People who need People need to shut the fuck up and stop being assholes!!!

I have, obviously, been following the Funny Girl drama. In fact, I'm over it, and after this post, my plan is to basically pretend it doesn't exist and move on with my life. Which is what I suggest all other ridiculous theater nerds do, too.

Okay, first, a summary:

Funny Girl has not played on Broadway since the original production starring Barbra in 1964. Obviously people have talked about it a lot, and there was even a plan at one point to transfer a production over from the West End, but nothing in nearly 60 years. 

Fast forward to the Pandemic, when there's suddenly news of a new production coming when Broadway reopens. And then a surprise announcement: Beanie Feldstein will star as Fanny Brice! The reception is mostly positive, except for a few body shaming haters. Beanie had already been on Broadway in the beloved revival of Hello, Dolly!, where by all accounts she slayed.

During the rehearsal process, however, someone leaks some less-than-flattering audio of Beanie. And then soon after, at the first preview performance, audience members release bootlegs of Beanie sounding pretty rough (note that because of covid craziness, the first preview was reportedly the first time they had performed the whole show from start to finish). Immediately the internet buzzes with people being saying that Beanie is obviously miscast, &c. &c.

And that only intensifies when the reviews come out, panning the show and Beanie's performance. Some of the reviews are thoughtful explorations of why the show doesn't work, but a bunch of them are really just cruel takedowns of Beanie. 

Meanwhile, Lea Michele seems to be on some sort of comeback tour after having been pretty thoroughly cancelled for being all kinds of abusive behind the scenes over the years. But she starts getting all kinds of good press from the Spring Awakening documentary and associated events, and then shows up at the Tony's to present and perform.

People immediately start joking about Lea Michele taking over for Beanie. And that's exactly what the production decides to do, offering her the role right after Tony's. Their plan was to keep that secret until August, a few weeks before Beanie was set to leave (which would be a totally normal way of handling it), but someone from the production leaks the casting to the Broadway press.

At this point, Beanie goes into "fuck all y'all" mode, decides to leave the production early, then releases a statement of her own that she's out. The production scrambles and makes the Lea Michele casting announcement.

My take on this whole thing:

I saw the show and thought that Beanie was just fine, and that while the show itself sucks, I had an enjoyable evening at the theater. Beanie is really funny, and I was surprised at how good she was in the big ensemble dance-and-comedy numbers. And she sounded pretty good! She sounded like your average actress-who-can-sing.

The problem is that her co-star Ramin Karmiloo sounds incredible, as does most of the ensemble. And of course, she doesn't sound like Barbra, which is the problem most detractors seem to have with it. 

And this is where it seems to me like the production fucked up: they knew everyone was going to compare Beanie to Barbra, and there is no way she was going to match up to that. Yes yes, the talking point is that they were going to be focusing on the "funny" part of Funny Girl, which is great! But then they put her next to Ramin, and stage all the big numbers as "park and barks", basically ensuring the outcome. They could have cast another actor-who-sings! They could have staged the big numbers creatively to highlight Beanie's actual talents!!!

Meanwhile, people are being absolutely savage because not only does she not sound like Barbra, she doesn't "look like" what they're expecting the star of broadway musical to look like. So people are horrible to Beanie from every direction, basically. 

And then when it comes time to replace her, the production handles it like a bunch of fucking amateurs, and replace her with Lea Fucking Michelle!

Listen, Beanie will be fine. She's a great actress who is going to continue to get roles and make lots of money. 

But the production fucked this up royally, and Broadway fans have been horrible (even more than usual, which is saying something).

Like, people are miscast all the time. It happens! Usually the response is "eh. That didn't work/that sucked/not for me" and people fucking move on.

That's not what people are doing, though. Because I am a fucking idiot, I've read way too many Twitter replies and TikTok comments on this subject. Any time someone complains about how Beanie has been treated, there are a million comments from crusty jaded little queens being bitches.

All I ask is that people try just a little bit not to be an asshole! Beanie is a real person! And is, by every single account, warm and friendly and kind, and does not deserve to be treated like this. And all the plus size girls that could see themselves in Beanie--who were excited that someone who looked like them was the star of a big Broadway musical--can also see how she's being treated.

It is really not that hard not to be an absolutely horrible person. It's really not!