Lea Michele Is Back on Broadway—And Ignoring the Rumors
Lea Michele was standing on stage at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre when the dream finally started to feel real: After years of wishing and hoping and showcasing herself as a possible successor to Barbra Streisand, she was finally preparing to star in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl as titular Ziegfeld Follies comedienne Fanny Brice.
It was Michele’s first day rehearsing in the landmark theater with her costar Ramin Karimloo, who plays Brice’s dashing, heartbreaking husband Nicky Arnstein, “and I sang ‘People,’ ” Michele, 36, says. She laughs a little, as if bashful about how she very likely nailed the show’s signature, show-stopping ballad. Afterward, Funny Girl director Michael Mayer, who first met Michele when she was 14 and directed her in her breakout role as Wendla Bergmann in the Tony-winning musical Spring Awakening, immediately began giving notes.
Michele sets the scene with theatrical zeal. “He was like, ‘Okay, so I think maybe instead of sitting on this side of him, you should sit on the…’ ” Michele stopped Mayer right there. “I said, ‘Michael. I just sang ‘People’ on a Broadway stage.’ He was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ We both just started hysterically crying.”
Michele is telling the story by phone from her lunch break during a full day of rehearsals; the night before was her first dress rehearsal, complete with a dizzying 22 costume changes, an experience Michele likens to “being shot out of a cannon.” The same can be said for her highly charged Funny Girl debut.
On Tuesday night, Michele will return to Broadway after a 14-year absence in what Funny Girl’s ads are calling “the role of a lifetime”—and one for which Michele unofficially auditioned over six seasons on Glee, performing numbers from the musical including “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “I’m the Greatest Star.” (In 2014, Glee creator Ryan Murphy obtained the rights to revive Funny Girl on Broadway, an intended vehicle for Michele, only to later lose them.) Her first night is also the latest development in a saga that has gripped Broadway Twitter—and beyond—for months: Michele’s predecessor, Beanie Feldstein, was initially cast as Brice, then departed amid lackluster reviews in July, leaving the show far earlier than planned. Mere days later, Funny Girl trumpeted the news of Michele’s casting on Instagram and Twitter.
“It’s going to be sort of like a reopening, in a sense,” Michele tells me of her Funny Girl premiere. She cites new songs and arrangements, but the real thirst—and spiking ticket prices—is for Michele’s new Brice.
“I think that a lot of people might have had an idea of how I would be playing Fanny based on some of the things I did on Glee, but this character is a combination of everything that I’ve learned in my life,” she says. She has become inextricably linked with her Glee alter-ego, the Tracy Flick-ian striver Rachel Berry, but Michele also sees glimmers of herself in Brice’s constant, propulsive motion.
“I’ve always found Fanny to be this ball of energy,” she says, speaking in her signature velvety voice. “It definitely resonates with me, a version of my younger self, that just had this endless drive—very Rachel Berry.” In Brice’s Act I youth, however, Michele promises hints of awkwardness and shyness.
Precious few women have embodied Fanny Brice on Broadway: Streisand, who originated the role as a newcomer in 1964; Feldstein; standby Julie Benko, Feldstein’s interim replacement, who will continue to play Brice on Thursdays; and understudy Ephie Aardema. “I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Beanie and Julie play Fannie, and everyone has their own individual version,” Michele says. “Beanie’s so hilarious. Julie’s so incredible.”
Michele’s praise for Feldstein could be interpreted as a tacit rejection of the Twitter narrative that imagines her as Feldstein’s enemy, relishing in her tepid reviews. Michele declined to discuss being pit against Feldstein, pointing me instead to a recent People interview in which she revealed she had written Feldstein a letter after seeing her in Funny Girl.
Why didn’t Michele get the role of Brice when the Funny Girl revival was first cast? “I don’t really know. You’ll have to ask the producers,” she says. She laughs heartily before quickly recovering her composure.“I don’t know when that was all decided.”
Mayer told The New York Times that Michele “was at the top of the list for Brice,” but she and her husband, businessman Zandy Reich, had only recently welcomed a son, Ever, in August 2020, and Mayer “sensed she would not be ready to return to work.” Around the same time, in June 2020, former Glee costars Samantha Ware, Heather Morris, and Amber Riley accused Michele, explicitly and implicitly, of mistreating fellow cast members on set. Michele subsequently released an apology on Instagram, saying she “clearly acted in ways which hurt other people.”
