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Beanie Feldstein Lands The Lead in Funny Girl on Broadway & Lea Michele Trends
We have our new Fanny Brice and Twitter is wondering if Lea Michele is OK.
Ever since news hit that casting was underway for the Broadway revival of Funny Girl, there’s been buzz around who’d be taking on the lead role of Fanny Brice. On Wednesday, news broke that the role would be filled by out queer gal Beanie Feldstein.
This will not be Feldstein’s first time on Broadway — she made her debut in the recent revival of Hello, Dolly! Before that, she starred in Booksmart and Lady Bird. She’s also taken on the role of Monica Lewinsky in Ryan Murphy’s upcoming Impeachment: American Crime Story alongside Sarah Paulson, which dropped a teaser trailer today. Feldstein is having quite an incredible week.
Perhaps not having such a great day is Lea Michele, who was long expected to be taking on the Fanny Brice role. Who are we to say if she's upset or not by the news, but her name quickly began trending on Twitter after the casting broke.
\u201c@playbill @BeanieFeldstein @FunnyGirlBway is lea michele okay ??\u201d— Playbill (@Playbill) 1628701202
\u201cLea Michele today\u201d— Ryan Bloomquist (@Ryan Bloomquist) 1628709629
While on Glee, Michele’s character starred in a revival of Funny Girl and it was reported that Ryan Murphy had obtained the rights for a Broadway revival with the intent of casting Michele as Brice. Michele herself even spoke about those rumors back in 2014. “We are definitely talking about it now. We have the rights. And, right now, we are talking to some potential directors – we have someone really amazing in mind,” she said.
While Michele hasn’t commented on the latest news, it hasn’t stopped Twitter from filling in the blanks. While the jokes are flowing freely, some point out that pitting two women against each other in this manner perpetuates an imaginary catfight between the two and contributes to the misogynistic notion of women needing to compete with each other for the world's entertainment.
\u201cBroadway to Lea Michele:\u201d— benji (@benji) 1628714866
\u201clea michele rn after finding out the news about beanie feldstein in the funny girl revival\u201d— kim! :) (@kim! :)) 1628707240
\u201cBeanie explaining to Lea Michele what role she got in the Funny Girl revival:\u201d— justin (@justin) 1628715238
\u201cWe go live to Lea Michele.\u201d— Jesse Pasternack (@Jesse Pasternack) 1628705930
\u201chttps://t.co/S1xq0rz2kg\u201d— paul art smith (@paul art smith) 1628702540
Now that the internet has got that out of their system, let's focus on celebrating Feldstein's accomplishment! We can't wait to see her on that stage!
The article contains contributions from Taylor Henderson, PRIDE's Digital Director.
Rachel Shatto, Editor in Chief of PRIDE.com, is an SF Bay Area-based writer, podcaster, and former editor of Curve magazine, where she honed her passion for writing about social justice and sex (and their frequent intersection). Her work has appeared on Dread Central, Elite Daily, Tecca, and Joystiq. She's a GALECA member and she podcasts regularly about horror on the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network. She can’t live without cats, vintage style, video games, drag queens, or the Oxford comma.
Rachel Shatto, Editor in Chief of PRIDE.com, is an SF Bay Area-based writer, podcaster, and former editor of Curve magazine, where she honed her passion for writing about social justice and sex (and their frequent intersection). Her work has appeared on Dread Central, Elite Daily, Tecca, and Joystiq. She's a GALECA member and she podcasts regularly about horror on the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network. She can’t live without cats, vintage style, video games, drag queens, or the Oxford comma.
