Former high school drama club members have been kvelling ever since Beanie Feldstein booked the coveted role of Fanny Brice in the first revival of Funny Girl on Broadway since that same musical shot a little someone named Barbra Streisand to stardom. The Booksmart star, who previously starred as Minnie Fay in the Tony-winning Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, was chosen over a number of belters for the role—namely Lea Michele.
For a while, it looked like Michele had the role in the bag. Her Glee overachiever, Rachel Berry, was obsessed with Fanny Brice, would eventually play the role on Broadway in the world of the show, and somewhat iconically sang “Don’t Rain on my Parade” during Glee’s season one finale. Michele sang the song again at the 2010 Tony Awards in a move which many interpreted as her unofficial audition for the part. Ryan Murphy even secured the rights for Michele to star in the musical in 2014… before making the correct call a year later that the world had seen enough of Michele’s Fanny Brice, telling Playbill.com that “we [did] so many of those songs and so many of those scenes [on Glee] that in a weird way, I feel like we did it.”
Still, Michele remained persistent, and told Andy Cohen in 2017 that she felt “really ready” to finally star in a production, “so maybe we could do it soon.” Alas, it was not to be. While Michele’s alleged bullying and difficult on-set behavior may have taken her out of the running to play Fanny Brice long before Feldstein was involved, the official announcement that Feldstein had won the part was like hearing that an extremely talented freshman had snagged the lead in the school musical over the senior that spent years supposedly paying her dues.
As such, the high school cafeteria that is Twitter was set abuzz by the news—so much so that Michele was trending after Feldstein’s casting was announced. But in a recent interview on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM Radio Show, Feldstein claimed that she had no idea why Lea Michele was trending that day.
Joined by her American Crime Story: Impeachment costars Annaliegh Ashford and Sarah Paulson, Feldstein—who stars as Monica Lewinsky on the FX series—discussed the thrill of getting to play her dream role on Broadway. Apropos of nothing, Cohen said to Feldstein, “By the way, you got that part and Lea Michele started trending on Twitter because everyone knew that she wanted the part. Has there been any correspondence between you guys yet?”
“I didn’t know that any of this was happening, by the way,” a truly nonchalant Feldstein said, as Ashford covered her mouth in shock and Paulson smiled knowingly on their respective Zoom screens. Feldstein, however, kept her cool and continued: “I didn’t understand. But, she very sweetly wrote on my Instagram. I don’t know the woman whatsoever.” Cohen responded positively, saying, “Oh, that’s nice. Well, I love this.”
While the internet has run wild with the claim that Feldstein doesn’t know who Michele is, it’s quite clear from the video that this is not the case. She wasn’t saying that she has never heard of Michele; she’s just saying that they don’t know each other. They don’t talk. They don’t text. She doesn’t know the woman. Whatsoever. It’s more of a Mariah Carey “I don’t know her” situation than an “I don’t know who you’re speaking of” situation.
Given the relative smallness of the musical theater community and their status as Ryan Murphy-muses, it seems like it’s only a matter of time until Michele and Feldstein’s paths do cross. Hopefully for Feldstein, it’s not backstage at Funny Girl near any of her wigs.
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