Isobel Lennart: Last News

Wilson Chapman editorBeanie Feldstein and Jane Lynch will depart the current Broadway revival of “Funny Girl” this fall, the production announced Wednesday.The news was announced by the production, which confirmed that both stars will depart the production on Sept. 25. The male leads, Ramin Karimloo and Jared Grimes, will remain with the show.

Brent Lang Executive Editor After one major cast change and a lot of off-stage drama, “Funny Girl” has recouped its $16.5 million capitalization, the producers of the Broadway revival announced on Monday. At one point, that kind of news would have seemed very unlikely. When “Funny Girl” opened in April 2022 at the August Wilson Theatre, Beanie Feldstein had the starring role of Vaudeville legend Fanny Brice, a part that had originally been filled by Barbra Streisand.

Lea Michele did not let getting dissed by her former Glee costar Chris Colfer rain on her parade as she headed to a matinee performance of Funny Girl in New York City.Just hours after the 32-year-old actor threw some serious shade at her when asked if Michele would be checking out her musical, the Scream Queens star, 36, appeared in high spirits as she smiled and waved at onlookers on Tuesday.The mother-of-one, who welcomed her son Ever with husband Zandy Reich in 2020, looked incredibly chic in a black vest, matching knee-high boots and an olive green miniskirt.

Singer and actress Lea Michele has been doing very well on her Broadway show Funny Girl.And on Friday the Glee vet talked to Good Morning America in NYC about stepping into some very big shoes before she sang a song from the show.When asked if she would love it if her idol Barbra Streisand, who made the role of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl famous, came by and watcher her performance, Michele said yes and that it would be 'incredible.' Her time to shine: Singer and actress Lea Michele has been doing very well on her Broadway show Funny Girl. And on Friday the Glee vet talked to Good Morning America in NYC about stepping into some very big shoes before she sang a song from the show She got all suited up: Lea was seen in costume to sing for GMAFunny Girl is a musical with score by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, and book by Isobel Lennart, that first opened on Broadway in 1964.Streisand performed on stage and then starred in the 1968 movie starring Omar Sharif. Lea shared, 'Everyone knows my love for Barbra Streisand, I have expressed that from Glee, from growing up, and she made Funny Girl what it is and we would love if she came to the show.'It would be incredible if she came,' noted Lea.

Beanie Feldstein, who was a smash as Monica Lewinsky in “American Crime Story: Impeachment” last year, takes on the Brooklyn comic legend who sings classic hits like “People” and “Don’t Rain On My Parade.” She is supposed to steal our hearts and sprain our funny bones. No dice.Ticket-buyers are walking in forgivingly, with an understanding that we don’t expect any Broadway performer to match up to one of the greatest American vocalists of all time. Feldstein, however, barely muddles through the beloved songs.

Frank Rizzo “You ever feel like there’s someone watching from the shadows?” asks Beanie Feldstein’s Fanny Brice, as haunting apparitions from the Ziegfeld star’s past waft in and out in a kind of “Fanny’s ‘Follies’.”The problem with this uninspired revival of “Funny Girl” — which opened at the August Wilson Theatre on Sunday, marking the show’s Broadway return after nearly 60 years — is not simply the singular ghost of she who shall not be named. (Alright: It’s Barbra Steisand.) Rather, the issue here is the production’s inability to live up to its star-making potential that would have made us once again forgive the simplistic, sentimental and sanitized original book credited to Isobel Lennart.

Smartly sidestepping the obvious comparison from the start – the line-reading of “Hello gorgeous” sounds more conversational, less sing-songy than the one etched in our brains for all these decades – Broadway’s new Funny Girl revival doesn’t so much make a grand play for replacement as a peaceful offering for coexistence: The show that made Barbra Streisand a musical theater icon likely won’t do the same for its latest star, but neither is it cause for grumbling how-dare-shes.

Broadway’s upcoming revival of Funny Girl, starring Beanie Feldstein, Jane Lynch, Ramin Karimloo and Jared Grimes has completed casting, with Peter Francis James, Ephie Aardema, Debra Cardon and Toni DiBuono among those joining the cast.