barbra, IMO, but that's who she learned the song from.

It is the job of the audience to expect excellence in the theatre. It is a pity we live in a time where critics reviews mean little while less-educated audiences accept dreck to avoid feeling bad about splurging on $150+ tickets. When the theatre community allows the bar to be lowed, it does not just lower the bar for that performer, it lowers the bar for all of every professional show.

Now, there have been bad musicals and bad performances since the beginning of time. Funny Girl is not going to ruin Broadway. What concerns me is the dogmatic attempt by people who should know better (blue check twitter celebrities, ect.) to convince everyone that it is unacceptable to criticize Beanie. Because audiences don't notice. Because it's her dream part. Because anyone who dislikes her is subconsciously biased against her appearance.

Beanie is not immune to criticism. Maybe we have come to a time where 50% of Broadway audiences will go and see an amateur performance on Broadway and think they got their moneys worth. Will think it's "good enough." But to the (unfortunately diminishing) number of people who appreciate the transcendence and beauty that only theatre can give, we must strive for more. Because we deserve more.

And that 50% of the audience deserves more too. Even if they don't know it.

That DROMP comparison vid is interesting. (1) Barbra is Barbra! (2) I thought Beanie was very decent (even if I don’t personally like the tone of her voice) but you could def tell that she was a bit tentative, and I think not having that musical theater training meant that she was too busy trying to get the tempo and breathing right rather than just let go with the song. (3) Julie can obviously sing and has a lovely tone but it’s such a safe performance, with no passion. It’s like the complete opposite of Beanie where this screamed “I’m a trained musical theater performer”. (4) Lea has gorgeous and powerful pipes and was really giving this performance some energy and personality. Sounded great. But as others have said this was probably sung in a concert setting so not a fair comparison.