Lea Michele to Star as Fanny Brice in FUNNY GIRL Starting 9/6; Beanie Feldstein Departing 7/31 — Page 35

Yes it’s interesting hearing Beanie - I can see why the creatives might have thought it could work. She is singing mostly on pitch and has a pleasant enough sounding voice that maybe someone thought she’d get by with her personality/‘acting’/‘charisma’/‘humour . She isn’t a ‘non-singer’ with a horrible thin voice or anything like that in my opinion. Ultimately the others just raise the stakes so much higher with that little extra flair in their voices though and it makes all the difference to changing the sound from mediocre to thrilling.

Georgeanddot2 said: "What bothers me the most about Beanie is how sort of static every song feels. Very monotone. Very little connection to lyric. Her voice is pretty thin and the lack of strong acting doesn't make up for it. It feels like she's just singing words."

That really was the problem with Beanie - she was just singing the songs and never interpreted the lyrics. There was not a single moment of truth in any lyric she was singing - she just sang the songs. There’s a HUGE difference between singing a song and interpreting it. Glenn Close and Elaine Stritch are great song interpreters though their singing voices have limitations. Beanie’s vocal limitations would have been accepted IF she knew how to interpret the songs. And… here… we… are…

My few thoughts about the DROMP video.

Beanie's voice kept drifting off into nothingness. She seemed to have limited breath control. As often as not, I couldn't hear or understand the lyrics she was singing.

Barbra was wonderful, of course. Julie was excellent. Each with their singing paid respect to the memory of the great Fanny Brice.

Lea Michele IS Fanny Brice!

Updated On: 7/15/22 at 10:07 AM

Hello. I came upon this video by a British You Tuber who comments on the theatre. She has some interesting remarks about the current Funny Girl brouhaha. https://youtu.be/hMhgLZ8pk9c

Updated On: 7/15/22 at 12:49 PM

Pardon if this has been posted previously. This video clip is comprised of different singers attempting the final note in DROMP. I was surprised by Stephanie J. Block. Eden Espinosa's interpretation was wild. https://youtu.be/Dex4dq-uaZc

JasonC3 said: "can't y'all just agree to disagree or do you find pleasure in having the same conversation over and over and over again?"

It's a chat room. People are chatting. Sometimes conversations are repeated or overlap. It's OK. Really.

joevitus said: "Sally Durant Plummer said: "joevitus said:"A hopeless amateur wasn't cast here."

No, but Feldstein is giving a hopelessly amateurish performance."

Analogous but not exact, I wonder how people with your take would have reviewed Marilyn Miller or Gertrude Lawrence. Or what any of you think of, as David10086 mentioned, Glenn Glose? You're obviously a Sondheim fan. I doubt you'll damn Alexis Smith's Phyllis on the basis of her demonstrably weak vocals. There's a LONG history of women with less than stellar voices being acclaimed on Broadway. Thus those who enjoyed Beanie don't represent a sign of sadly lowered expectations. On the contrary, they are in the tradition."



I agree. This weird “Olympics of theater” thing is kinda weird. Singing really isn’t about who hits the highest notes with the best time and placement and breathe support. It’s not science. Singing is about storytelling through music. An okay voice—which Beanie has—can be enough if the actor really Carrie’s and tells the story and is able to access those emotions through their voice even if it’s technically imperfect. The story is what we pay for.



again, Beanie’s vocals alone weren’t the problem for me. I really think she could have made it work if she just threw caution to the wind and took full control of the stage, and stopped worrying about how she sounded.

Beanie has just announced that she will not be performing this weekend due to tonsillitis. She posted a video to her instagram. Wrenches continue to be thrown in her last few weeks of performances and i'm sure there will be much speculation regarding her absence. I feel badly for her. I was excited to see her end on a triumphant note. Hopefully all is not lost.

Have to chuckle at her "uhhhhh what have I missed" intro. And her kicker. "When it rains, it pours on your old pal Bean."

One of my voice teachers said the best voices are in the chorus - the stars are the ones who can tell the story - if they have great voices, so much the better.

I do admire Beanie's saying at this point you just have to laugh, re: her tonsillitis. The universe is definitely giving a loud message for her to move on. Ouch.