No hard feelings here?!
Lea Michele took to Instagram to celebrate the news that Beanie Feldstein has been cast to lead the Funny Girl revival on Broadway this coming spring. Last week, the Booksmart star announced she will be the first performer to step into the role since Barbra Streisand originated the character in 1964, telling her IG followers:
“i went to my third birthday party dressed as fanny brice so sometimes dreams actually come true”
Incredible!!
Lots of high-profile celebs sent their congratulations in the comments section, but nobody’s note was as noticeable as Lea’s! The Scream Queens alum — who had long been in talks to star in the show AND had been trending on Twitter with fan reactions over the lost role — wrote:
“Yes! YOU are the greatest star! This is going to be epic!!”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSevnnul7lr/
A post shared by Beanie Feldstein (@beaniefeldstein)
The musical has held a soft spot in the new momma’s heart since she gained fame as Glee‘s Rachel Barry, whose biggest goal in life was to be in Funny Girl. Throughout the six-season series, she performed many of the show’s songs (most famously Don’t Rain on My Parade). After Barry graduated high school, she lived out her dreams as Fanny Brice on stage… though not before feuding with her classmate Santana Lopez (played by Naya Rivera) over the casting. So, it only seemed inevitable that the New York native would someday take on the legendary role!
In 2017, while on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Lea teased:
“I hope so, I really hope so. We were thinking of doing it right after Glee but I did a lot of the songs from Funny Girl on Glee so it felt like a little soon, but I feel really ready to do it now so maybe we could do it soon.”
At the time, screenwriter Ryan Murphy was in charge of a possible revival and asked his former leading lady to team up once again. But according to a People source, she declined a few years ago “mainly because she thought what was done on Glee was everything she could have brought to the role.”
These days, producer Michael Mayer has the rights to the show and “wanted to take the character in a different direction.” And it sounds like Lea has been supportive of the new vision from the start, with the insider elaborating:
“Lea has always supported his creative thoughts and thinks Beanie is the perfect person for the production.”
Love that! It does seem like Beanie was destined to play this character — and she has just the amount of enthusiasm Rachel Barry did heading into the show’s run.
Reactions, Perezcious readers? Surprised Lea’s been so gracious about this casting news? Sad she won’t get to bring a Glee storyline to life? Let us know in the comments (below)!
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