Explained: Why Lea Michele replacing Beanie Feldstein in Funny Girl is the wildest thing ever

Well, it happened. Lea Michele’s real life Rachel Berry arc is finally complete. Yesterday, after a tense clock watching session on Twitter from people who this drama brings endless fascination to, it was announced that Lea Michele would be replacing Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl on Broadway. Don’t get why this is significant? Don’t know quite why the internet is both guffawing and hyperventilating? I’ve got you covered – here’s why Lea Michele getting cast in Funny Girl is wild fully explained for  novices to the drama.

This has been brewing for a millennia

Life imitates art, as they say. And in this situation, Lea Michele is life and Glee is art. Since it was announced that Beanie Feldstein would be leaving her role as Fanny Brice in the Funny Girl Broadway revival, the rumours began to circulate that Lea Michele would take over the role. This has been brewing since the Glee days. Rachel Berry fashioned herself as Barbra’s “spiritual successor” and got the role on Glee, and then it came about that Ryan Murphy has the rights to a Funny Girl revival IRL and that Michele was in talks to play Fanny.

That version never happened, but memes were memeing when Beanie Feldstein was announced as the lead in the revival over Lea. Lea sent Beanie her well wishes and stated to her “You are the greatest star.” Beanie later said “I don’t know the woman whatsoever”, which is deeply iconic.

Why is Beanie Feldstein leaving Funny Girl?

Erm, we don’t really know. The reviews have been mixed to poor, with criticism going towards Beanie’s singing ability. Beanie initially announced she’d be leaving the role in September, but that has now been brought forward to July 31st and prompted Beanie to do this post statement on her Instagram:

“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. Once the production decided to take the show in a different direction, I made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated.”

Why is Lea Michele’s casting controversial?

Lea Michele and the role of Fanny Brice has hung over Beanie Feldstein’s entire Funny Girl run, so now to be replaced by the very person gossip, drama and memes have revolved around for the last year can’t feel too great. Not least as such because of the drama that has circulated around Lea Michele after allegations of her bullying on the set of Glee surfaced in 2020.

Samantha Ware, Lea’s Glee co-star accused Lea Michele of making her life “a living hell” and that Michele said if given the opportunity she would “shit in her wig”. Heather Morris, who played Brittany on Glee, backed up the claims and said: “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 on anyone else. With that said, was she unpleasant to work with? Very much so; for Lea to treat others with the disrespect that she did for as long as she did, I believe she SHOULD be called out.”

Lea Michele issued an apology at the time, saying: “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 which hurt other people.

“Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused. We all can grow and change and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect on my own shortcomings.”

When will Lea Michele take over in Funny Girl?

Lea Michele is due to take over the role in September, and her lifelong dreams will be complete! Until then, Beanie Feldstein’s understudy Julie Benko will play Fanny.

Just in case you need a reminder of why the featured image is so iconic, here’s Rachel Berry blasting out Don’t Rain On My Parade.

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