In Glee, Rachel Berry may have taken to Broadway to play the role of her dreams in Funny Girl, but it looks like the same won’t happen for Rachel’s counterpart, actress Lea Michele.
On Wednesday August 11, it was announced that Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart, How to Build a Girl) will play Fanny Brice in the upcoming Broadway revival of the iconic musical Funny Girl, which is slated to open in the spring of 2022. Shortly thereafter. The announcement of the news, “Lea Michele” began to appear on social media for a reason perhaps surprising: schadenfreude.
Glee fans will likely recall that Michele’s character auditioned for the role of Fanny Brice on Broadway while a student at the fictional New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts (NYADA) during season 4 of the hit series. Fox. The character was invited for callbacks and got the role, even leaving school to focus on production, which then received good reviews. In the series, a handful of songs from the film adaptation of Funny Girl were used over the course of the series, making them an important part of Glee’s DNA.
In real life, it was reported in 2015 that Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy had purchased the rights to a cover of the musical, which he no longer owns. At the time, Michele had raised the possibility of staring in the adaptation of Murphy during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live!
When asked if she wanted to play the lead role of Fanny, she replied, “I hope so.” She also mentioned that she didn’t necessarily want to jump straight into Funny Girl so close after Glee ended, since she performed a few songs from the show’s musical.
“I just spoke to Ryan Murphy the other night. I did a concert in Central Park,” she told Playbill the same year. “I liked nine songs from Funny Girl and I turned to Ryan and thought to myself, ready to do it. It’s a lot of work and it would be an honor to do it. But if I have to go back to it. [into musicals], that’s what I would really like to do.
It’s unclear if Michele was aware of the upcoming rerun, if she auditioned for it or even wanted the role currently, but social media reacted nonetheless with sheer glee (pun intended) that the actress wouldn’t. apparently not on Broadway any time soon. But why does everyone hate Lea Michele these days, anyway? Let’s explain …
Over the past few years, Michele has been accused by many people of bad behavior. When Michele spoke out in favor of Black Lives Matter, her former Glee castmate Samantha Ware spoke out against Michele’s hypocrisy, accusing the actress of traumatizing her during their filming together.
“LMAO DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU MAKED MY FIRST GIG OF TV INTO A LIVING HELL?!? ! BECAUSE I WILL NEVER FORGET, “tweeted Ware, who played Jane Hayward on the show.” I BELIEVE YOU TELL EVERYBODY THAT IF [YOU] HAD THE OPPORTUNITY YOU WANT ‘S – T IN MY WIG!’ AMONG OTHER TRAUMATIC MICROAGRESSIONS THAT HAVE MADE ME QUESTION A CAREER IN HOLLYWOOD.
The floodgates have opened and more than a handful of former Michele co-stars have come to Ware’s defense, including colleagues from shows such as The Mayor and Scream Queens, with many others accusing Michele of being a nightmare to work with.
Michele has also been heavily criticized by the Glee fandom after she initially did not open up about the death of Naya Rivera, who she allegedly had an argument with during their time together on the show. Instead of posting a photo or a brief tribute to her late castmate, Michele simply deleted her Twitter account at the time.
As a longtime Glee fan, I never thought that Michele would be so similar (or supposedly worse) than Rachel Berry, one of TV’s most infamous divas, but it’s hard to defend anyone. ‘one who would apparently treat everyone they come in contact with as little players in his life. And as many have pointed out on social media, and as the cancellation culture will surely attest, people who don’t play well probably don’t deserve their dream job.
That said, many fans don’t necessarily want to see Michele fail entirely – what we really want is for her to do better and be better; and maybe even take a page from his most famous character’s book while evolving. (A character arc, if you will!) There’s no denying that Michele has talent, but humility, sincerely apologizing, sincerely apologizing, taking responsibility, learning from mistakes, and being respectful of others would likely help. a lot to win back money. of his former fans.
