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WHO'S THE GREATER STAR?

Lea Michele Is Replacing Beanie Feldstein In 'Funny Girl.' Please Check On Your Musical Theater Friends

Molly Bradley
Molly Bradley
Lea Michele Is Replacing Beanie Feldstein In 'Funny Girl.' Please Check On Your Musical Theater Friends
Following the news that "Glee" actress Lea Michele will be replacing Beanie Feldstein as "Fanny Brice" on Broadway, both theater Twitter and "Glee" Twitter have entirely lost their sh*t, and the tweets are great.
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This morning, theater kids across the globe had their world rocked by some Broadway news. The news in question: after months of swirling rumors, Beanie Feldstein is leaving the role of Fanny Brice in Broadway's revival of "Funny Girl" two months earlier than she was supposed to — and Lea Michele is taking over.

If this news doesn't mean anything in particular to you, here's some quick context:

  • Beanie Feldstein is an actress, whose most notable role came about in Olivia Wilde's 2019 movie "Booksmart," and the sister of actor Jonah Hill.
  • Lea Michele is a musical theater and screen actress, perhaps best known for playing Rachel Berry in Ryan Murphy's TV show "Glee," who is renowned not just for her considerable singing talent, but for being something of a nightmare to work with. It's also well known that she has long been very, very, very interested in playing "Funny Girl"'s Fanny Brice — "Glee" found a way to have her perform all of Fanny's notable songs as Rachel Berry. (And to be fair, she does a great job.)
  • Before Broadway's revival of "Funny Girl" was cast, there were rumors that Michele would be cast as Fanny Brice; even after Feldstein was ultimately cast as Fanny, there were rumors that Michele would replace her.

Now think of the most rabid musical theater fan you know, having followed all of this drama, learning that Michele will be taking over the role on September 6.

Yeah. In other words: this is a big deal.



Fans are also losing it over the fact that Jane Lynch, who currently plays Mrs. Brice opposite Feldstein's Fanny — and who is also a famous "Glee" alum — is now going to be leaving the show the literal day before Michele takes the stage as Fanny. (Tovah Feldshuh will be playing Mrs. Brice as of September 6.) It suggests that the "Glee" drama has trailed its actors long past the TV show's lifespan.



It's messy, it's petty, it's dramatic — it's show biz, baby. And most importantly, it has led to a delightful Twitter timeline today.



There's also a subset of tweets about this that center around Lea Michele not being able to read. For the record, we at Digg have no reason to believe Michele can't read; if pressed, we would even say that she can. But there is also a long-running rumor/joke/conspiracy theory/bit that Michele, a former child star who tends to stick even now to the standard American songbook, has to have her lines fed or read to her due to an inability to read.

So it's also our duty to bring you those tweets, too.




In conclusion,



Comments

  1. Concrete Bleach 1 year ago

    It is time to grow up and leave Lea Michele alone with all the whining of her "behavior" during glee. It wasn't like she lost the love of her life in real life through tragedy or that a show that she sky rocketed to fame on was falling quickly. But let's judge her on the way she treated some 2nd rare cast mate and make it all about that narcissist. Sammy can STFU take a beat and realize not everything is about her nor is everything about race. Maybe sometimes people are going through some shit that has nothing to do with your big ass egotistical self.

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