Lea Michele leads Funny Girl to Broadway box office history
The production has broken sales records for the August Wilson Theatre
Aux News Lea Michele
Lea Michele waited years for the opportunity to play Fanny Brice to come along, and she’s certainly made the best of her time in the Broadway spotlight. With Michele playing the lead Funny Girl, the production has broken a box office record for August Wilson Theatre, with $2 million in ticket sales last week alone.
Funny Girl’s success triumphs above a particularly difficult year for Broadway, which has seen the early closure of Almost Famous, KPOP, and A Strange Loop due to low ticket sales.
It’s also been a long year for the Funny Girl production in particular. The show made its return earlier this year, with Beanie Feldstein taking on the role of Fanny Brice. Funny Girl debuted in March to lukewarm and even dismal reviews, with critics unimpressed by Feldstein’s singing chops as Fanny Brice.
Although Feldstein’s original contract was set to expire in early 2023, producers moved up the end date to September 25 of this year. However, Feldstein ended up stepping down from the role in July, revealing that “the production decided to take the show in a different direction.” Jane Lynch left Funny Girl as well, with Tovah Feldshuh replacing her as Mrs. Bryce.
Michele officially stepped into the role Fanny Brice on September 6, with standby Julie Benko leading the production throughout August. Once Michele took the stage, ticket sales increased as critics praised her impassioned performance. Variety reports that during Michele’s stint as Brice, the August Wilson Theater has been at 98-99 percent capacity each night, compared to 74 percent when Feldstein held the role.
Ramin Karimloo stars opposite Michele as Brice’s love interest Nick Arnstein, with Jared Grimes, Peter Francis James, Ephie Aardema, Debra Cardona, Toni DiBuono, and Martin Moran starring as well.
Michele will also appear on the Broadway cast album for the show, which will feature studio recordings of songs such as “Rain On My Parade,” “My Man,” and “People.”
25 Comments
You know how every little girl, at some point, dreams of playing Fanny Brice. Jesus Christ!
And every little boy dreams of playing Jesus Christ. Fanny Brice!
What about Wolfie Mozart and Humphrey Bogart?
Well played.
Two thoughts: one, it’s nice to get some Broadway news, even if it’s only ever about this one single show. (Which maybe is the only one playing on Broadway now? It’s been a while since I’ve been.)Two, I knew they reworked the show, but I had no idea they’d reworked it so much that the Act I finale had gone from the determined-to-wear-rose-colored-glasses “Don’t Rain On My Parade” to the jaded, sarcastic “Rain On My Parade”, but I guess that tracks.
I’m not sure I would compare A Strange Loop with shows like Almost Famous and KPOP, which both ran for weeks and closed abruptly due to low ticket sales and bad reviews. A Strange Loop won the Pulitzer and has been running since April and will close in a month. It’s a short run for a show that won the Tony for Best Musical (though not the shortest – that’s Sondheim’s Passion), but it’s a small miracle it ran that long. If you have a chance to go see it check it out because it’s genius.
I’m not sure the shows were compared at all. It just said that it was closing due to low ticket sales. Is that not true?
Yes, but closing due to low ticket sales after a nearly 10 month run versus closing due to low ticket sales after only being open a few weeks are very different things on Broadway.
They say the girls are something else on Broadway.
Did KPOP get bad reviews? I’m not a broadway person so I’m genuinely asking.
It sounded neat to me so shame if it didn’t work out.
I would say negative to mixed based on what I read. The Times review in particular was pretty harsh.
Good for her and good for the show. I’m not really a fan but then I don’t really fan very much when it comes to actors. Stage work is hard work. Respect.
What’s next for LM? Probably a revival of Evita. Will be living for the La LuPone commentary.
I don’t follow Broadway as much as I’d probably like to. But I’m used to hearing about these kinds of runs going belly up. Is it normal for a show that was doing poorly to turn itself around like this? Congratulations to all.
It is completely abnormal to pivot and save a show after it opens. They are more commonly saved in preview via drastic action.
It’s actually very odd! I used to work in NYC theater (wardrobe) and I have never heard this happen.
I want to see Lea Michele and Lady Gaga face each other in a Streisand-off.
I hope someone reads this good news to Lea.
I love the Strange Loop soundtrack. Came to it after loving Larry Owen’s podcast, and the album was a bright spot during the pandemic.
Saw a Strange Loop and was surprised it has been so hyped. It’s definitely a story you don’t see on Broadway and as a gay Black man I could relate to some things but I thought the score was incredibly weak. None of the songs are memorable and overall it sounded like a pastiche of modern musical theatre songs so in a word, unoriginal. Also, the second half is a confused mess. All of that to say, I’m not surprised at all it never caught on because the music in that musical is terrible.
I can’t help but feel really bad for Beanie Feldstein. How exactly did the show get past previews if her voice was such a problem?
A bunch of people—Beanie included—convinced themselves that actual talent was irrelevant, that her fresh and new take would bring people to the theater. Also in the aftermath of Booksmart and the stupid Clinton thing, everyone convinced themselves (to paraphrase Hulk Hogan) that Beaniemania was running wild, brother, and a million screaming Beaniemaniacs were waiting to see Beanie bodyslam the role of Fanny Brice. They misjudged Beanie’s place in the zeitgeist, to say the least.
I’m guessing a combination of “people will come see her because she’s had success in movies” and the fact that her family’s connected.
In previews they were saying it was bad – I feel sorry for her too. They set her up for failure. So you’re not Fanny Brice, doesn’t mean she couldn’t have starred elsewhere in a different role. Now she’s probably scarred forever because someone miscast her – not like she went begging for the role!
While this is great and all, because a healthy Broadway is generally good for New York City, I’m curious how sustainable this particular case is going to be.I happen to work literally next door to the August Wilson Theater, and it’s hard not to notice how often I’ll run out to lunch and see a placard on their sidewalk that says “Tonight, the role of Fanny Brice will be played by Julie Benko”. I know Lea Michelle had covid back in September, but I know I’ve seen it more than a few times in the last few weeks.I realize this is anecdotal, and I haven’t been taking any hard data so maybe I’m just remembering it a little wrong, but if she is in fact missing shows with frequency, that info has to start to get around and people are going to stop buying tickets, right?