Michele to lead ‘Funny Girl’
Lea Michele has been tapped to step in and lead the Broadway revival of the beleaguered “Funny Girl” this fall, an announcement made just hours after current star Beanie Feldstein revealed she was leaving the musical sooner than anticipated due to the show taking a “different direction.”
The high-profile casting change represents another step toward a return to the spotlight and respectability for Michele after former “Glee” castmates in 2021 accused the actor of behavior that was interpreted as racist and bullying.
Michele, who started her career on Broadway and starred in the original “Spring Awakening” recently returned to the work with the documentary “Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known.”
In an extraordinary step, Feldstein took to social media Sunday to say that while playing the heroine of “Funny Girl” was a lifelong dream, she could no longer continue due to choices by producers and would leave early, July 31.
“Once the production decided to take the show in a different direction, I made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated,” she wrote. Her Instagram post was liked by Broadway veteran Ramin Karimloo, who plays Brice’s love interest in “Funny Girl” and is staying on.
Fanny Brice standby Julie Benko will perform the title role from Aug. 2-Sep. 4. Then Michele will step in starting Sept. 6. That is also the date four-time Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh will replace Emmy-winner Jane Lynch as Brice’s mother, meaning there will be no Broadway reunion of “Glee” castmates Michele and Lynch.
Feldstein has missed several performances in recent weeks, including a weekend matinee. Last
month, she missed shows due to a positive COVID -19 test.
Fanny is one of musical theater’s more difficult roles to cast, needing both a set of pipes, a sense of humor and a spunky charm. Barbra Streisand starred in it on Broadway in 1964 and then won an Oscar in the 1968 film version.
The bittersweet comedy tells the tale of a Jewish girl from New York in the 1920s who went from burlesque to Broadway stages despite criticism that she wasn’t conventionally beautiful. “Funny Girl” is a musical that celebrates the oddballs, the kooky and the misfits.
Reviews were mixed to poor, with many critics saying that while Feldstein brought excitement and spirit, her voice was not up to the task.
Feldstein, who made her Broadway debut in 2017 in the Bette Midler-led revival of “Hello, Dolly!,” failed to secure a Tony nomination for “Funny Girl,” and the show was bushed off with a single nod — to Jared Grimes, a featured actor in a musical.
Michele faced a backlash in 2021 and apologized for being “unnecessarily difficult” on the set of “Glee” after a co-star accused her of making her time there “a living hell.” — Associated Press
Bond tune composer Monty Norman dies
Monty Norman, 94, a British composer who wrote the theme tune for the James Bond films, has died.
A statement posted Monday on Norman’s official website said: “It is with sadness we share the news that Monty Norman died on 11th July 2022 after a short illness.”
Born Monty Noserovitch in 1928 to Jewish parents in the East End of London, Norman got his first guitar when he was 16. He performed with big bands and in a variety double act with comedian Benny Hill before writing songs for early British rockers Cliff Richard and Tommy Steele and composing for stage musicals.
Norman was hired by producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli to compose a theme for the first James Bond film, “Dr. No,” released in 1962.
He drew on a piece he had written for a proposed musical adaptation of V.S. Naipaul’s “A House for Mr. Biswas.” The result has been used in all 25 Bond thrillers.
Producers hired composer John Barry to rearrange the theme, and Barry was widely assumed to have written it. Norman went to court to assert his authorship. He won in 2001.