Inside the Broadway Blow-Up Over Lea Michele Replacing Beanie Feldstein in ‘Funny Girl’
All through the roiling saga of Beanie Feldstein leaving Broadway musical Funny Girl, and Lea Michele being announced as her replacement in the role of Fanny Brice, they have been represented by the same theater agent, The Daily Beast has learned.
David Kalodner, of top agency WME’s theater department, declined to comment to The Daily Beast on how he had balanced both actors’ interests in the backstage negotiations that have led Michele to replace Feldstein in the Broadway show, now more noted for its drama offstage than on. Feldstein received mostly negative reviews for her performance, particularly her singing abilities, after the show opened on April 24.
A senior show source, who requested anonymity, also revealed that Michele—famed for very publicly hungering for the role, and performing Brice’s songs in Glee and at the 2010 Tony Awards—was officially signed on to play Brice “a week and a half” after this year’s Tony Awards, before an internet-inferno-causing Gawker article on June 30 that reported she was “set to take over the role.”