Producers of Funny Girl on Broadway say they were not “blindsided” by Beanie Feldstein’s premature exit. Actor Beanie Feldstein(Booksmart, Lady Bird) went to Instagram on Sunday night to announce her departure from the Broadway show. Feldstein’s last performance will now be at the end of July rather than September as planned. Similar to the words in Feldstein’s Instagram announcement, her representative and the show’s producers have released a joint statement. The statement revealed the producers ended Beanie Feldstein’s contract on September 25th, 2022, instead of early 2023 as planned because they had “decided to take the show in a different direction.” Glee star Lea Michele is set to join the Funny Girl revival and take the role of Fanny Brice. The Funny Girl producers continue to stand by the fact they are and were “aware and in support of” Beanie’s decision to leave her role on the broadway show earlier than planned.
In a statement first obtained by People, the representatives for Funny Girl Broadway and Beanie Feldstein wrote, “The producers of Funny Girl were not blindsided by Beanie’s social post.” In Beanie’s social media post, she wrote,
You can take a closer look at Beanie Feldstein’s Funny Girl exit announcement below.
Lea Michele Joins Funny Girl While Beanie Feldstein Exits
After rumors swirled about Lea Michele joining the Funny Girl Broadway revival, she finally confirmed she’s returning to the Broadway stage to take on Fanny Brice. Lea Michele has psued0-starred as Brice before as her character Rachel Berry once played Fanny Brice in a school musical on an episode of the hit FOX series Glee.
Funny Girl first opened on Broadway in 1964, with superstar Barbra Streisand taking the lead. Streisand’s show was nominated for eight Tony awards. Meanwhile, six decades later, the revival, which premiered on April 24th, only got nominated for one Tony award for Jared Grimes, who stars as Eddie Ryan in the musical.
With a lack of Tony nominations and so-so reviews, ticket sales weren’t doing well and started slumping at the box office. Since Funny Girl is such a well-known musical with massive production, this news wasn’t great for the profits. Tickets for July and August start around $69, with weekdays around $49. The decision to put a Broadway star like Lea Michele on Funny Girl has already struck a major increase in ticket sales, with the price of admission skyrocketing. Tickets are selling on SeatGeek, starting around $570 to extreme prices like $2,500 on the higher end, with the average entry price for the show around $102. That’s a significant increase for the Funny Girl revival.
Lea Michele’s first performance as Fanny Brice will be on September 6th, 2022, according to the Funny Girl on Broadway website.
