It has been an interesting week for Beanie Feldstein. First, she quit Funny Girl on Sunday, the show she is starring in on Broadway, reportedly without telling her bosses. Then on Monday, she was replaced by Lea Michele. Today, she announced that she has tonsilitis and will not be able to perform, at least, through the weekend.
“Hey everybody I’m just checking in. What have I missed? What’s been going on?” Feldstein says. “I’ll start. I just got back from the ears, nose, and throat doctor, who told me that I have tonsillitis, which is extremely contagious and she cannot allow me to go back on the stage through the weekend until I have enough antibiotics in my system to not be contagious anymore.
“The last thing I would want on this earth would be to get the people that I love sick, and I’m just not allowed to go on stage through the weekend. I cannot wait to do my last two weeks, and you just, you gotta laugh at a certain point. When it rains, it pours on your old pal Bean.”
Hopefully, she will be better by Tuesday, so she can go back on stage and sing her out until July 31st.
Before Sadie Sink didn’t know if the sun would come out tomorrow on Stranger Things, she was singing that it would when she starred in Annie. Boy, could the 11-year-old sing in 2013 when she was on Broadway.
When the revival of Funny Girl announced that Beanie Feldstein was going to play Fanny Brice on Broadway, there were a lot of people who wondered why Lea Michele didn’t get the role.
Ever since Michele sang Don’t Rain on My Parade on Glee, it seemed like it was her role to lose, and she lost it.
Then yesterday, Feldstein announced that she was leaving the show earlier than her September departure because the musical was changing directions. After her announcement, the show said they would reveal her replacement today.
Who is it? It is Lea Michele. “A dream come true is an understatement,” the actress wrote. “I’m so incredibly honored to join this amazing cast and production and return to the stage playing Fanny Brice on Broadway. See you September 6th.”
Hopefully, her dream won’t turn into a nightmare. I think if she doesn’t play to sell-out crowds, I wouldn’t be surprised if the show closes during her run. Yikes.
When it comes to who will be playing Brice between August 1st and September 5th, that person is Julie Benko. Benko has been getting a lot of praise in the role. Unlike the person who was hired to play it.
Beanie Feldstein landed the coveted lead role in the Broadway musical revival, Funny Girl, and critics thought she was the wrong actress to play Fanny Brice. So much so, that she didn’t receive a Tony nomination for her part.
Therefore, she and Jane Lynch announced they were leaving the show in September. However, today the actress said she was ending her fun earlier than expected.
“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,” the actress wrote. “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. The people I have had the great joy of bringing Funny Girl to life with every night, both bring off the septiono talented and exceptional humans and I hope you continue to join them on Henry Street after I depart on July 31st.”
The show said they will make an exciting castin announcement tomorrow. It is expected that Lea Michele will get the role.
Company survived pandemic closures and received 9 Tony nominations, but the lights will dim permanently on the Broadway musical at the end of next month.
They did not say why the show starring Patti LuPone is closing, but I have my theory. Yesterday, Broadway announced that masks will be optional come July 1st. And as we know, LuPone is a strong advocate for keeping them on. So I wonder if LuPone said she was done when the masks were done? And without her tickets sales would plummet.
When it comes to the mask mandate, I agree with her on this as the audience is packed in like sardines in a closed, confined room for 3 hours. You know, COVID-19 is going to start spreading faster than the news.
