Entertainment
Nobody rains on Lea Michele’s parade as she gets 6 standing ovations during Funny Girl Broadway debut-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro
The Glee star brought down the house.
The actress was living her lifelong dream (Picture: Getty)
Lea Michele has finally made her debut in Funny Girl on Broadway and it was, by all reports, triumphant, with the leading lady receiving multiple standing ovations.
The Glee star, who replaced original actress Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice – the role made famous by Barbra Streisand on stage and screen – was fulfilling a long-held ambition.
Her character on the popular musical series, Rachel Berry, even harboured the same dreams of playing Fanny, leading Michele to perform multiple songs from the musical and appear as Fanny during the series.
On Tuesday night, the actress made her first appearance in the role at the August Wilson Theatre where she received rapturous applause and sent the audience leaping to their feet before she could even utter Fanny’s iconic opening line ‘Hello, gorgeous’.
In total, the 36-year-old received a staggering six standing ovations according to Variety.
Leading the charge was her long-time friend and Spring Awakening co-star Jonathan Groff, with Glee showrunner Ryan Murphy, Star Trek actor Zachary Quinto and actor and writer Harvey Fierstein, who had revised the show’s original book by Isobel Lennart, also in attendance.
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Michele was clearly touched by the huge applause (Picture: Bruce Glikas/WireImage)
Bowing with co-star Ramin Karimloo, who plays Nicky Arnstein (Picture: Bruce Glikas/WireImage)
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star and Broadway fixture Tovah Feldshuh was also making her debut in the role of Mrs Brice, which she inherited from Michele’s former Glee colleague Susan Lynch.
One moment in the show that drew particular reaction was Michele’s admission as Fanny that she ‘hadn’t read many books’ while growing up on Henry Street in Brooklyn.
Tovah Feldshuh was also in her first performance as Fanny’s mother (Picture: Bruce Glikas/WireImage)
You can almost hear the belting coming from those lungs… (Picture: Bruce Glikas/WireImage)
The audience reportedly laughed and gasped, following on from the persistent online rumour/theory/meme that she can’t read, which the star addressed herself recently, calling it ‘sad’.
Her casting sparked some controversy, after Michele was embroiled in a racism row in 2020 following accusations of ‘traumatic microaggressions’ from Glee co-star Samantha Ware, who also shared a dig at the Funny Girl news.
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A number of other cast members also shared their experiences of working with Michele and responded to allegations of her past behaviour on set, including Mercedes Jones star Amber Riley, and Alex Newell, who played Unique Adams.
The actress issued an apology for her ‘behaviour and for any pain which I have caused’, but denied ever judging anybody by the colour of their skin.
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