Lea Michele

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.

The former “Glee” star will share the stage with Tovah Feldshuh, who will replace Jane Lynch as Fanny Brice's mother, starting Sept. 6.

In a 2017 appearance on Andy Cohen’s talk show, Michele said they had been considering collaborating on a Broadway production after the end of “Glee,” but it felt too soon because she had just performed many of the songs on the TV show. The show’s only nomination at last month’s Tony Awards was for Jared Grimes’s role as Brice’s friend, Eddie Ryan, a tap-dance extraordinaire who aids Brice’s rise in show business. Michele released an apologetic statement on Instagram saying she did not recall making a specific comment that Ware wrote about, but adding that she had been reflecting on her past behavior. It has been no secret that Michele — who opened each chapter of her 2014 memoir, “Brunette Ambition,” with a Streisand or Brice quote — had interest in the role. That timetable means that Michele and Lynch, who were co-stars on “Glee,” will not be performing together. Feldstein wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday night that her “dream” run as Brice, a spunky stage performer who shoots to stardom with the Ziegfeld Follies, would end on July 31, instead of the previously announced date of Sept. 25.

NEW YORK (AP) — Lea Michele has been tapped to step in and lead the Broadway revival of the beleaguered “Funny Girl” this fall, an announcement made just ...

Any press is good press, I guess,” says theater, film and television historian Mark A. Robinson, the author of “Musical Misfires: Three Decades of Broadway Musical Heartbreak” and writer of the blog “The Music That Makes Me Dance.” The show will only continue to run toward breaking even with a name and someone who can do vocal justice to that glorious score. 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. That is also the date four-time Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh will replace Emmy-winner Jane Lynch as Brice’s mother, meaning there will be no Broadway reunion of “Glee” castmates Michele and Lynch. Streisand starred in it on Broadway in 1964 and then won an Oscar in the 1968 film version. Her Instagram post was notably liked by Broadway veteran Ramin Karimloo, who plays Brice’s love interest in “Funny Girl” and is staying on.

The Glee alum will succeed Beanie Feldstein in the Broadway revival in September.

Current Funny Girl standby Julie Benko will take over the role in the interim period between Feldstein’s July 31 departure and Michele’s September 6 start date. Having one’s entire Broadway run overshadowed by the mere specter of another actor, only for that actor to come in and snag the role, can’t feel good. Rumblings that Michele might join the production first began when Feldstein’s initial departure was announced, but her path to the Funny Girl stage began long before that.

Funny Girl has a new Fanny Brice. After weeks of speculation, Funny Girl producers announced today that Lea Michele will be taking over the show's main role ...

"Once the production decided to take the show in a different direction, I made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated." "I will never forget this experience and from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank every single person who came to the August Wilson for the love and support you have shown me and our amazing cast and crew," she continued. In 2017, Michele said she's ready to star in the show in real life.

With Lea Michele taking over as the lead in the Funny Girl revival, here are all the times the 'Glee' actor performed songs from the shows.

Here are all the most notable “Funny Girl” performances from the future Fanny. Michele gave a terrific rendition of the torch song in the “Glee” Season 2 episode “Funeral,” in which she performs it for an audition while imagining her love interest Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith). The scene is arguably the culmination of Rachel’s character arc in the show, and a showcase for Michele’s comedic and vocal abilities. “Glee,” which turned Michele into a household name, doubled as her platform to demonstrate her Fanny Brice bonafides. The episode also prominently featured Jane Lynch, who will leave “Funny Girl” on Broadway before Michele officially debuts. In a 2017 interview with Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live,” Michele openly spoke about her desire to lead a revival of the show, claiming that their were plans for one after “Glee” ended.

Lea Michele will finally play Fanny Brice in 'Funny Girl' on Broadway, a role she's been publicly campaigning for for over a decade. As announced on Monday, ...

Now, just a handful of months later, Feldstein announced on Sunday that she would be leaving the Funny Girl revival ahead of schedule, writing on Jane Lynch, who famously played Coach Sue Sylvester on Glee opposite Michele for six seasons, also announced that she would be leaving the show the day before Michele will make her debut on September 6, and not at the end of the month as had previously been announced. When it was first announced that Feldstein would be playing Fanny Brice on Broadway, Lea Michele trended on Twitter as people imagined her jealousy at losing out on the role. Lea Michele has been campaigning to star in Funny Girl for years, ever since she sang “Don’t Rain on My Parade” in the season-one mid-season finale of Glee in 2009.

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.

"Glee" star Lea Michele was accused by multiple co-stars from various projects of being very difficult to work with.

That was the assumption because of what's going on right now in the world and it happened toward a Black person … But at the same time, in my inbox there are a lot of Black actors and actresses telling me their stories and letting me know they have dealt with the same things on set, being terrorized by the white girls that are the leads of the show." Glee star Heather Morris tweeted, "Let me be very clear, hate is a disease in America that we are trying to cure, so I would never wish for hate to be spread to anyone else. "While I don't remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or color of their skin, that's not really the point, what matters is that I clearly acted in ways that hurt other people," she wrote. I believe you told everyone that if you had the opportunity you would '[expletive] in my wig!' amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood." In response to a tweet Michele posted about the killing of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, Ware wrote ( via Refinery29), "Remember when you made my first television gig a living hell?!?! Michele, who is best known for starring on the TV series Glee for six seasons, was first told she made work a "living hell" for one Glee co-star in June 2020.

Lea Michele will replace Beanie Feldstein as the lead of Broadway's revival of the extremely Jewish musical “Funny Girl.”

The revival of “Funny Girl,” the first on Broadway since Streisand originated the role, debuted in April amid sky-high expectations for Feldstein as the headliner. “Once the production decided to take the show in a different direction, I made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated.” Michele, who learned about her Sephardic Jewish ancestry on a 2016 reality show, will be joined in the cast by Feldshuh, who will be another “Glee” star, Jane Lynch, in the role of Fanny’s mother. In her exit announcement, she suggested that she was leaving early because the revival would be undergoing major changes. Her character on “Glee,” Rachel Berry, even starred in the show-within-a-show’s Broadway revival of “Funny Girl.” (Michele performed the show’s signature number, “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” on live “Glee” tours.) She sang a song from the show in a 2011 tribute to original star Barbra Streisand, whom Michele has said she considers her role model.

Sammie Ware, who played Jane Hayward on the final season of 'Glee,' tweeted in response to the news of Lea Michele's casting in 'Funny Girl.

Yes, I’m loud. Yes, I’m human. Yes, I’m Black. Yes, I was abused. The actress, who played Jane Hayward on the final season of Glee, told Variety in 2020 that Michele was mean to her from her first day on set and recounted one day in particular when the lead actress “publicly humiliated me in front of a crowd of extras and dancers” and threatened to “call Ryan Murphy in to come and fire me.” Ware said she didn’t report Michele, after multiple incidents, because she didn’t know that was an option. Ware also retweeted a quote tweet of the casting announcement from @ucancallmesis that says, “this industry will reward bad behavior time and time again. Yes, im affected.

A cross-section of Broadway aficionados, “Glee” fans, and people who generally gravitate toward drama stood by for news at 1 p.m. sharp on Monday—not about ...

“I believe you told everyone that, if you had the opportunity, you would ‘s— in my wig!’ amongst other traumatic microaggressions that made me question a career in Hollywood.” It’s not every day that the internet breathlessly clamors for musical-theater announcements, but this was a special case: the latest development in a lengthy saga surrounding the long-awaited return of Funny Girl and which actress would—could possibly—helm it in the long shadow of Barbra Streisand, who originated the role in the 1960s. With that said, was she unpleasant to work with? In season 1, episode 13 of Glee in 2009, Michele belted out “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” Funny Girl’s biggest, schmaltziest show tune, establishing herself as a logical choice if Funny Girl were ever revived. In 2015, Glee creator Ryan Murphy had obtained the rights to revive Funny Girl on Broadway, providing a vehicle for Michele. On Watch What Happens Live in 2017, Michele told Andy Cohen: “I just talked to Ryan Murphy the other night. But if I’m going to go back [to Broadway musicals after starring in Spring Awakening], that’s what I’d really like to do.” Alas, Broadway World subsequently reported that Murphy no longer held the rights to the show.

Former “Glee” star Sammie Ware is not happy about Lea Michele being cast as the new lead in forthcoming performances of Broadway's “Funny Girl.”

Yes, I’m loud. Yes, I’m Black. Yes, I was abused. Yes, I’m human. Yes, silence is complicity. “Yes, I’m online today. Yes, I see y’all. Yes, I care,” the actress, 30, tweeted on Monday. “Yes, I’m affected.

Lea Michele has been cast in the Broadway revival of "Funny Girl" but her former co-star Sammie Ware is furious at the news.

Many other celebrities like Julianne Hough, Brad Goreski and Marianna Hewitt also sent Michele their congratulations. Ware then tweeted and voiced her frustration with the casting. "A dream come true is an understatement. They'll mess around and find out what their fave actually thinks of them," Brown wrote. "I don't know what they're upset about or why they'd be upset with me. Michele later apologized for her previous behavior.

Top: Lea Michele as her Glee character Rachel Berry, performing the role of Fanny Brice. Bottom: Barbra Streisand in the original film. Michael StillwellGetty ...

At the same time that Michele was playing a girl with no chill who could sing on TV, Anne Hathaway won an Oscar for Les Misérables—and was unfavorably compared, in her forthright earnestness, to the nonplussed Jennifer Lawrence, whose whatever attitude toward fame was endlessly fawned over and deemed quintessentially cool. When it comes to fame, and especially to famous young women, having no chill can be the kiss of death for one’s so-called likeability. Along with that jolt of nostalgia, Michele seems to be benefiting from her unlikely position as the underdog Fanny Brice. After she lost out on the role of a lifetime, lackluster notices for her presumed revival have found her back on the upswing. “I don’t know the woman whatsoever,” Feldstein said in the spirit of Mariah Carey, adding that Michele had written her a nice note of congratulations. In other words, the character of Lea Michele in the public imagination is not unlike Fanny Brice, the aspiring comedienne and vocal powerhouse whose ascent to stardom is the subject of Funny Girl, the musical that catapulted Barbra Streisand into her own stratosphere. For little reason other than she was at the height of her TV fame, Michele performed “Don’t Rain on My Parade” at the Tony Awards in 2010.

Looking to be among the first to hear Lea Michele's dulcet tones take on the legend of Fanny Brice? Not to rain on your parade, but a seat to the “Glee” alum's ...

Michele later apologized for her “behavior and for any pain which I have caused.” On Tuesday, Sept. 6, the night that Michele officially steps into the role, tickets on SeatGeek are selling for $570 on the low end (the site classifies this as an “amazing deal”) to $2,250 (the site classifies this as a “moderate price”). The most expensive tickets are currently running at $2,500 — not including the $500 in fees. Since performances began in April, the show grossed an average of $1.2 million per week, according to the Broadway League. But weekly revenues have slumped recently to $743,213. The current production of “Funny Girl,” which follows Fanny Brice on her improbable rise to fame and her stormy relationship with gambler Nick Arnstein, opened to strong ticket sales despite mostly negative reviews. The show filled the August Wilson Theater to just 74.84% capacity in July, a drop from earlier in the summer when the show was well-stocked at 97.8% capacity. That’s because the price of admission has skyrocketed in the wake of news that Michele is replacing Beanie Feldstein in the beloved musical.