After news broke that Funny Girl will make its return to Broadway and Beanie Feldstein will play the titular girl, the internet made sure to blow up perpetual theater kid Lea Michele’s phone with notifications. However, instead of sending congratulatory flowers laced with bird flu like we would expect the true villain of Glee to do, Lea just shared a happy comment on Beanie’s Instagram post. “Yes! YOU are the greatest star! This is going to be epic!” she presumably typed through gritted teeth
Now a few weeks have passed and guess what? Lea is still totally super happy about Beanie getting the role! It’s absolutely fine, everyone! We can stop asking! We didn’t ask? Oh. Anyway, Lea spoke about the news in a podcast.
According to People:
The Glee alum, 35, expressed her excitement for the upcoming revival of Funny Girl and seeing Beanie Feldstein’s portrayal of the beloved leading lady during an appearance on Thursday’s episode of the Little Me: Growing Up Broadway podcast.
“There’s been so much talk about me coming to Broadway — and not coming to Broadway!” Michele joked. “Listen, I am so unbelievably excited to see Funny Girl on Broadway. I cannot wait. I had drinks with [director] Michael [Mayer] the other day, and I just think that Beanie is an incredible choice for the production, and I think it’s going to be so wonderful. I can’t wait to see Jane [Lynch] in it as well.”
“I think that a lot of people always put me in the lane with Funny Girl because, of course, I love the show and the music. But I did get to do a lot of it on Glee,” Michele told Little Me host Marc Tumminelli.
For those of you who don’t remember, Lea’s character on Glee played the lead in a Broadway revival of Funny Girl. Glee creator Ryan Murphy was even interested in doing an actual revival with Lea. This brings us to today where Lea wasn’t even called to be fourth understudy! As for non-Funny Girl roles, Lea is starring in a one-night-only concert of Spring Awakening on Broadway, and talked about doing even more Broadway shows:
“There were so many shows and so many roles that I would love to play, and I’m so grateful that Broadway is back now,” Michele said on Little Me, adding: “But for me to come back to Broadway… Maybe I am coming back to Broadway!”
Under what circumstances is she “coming back” to Broadway? Some stage hands have been known to “accidentally” slather the theater floor in baby oil… Now I’m not Beanie, but if I WAS Beanie, I’d be trying on the best wigs and practicing my “Beanie? Who is zis Beanie? I’m Jeannie Geldstein!” fake accent!
Pic: Wenn.com