Beanie Feldstein

2022 - 7 - 11

Lea Michele will replace Beanie Feldstein in 'Funny Girl' - CNN (CNN)

Broadway's next "Funny Girl" will be Lea Michele, who is replacing Beanie Feldstein after the "Booksmart" star announced she'd exit the show earlier than ...

originated the part on stage and in the film adaptation, winning an Oscar for her performance. Michele will begin her tenure on September 4. She said playing Fanny had been a "lifelong dream."

Beanie Feldstein announces early departure from Funny Girl on ... (The A.V. Club)

The actress will conclude her time as Fanny Brice on July 31, after previously planning to depart alongside co-star Jane Lynch on September 25.

When Funny Girl first opened on April 24, Feldstein had been set to stay in the role until the end of 2022. “Playing Fanny Brice on Broadway has been a lifelong dream of mine, and doing so for the last few months has been a great joy and true honor. Curtains on Beanie Feldstein’s arc as the eponymous mensch of Funny Girl’s Broadway revival will apparently come sooner than expected.

Lea Michele Replacing Beanie Feldstein In 'Funny Girl' On ... (Forbes)

Glee actress Lea Michele will take over the role of Fanny Brice in Broadway's Funny Girl starting in September, the musical announced Monday, ...

After stepping back from performing following those allegations, Michele has more recently returned to the spotlight with Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known, a HBO documentary about the Broadway musical Spring Awakening that Michele starred in from 2006 to 2008. Though Michele has expressed her interest in playing Brice for years, her casting is a controversial choice given the actress has recently come under fire for allegedly mistreating her Glee castmates. Ticket sales for Funny Girl have steadily gone down in recent weeks—the show grossed $1.26 million the week ending May 29—which is likely why producers chose to change up the casting and replace Feldstein.

Lea Michele to replace Beanie Feldstein in Broadway's 'Funny Girl' (The Washington Post)

Lea Michele, a known Barbra Streisand superfan, was previously rumored to take over for Beanie Feldstein, who started playing Fanny Brice in April.

Feldstein then shared in a statement posted to Instagram Sunday night that she would be leaving “Funny Girl” at the end of July — two months earlier than the initially announced date. “The people I have had the great joy of bringing Funny Girl to life with every night, both on and off stage, are all remarkably talented and exceptional humans.” “Funny Girl” received largely negative reviews. Michele has history with Fanny Brice; her “Glee” character, Rachel Berry, performed several “Funny Girl” songs on the show and even landed the role in the fictional universe’s revival. After Feldstein took a break from the show because she tested positive for the coronavirus, she announced in June that her last performance would be Sept. 25. By early July, that number dropped to just below 75 percent.

'Glee' alum Lea Michele to replace Beanie Feldstein in Broadway's ... (USA TODAY)

Beanie Feldstein confirmed her departure from "Funny Girl" on Instagram, writing that being in the show "has been a great joy and true honor."

The bittersweet comedy tells the tale of a Jewish girl from New York in the 1920s who went from burlesque to Broadway stages despite criticism that she wasn’t conventionally beautiful. Streisand starred in it on Broadway in 1964 and then won an Oscar in the 1968 film version. “Once the production decided to take the show in a different direction, I made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated,” Feldstein explained. She had said she would depart the show Sept. 25, but now won’t last past the end of July. Feldstein has missed several performances in recent weeks, including a weekend matinee. Michele, who started her career on Broadway in productions of "Les Misérables," "Ragtime," "Fiddler on the Roof" and starred in the original “Spring Awakening” recently returned to the work with the documentary “Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known.”

Lea Michele Replaces Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice in ... (Variety)

Michele will assume the role of Fanny Brice on Sept. 6. In the interim, Julie Benko will perform the title role from Aug. 2 through Sept. 4 and every Thursday ...

After graduation, her character goes on to star in the Broadway revival of “Funny Girl.” So, Michele certainly has practice belting the show’s greatest hits. The revival of “Funny Girl” opened on April 24 at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre to lackluster reviews. The revival, which came six decades after the original, only scored one Tony nomination for Jared Grimes’ take on Eddie Ryan, a dancer that Brice meets doing vaudeville. Michele will assume the role of Fanny Brice on Sept. 6. Michele’s casting as the incandescent comic and chanteuse Fanny Brice is proof, to some, that manifestation is real. Feldstein on Sunday night announced she would be leaving the show on July 31, roughly two months before she was slated to depart the production.