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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
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. [/quote]

From the comments I read elsewhere, no one really was able to stage a revival of this show because so much hinged on Streisand's voice, physique, etc.  So, apparently they thought that the only way to do it was to move as far from Streisand as possible.  Kind of what was done with Alan Cumming when he was cast as MC in Cabaret because otherwise you can't get away from Joel Grey.  Beanie was supposed to be a very different Fanny.  But looks like they underestimated the importance of vocal chops.[/quote]

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