Beanie Feldstein ‘basically fired’ from Funny Girl before being replaced by Lea Michele
Beanie Feldstein was “basically fired” from Broadway’s “Funny Girl” according to sources who spoke to Page Six. Feldstein abruptly quit the show publicly on Twitter in a move that “blindsided” producers. The role has been recast and controversial Lea Michele will be playing the lead.
Feldstein played the lead role of Fanny Brice, announcing on Twitter on Sunday that she would be leaving the show on July 31, just four months into a contract that was supposed to last a year.
“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, 29, said in her bridge-burning post.
A source told Page Six that following poor reviews of Feldstein’s performance and declining ticket sales, producers turned on the star and Lea Michelle was lined up to replace her.
“Producers basically fired her,” says the source.
Sources say Jonah Hill’s sister had a yearlong contract and was supposed to play the title role until April, the show posted in mid-June on social media, saying “14 weeks left to see Beanie Feldstein & Jane Lynch now through September 25th.”
One source told the publication that it was thought six months would be a good ending date since that was when Lynch’s ended.
Funny Girl producers ‘blindsided’
Page Six says the shock announcement left the producers “blindsided” and a source told them the producers were told just 30 minutes before the post was published online.
“The social media posts was her quitting after being fired,” says one insider.
“She clearly doesn’t give a s–t,” a source commented on Feldstein, noting that the post wasn’t a savvy move.
But a source close to the production said, “The producers were absolutely aware she was making this announcement and they approved that language. An email went out yesterday from the producers letting the rest of the company know her last performance date and that the information would be released. It was not a surprise to anyone.”
Another Broadway source said Feldstein feels “betrayed.”
“The entire creative team built a brand around a new type of Fanny for a new generation,” the source said. “Now, they’ve turned on her and kind of points fingers at her like she’s the reason the show isn’t working.”
They added: “Beanie feels attacked by everyone around her. She’s like, ‘You brought me here in the first place!’”
“It’s not that Beanie is untalented,” says one source. “It’s not her fault. She was poorly cast.”
Funny Girl reviews
The role of Fanny Brice was originally played by the legend Barbra Streisand.
The NY Post review of the revival said that Feldstein “barely muddles through the beloved songs,” and did not give “a Broadway-caliber performance.”
New York magazine said, “in song after song, Feldstein’s voice lets her down. Piercing and unpleasant when it gets any higher than her chest, fading and pitchy when it descends even a few steps, it’s simply not a sound you expect to hear on Broadway.”
The New York Times said of the star’s performance, “You root for her to raise the roof, but she only bumps against it a little.”
Lea Michele Funny Girl casting backlash
There’s at least one person who isn’t thrilled about Lea Michele being cast in the lead for Funny girl – Sammie Ware.
The former Glee actress took to Twitter to say: “Yes, I’m online today. Yes, I see y’all. Yes, I care,” the actress, 30, tweeted on Monday. “Yes, I’m affected. Yes, I’m human. Yes, I’m Black. Yes, I was abused. Yes, my dreams were tainted.”
Ware — who previously called out Michele for mistreatment on Glee — concluded, “Yes, Broadway upholds whiteness. Yes, Hollywood does the same. Yes, silence is complicity. Yes, I’m loud. Yes, I’d do it again.”
Sammie Ware was one of the first to publicly expose Lea Michele’s former bad behaviour on the set of the hit TV series Glee.
Others came out to reveal incidents in which Lea Michele treated them poorly.
In 2020 Ware claimed Michele made her time on Glee a “living hell”
“She waited until the scene was over and she stopped in the middle of the stage and did a ‘come here’ gesture, like how a mother does to their child,” she alleged to Variety, also claiming that Michele threatened her job when she refused to come over. Ware memorably alleged that Michele said she would “s—t in my wig,” among other “traumatic microaggressions.”
Michele later apologised to Ware and other co-stars who say she mistreated them.
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