Harshest gossip I’ve read - Beanie Feldstein dumped from Funny Girl

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What amazes me is that Feldstein got cast in the first place. What were the producers thinking? Does anyone know if she was cast and her casting announced before the producers and director really heard her sing? Were they hoping that vocal training and help between her casting and the opening would be enough, combined with her acting and genuine sweetness, to pull the performance through?

I'm not snarking, I'm asking for real--does anyone know if that was the backdrop?

This is NOT a diss on her as an actress or a person or someone who seems to possess a ton of charm on stage. It's about the initial decision to cast someone who clearly was not up to the vocal challenge of a role where everyone in the audiences knows the songs already, everyone has heard them sung many times already. Some roles, people can come to the theater open to a new kind of voice or a new interpretation. This one, not so much.. So of course there was going to be a reviewer blowback because everyone has such expectations about the songs in that well-known show.

And I say this as someone who is a big fan of what I'd call "quirky" vocalists who have their own individual sound that I know others dislike--for instance, I like Lin-Manuel Miranda's singing in "Hamilton" and "In the Heights," because it's not another cookie-cutter perfect Broadway voice, but a "character" voice with warmth and realism. But those shows were new when they premiered and he could build the characters around his voice. "Funny Girl" is way too well-known for producers and the director to cast someone who wasn't up to the perhaps overblown expectations that come with the show. And I feel bad for Feldstein because the producers should have been realistic so, so much earlier and saved her all the heartache.

Family connections.

She's been building a nice career as an actress, but this role was WAY too big for her as a singer. It's a case of failed nepotism.

Wanting to play this part was literally part of Lea's Rachel Berry character in "Glee." So it makes it seem extra manipulated and weird. The whole thing is a mess!

All of this. I couldn’t figure out how she got the role on American Crime Story playing the role of Monica Lewinsky either. She might be a lovely person, but not everyone is talented in the right ways. She was pretty distracting (in a negative way) for me while watching her try to portray Monica. If she can’t sing, she shouldn’t be given a role where a strong voice carries the role. Just find her casting so bizarre. They should have replaced her quickly, but the act of replacing her should not be a controversy!

I thought she was great in American Crime Story! I don't think I've seen any of her other work, but I thought she was a good actress in ACS.

[Anonymous]

I want Babs to come back as Fanny’s mother. How insane would that be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love that Jane Lynch, who's in Funny Girl, went "Wait, Lea's coming? Hell no!" and noped the heck on out of there.

Ha, this. She was careful to be diplomatic about it of course. I wouldn't pay one red cent to see anything Lea Michelle is in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want Babs to come back as Fanny’s mother. How insane would that be?

That would be amazing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that Lea isn’t going to rehearse in the space is not that uncommon, especially if a show is currently onstage and someone else is preparing to jump in. It’s also a way of being respectful, like the new owners of the house not showing up early to take keys and move in!

I don’t see this as very scandalous. If the reviews are that the lead can’t sing, there you have it. I get that there are many ways to present material and tell a story, but because of Streisand and Lea especially, people know these songs and expect the people singing these songs to have really strong, impressive voices. People have also heard these songs in concerts by Indina Menzel, Chenoweth, etc. Like, come on, you expect these songs to bring down the house with really big belts.

It's the way it went down that is scandalous. You don't often get a Broadway lead quitting the show on Twitter because she overheard they were replacing her.

Well, if she read the reviews, she probably had an inkling this would be a possibility. I’m surprised she didn’t step down herself, instead of continuing on as if she wasn’t tanking the show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that Jane Lynch, who's in Funny Girl, went "Wait, Lea's coming? Hell no!" and noped the heck on out of there.

Ha, this. She was careful to be diplomatic about it of course. I wouldn't pay one red cent to see anything Lea Michelle is in.

For every one of us who wouldn't go, there are 10 tourists to NYC from Flyover America who will scramble for a ticket and remember her as "The girl from Glee." They don't give a sh#t about how she acted on set toward POC or how she got dragged on social media during the BLM movement of June 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that Lea isn’t going to rehearse in the space is not that uncommon, especially if a show is currently onstage and someone else is preparing to jump in. It’s also a way of being respectful, like the new owners of the house not showing up early to take keys and move in!

I don’t see this as very scandalous. If the reviews are that the lead can’t sing, there you have it. I get that there are many ways to present material and tell a story, but because of Streisand and Lea especially, people know these songs and expect the people singing these songs to have really strong, impressive voices. People have also heard these songs in concerts by Indina Menzel, Chenoweth, etc. Like, come on, you expect these songs to bring down the house with really big belts.

It's the way it went down that is scandalous. You don't often get a Broadway lead quitting the show on Twitter because she overheard they were replacing her.

Well, if she read the reviews, she probably had an inkling this would be a possibility. I’m surprised she didn’t step down herself, instead of continuing on as if she wasn’t tanking the show.

Maybe this line from a review of Funny Girl is applicable: "But it’s hard to keep rooting for her as the show goes on; what is meant to read as chutzpah plays uncomfortably close to entitlement."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that Jane Lynch, who's in Funny Girl, went "Wait, Lea's coming? Hell no!" and noped the heck on out of there.

Ha, this. She was careful to be diplomatic about it of course. I wouldn't pay one red cent to see anything Lea Michelle is in.

I saw her in “Spring Awakening.” I honestly don’t care about offstage antics. Short of actually abusing other people, I don’t care what actors do. Do you know if your accountant is nice to his coworkers? Is your doctor nice to the nursing staff, do you even know? A job is a job and Lea onstage is magic. She has a phenomenal voice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that Jane Lynch, who's in Funny Girl, went "Wait, Lea's coming? Hell no!" and noped the heck on out of there.

Ha, this. She was careful to be diplomatic about it of course. I wouldn't pay one red cent to see anything Lea Michelle is in.

I saw her in “Spring Awakening.” I honestly don’t care about offstage antics. Short of actually abusing other people, I don’t care what actors do. Do you know if your accountant is nice to his coworkers? Is your doctor nice to the nursing staff, do you even know? A job is a job and Lea onstage is magic. She has a phenomenal voice.

The "issue" with Lea Michele is that she was not an equal opportunity diva. She seemed to pointedly target her ire toward black and Hispanic cast mates and crew staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that Jane Lynch, who's in Funny Girl, went "Wait, Lea's coming? Hell no!" and noped the heck on out of there.

Ha, this. She was careful to be diplomatic about it of course. I wouldn't pay one red cent to see anything Lea Michelle is in.

For every one of us who wouldn't go, there are 10 tourists to NYC from Flyover America who will scramble for a ticket and remember her as "The girl from Glee." They don't give a sh#t about how she acted on set toward POC or how she got dragged on social media during the BLM movement of June 2020.

Agree, and it makes me sad. Like when LuAnn was drinking and so many 20's women went to her stupid caberet shows just because they could see a famous person. It fed LuAnn's ego in terrible ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What amazes me is that Feldstein got cast in the first place. What were the producers thinking? Does anyone know if she was cast and her casting announced before the producers and director really heard her sing? Were they hoping that vocal training and help between her casting and the opening would be enough, combined with her acting and genuine sweetness, to pull the performance through?

I'm not snarking, I'm asking for real--does anyone know if that was the backdrop?

This is NOT a diss on her as an actress or a person or someone who seems to possess a ton of charm on stage. It's about the initial decision to cast someone who clearly was not up to the vocal challenge of a role where everyone in the audiences knows the songs already, everyone has heard them sung many times already. Some roles, people can come to the theater open to a new kind of voice or a new interpretation. This one, not so much.. So of course there was going to be a reviewer blowback because everyone has such expectations about the songs in that well-known show.

And I say this as someone who is a big fan of what I'd call "quirky" vocalists who have their own individual sound that I know others dislike--for instance, I like Lin-Manuel Miranda's singing in "Hamilton" and "In the Heights," because it's not another cookie-cutter perfect Broadway voice, but a "character" voice with warmth and realism. But those shows were new when they premiered and he could build the characters around his voice. "Funny Girl" is way too well-known for producers and the director to cast someone who wasn't up to the perhaps overblown expectations that come with the show. And I feel bad for Feldstein because the producers should have been realistic so, so much earlier and saved her all the heartache.

Family connections.

She's been building a nice career as an actress, but this role was WAY too big for her as a singer. It's a case of failed nepotism.

Wanting to play this part was literally part of Lea's Rachel Berry character in "Glee." So it makes it seem extra manipulated and weird. The whole thing is a mess!

All of this. I couldn’t figure out how she got the role on American Crime Story playing the role of Monica Lewinsky either. She might be a lovely person, but not everyone is talented in the right ways. She was pretty distracting (in a negative way) for me while watching her try to portray Monica. If she can’t sing, she shouldn’t be given a role where a strong voice carries the role. Just find her casting so bizarre. They should have replaced her quickly, but the act of replacing her should not be a controversy!

How are her "family connections" even this strong? Her brother, Jonah Hill, is a B-list actor. The movies he's produced or directed have not had much success. Sure, he got some Oscar nods 10+ years ago but he hasn't had a decent high-profile role since War Dogs in 2016.

She gets roles that are way too high-profile for her talents or her family connections.

I think their dad is a producer or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What amazes me is that Feldstein got cast in the first place. What were the producers thinking? Does anyone know if she was cast and her casting announced before the producers and director really heard her sing? Were they hoping that vocal training and help between her casting and the opening would be enough, combined with her acting and genuine sweetness, to pull the performance through?

I'm not snarking, I'm asking for real--does anyone know if that was the backdrop?

This is NOT a diss on her as an actress or a person or someone who seems to possess a ton of charm on stage. It's about the initial decision to cast someone who clearly was not up to the vocal challenge of a role where everyone in the audiences knows the songs already, everyone has heard them sung many times already. Some roles, people can come to the theater open to a new kind of voice or a new interpretation. This one, not so much.. So of course there was going to be a reviewer blowback because everyone has such expectations about the songs in that well-known show.

And I say this as someone who is a big fan of what I'd call "quirky" vocalists who have their own individual sound that I know others dislike--for instance, I like Lin-Manuel Miranda's singing in "Hamilton" and "In the Heights," because it's not another cookie-cutter perfect Broadway voice, but a "character" voice with warmth and realism. But those shows were new when they premiered and he could build the characters around his voice. "Funny Girl" is way too well-known for producers and the director to cast someone who wasn't up to the perhaps overblown expectations that come with the show. And I feel bad for Feldstein because the producers should have been realistic so, so much earlier and saved her all the heartache.

Family connections.

She's been building a nice career as an actress, but this role was WAY too big for her as a singer. It's a case of failed nepotism.

Wanting to play this part was literally part of Lea's Rachel Berry character in "Glee." So it makes it seem extra manipulated and weird. The whole thing is a mess!

All of this. I couldn’t figure out how she got the role on American Crime Story playing the role of Monica Lewinsky either. She might be a lovely person, but not everyone is talented in the right ways. She was pretty distracting (in a negative way) for me while watching her try to portray Monica. If she can’t sing, she shouldn’t be given a role where a strong voice carries the role. Just find her casting so bizarre. They should have replaced her quickly, but the act of replacing her should not be a controversy!

How are her "family connections" even this strong? Her brother, Jonah Hill, is a B-list actor. The movies he's produced or directed have not had much success. Sure, he got some Oscar nods 10+ years ago but he hasn't had a decent high-profile role since War Dogs in 2016.

She gets roles that are way too high-profile for her talents or her family connections.

I think their dad is a producer or something.

Accountant and money manager for a bunch of Hollywood people: https://www.nksfb.com/partners/richard-feldstein/

So I guess that explains the family's connections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that Jane Lynch, who's in Funny Girl, went "Wait, Lea's coming? Hell no!" and noped the heck on out of there.

Ha, this. She was careful to be diplomatic about it of course. I wouldn't pay one red cent to see anything Lea Michelle is in.

I saw her in “Spring Awakening.” I honestly don’t care about offstage antics. Short of actually abusing other people, I don’t care what actors do. Do you know if your accountant is nice to his coworkers? Is your doctor nice to the nursing staff, do you even know? A job is a job and Lea onstage is magic. She has a phenomenal voice.

The "issue" with Lea Michele is that she was not an equal opportunity diva. She seemed to pointedly target her ire toward black and Hispanic cast mates and crew staff.

I never heard that. I’ll do some Googling. That does sound bad, I guess I didn’t see those stories. Overall though I don’t think there is anything scandalous with an actress who can’t sing well getting fired from a Broadway musical. It sounds like it could have been handled better, but at the end of the day, no one wants to pay premium prices and finally get back to Broadway theaters only to have the lead be weak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that Jane Lynch, who's in Funny Girl, went "Wait, Lea's coming? Hell no!" and noped the heck on out of there.

Ha, this. She was careful to be diplomatic about it of course. I wouldn't pay one red cent to see anything Lea Michelle is in.

For every one of us who wouldn't go, there are 10 tourists to NYC from Flyover America who will scramble for a ticket and remember her as "The girl from Glee." They don't give a sh#t about how she acted on set toward POC or how she got dragged on social media during the BLM movement of June 2020.

Agree, and it makes me sad. Like when LuAnn was drinking and so many 20's women went to her stupid caberet shows just because they could see a famous person. It fed LuAnn's ego in terrible ways.

LuAnn is sober now and still does cabaret. You’re expecting a reality TV star not to have an ego? I honestly don’t understand your issue with seeing a campy show if they want to. She’s not allowed to earn a living?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love that Jane Lynch, who's in Funny Girl, went "Wait, Lea's coming? Hell no!" and noped the heck on out of there.

Ha, this. She was careful to be diplomatic about it of course. I wouldn't pay one red cent to see anything Lea Michelle is in.

I saw her in “Spring Awakening.” I honestly don’t care about offstage antics. Short of actually abusing other people, I don’t care what actors do. Do you know if your accountant is nice to his coworkers? Is your doctor nice to the nursing staff, do you even know? A job is a job and Lea onstage is magic. She has a phenomenal voice.

The "issue" with Lea Michele is that she was not an equal opportunity diva. She seemed to pointedly target her ire toward black and Hispanic cast mates and crew staff.

I never heard that. I’ll do some Googling. That does sound bad, I guess I didn’t see those stories. Overall though I don’t think there is anything scandalous with an actress who can’t sing well getting fired from a Broadway musical. It sounds like it could have been handled better, but at the end of the day, no one wants to pay premium prices and finally get back to Broadway theaters only to have the lead be weak.

I absolutely agree. Nothing wrong with canning Feldstein, especially if she can't handle the role.

This is a decent primer on what happened with Lea Michele. It all blew up during the BLM protests in June 2020: https://www.thedailybeast.com/lea-michele-threatened-to-shit-in-my-wig-says-glee-alum-samantha-marie-ware