BROADWAY BREAKUP: BEANIE’S OUT, LEA’S IN

hello, gorgeous. Take two. Lea Michele is officially your new Fanny Brice, following Beanie Feldstein’s abrupt exit from the Broadway revival of Funny Girl. To some, Michele’s casting was inevitable and earned, what her whole career had been leading up to. To others, it should have been avoided at all costs, considering her alleged mistreatment of Black cast members on Glee. Meanwhile, the handling of Feldstein’s departure has reportedly been … contentious. Here’s how Michele went from Les Miz child star to Rachel Berry fame and then, somehow, back to Broadway.

1995–98: Taking Broadway

➽ Twenty-six years after Babs wins her Oscar for Funny Girl, 8-year-old Lea Michele makes her Broadway debut in Les Miserables as a replacement in the role of Young Cosette.

2006: A Star Is Really Born

➽ Spring Awakening opens on Broadway starring Michele. Its popularity catapults her to new stardom; Ryan Murphy’s Glee premieres with Michele in the lead role three years later.

2009–10: Rachel’s Parade

➽ Michele performs the Funny Girl showstopper “Don’t Rain on My Parade” at two pivotal moments: first as Rachel Berry, who also dreams of playing Brice, then at the 64th Annual Tony Awards. Mini-Streisand is cemented.

2013–15: Glee’s Prophecy

➽ Murphy acquires the rights to a Funny Girl revival, though it later hits the West End with neither Murphy nor Michele attached. Over in Glee-land, Berry is cast in Funny Girl, opening to rave reviews.

2021: Beanie to the Stage

➽ Feldstein beats out Michele, and others, for the role of Fanny in the Broadway revival. Michele is still so strongly associated with the role that she trends on Twitter afterward. (Feldstein will later say of her unchosen rival, “I don’t know the woman whatsoever.”)

APRIL 24, 2022: A Spill

➽ Funny Girl opens on Broadway. It is universally panned, with Feldstein receiving the harshest critiques. Less than two months later, it’s announced Feldstein is leaving the show on September 25; rumors swirl that Michele will be the replacement.

JULY 11, 2022: Plot Twist!

➽ Feldstein will exit even earlier, citing producers “taking the show in a different direction.” A day later, the bomb drops: Michele is Brice, starting September 6. Get ready for her love, ’cause she’s a comer.