Lea Michele controversy explained as news of actress replacing Beanie Feldstein on Funny Girl sparks online memefest 

With Broadway’s Funny Girl lead Beanie Feldstein announcing her departure from the show, netizens are worried that Lea Michele will be stepping in to play the lead. The latter has acquired negative attention on social media following bullying and racist allegations landing against her.

Now, internet users are distressed with the possibility of the Glee star taking on the role, as she has been linked to the Broadway show in the past.

Beanie Feldstein recently took to Instagram saying that she will be giving her last performance as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl on July 31st. In a heartfelt message, she announced that she will be departing “sooner than anticipated.”

In an Instagram post, she wrote that playing Fanny Brice's character on Broadway had been a "lifelong dream" of hers. She also thanked the cast and crew members of the show for all their "love and support."

The actress went on to praise the Funny Girl cast and crew for being "remarkably talented and exceptional humans."

It was reported that the producers of Funny Girl are considering Lea Michele as a replacement. The news came after the controversial star auditioned for the role of Fanny Brice on Broadway in the fourth season of Glee.

Meanwhile, in reality, Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy also obtained the rights for the musical's revival, but he lost the same in 2015

In the past, Lea Michele has spoken about potentially starring as Fanny Brice in Murphy's rendition. She had said:

“I just talked to Ryan Murphy the other night. I did a concert in Central Park I did like nine Funny Girl songs and turned to Ryan and I was like, ‘Okay, I'm ready to do it.’ It's a lot of work and it would be an honor to do it. But if I'm going to go back [into musicals], that's what I'd really like to do.”

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Netizens react to Lea Michele starring in Broadway’s Funny Girl

Internet users were horrified with the 35-year-old actress taking on the acclaimed role which was originally played by Barbra Streisand. This comes after the former was accused of bullying her co-stars.

Fellow Glee actress Samantha Ware has accused Lea Michele of making her “television gig a living hell.” Ware also claimed that the actress told those on set that she would “s**t in my wig” and also instigated “other traumatic microaggressions.”

Dabier Snell, who appeared in a 2014 Glee episode, also tweeted about Lea Michele in the past. Snell wrote:

“GIRL YOU WOULDN’T LET ME SIT AT THE TABLE WITH OTHER CAST MEMBERS CAUSE “I DIDN’T BELONG THERE” F**K YOU LEA”

The actress was also accused of bullying Naya Rivera, who passed away in 2020. In Rivera’s book Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes and Growing Up, she said that Michele “didn’t like sharing the spotlight.”

Rivera added:

“If I’d complained about anyone or anything, she’d assumed I was bitching about her. Soon, she started to ignore me, and eventually it got to the point where she didn’t say a word to me for all of season six. Lea was a lot more sensitive though, and sometimes it seemed like she blamed me for anything and everything that went wrong.”

Lea Michele was also initially accused of not posting a tributary message on social media after Rivera’s tragic passing. However, she did post a picture along with a brief message about her late co-star on Twitter, which was eventually deleted after Michele deleted her Twitter account.

With tremendous hate amassed against the actress in recent years, many believed that the actress was not worthy of playing the lead in the Funny Girl musical. Some also joked about how Michele would be desperate to get the role after auditioning for the same in the famous Glee show.

A person on Twitter said that if the actor were to be a part of Funny Girl, the micro-blogging site would "be on fire."

Some users also expressed how if Michele were to star in the Broadway show, things would get "a lot less funny." Meanwhile, another Twitter user also compared the controversial actor to Ariel from the Little Mermaid. They added that like Ariel, Michele also made "a deal with the devil."

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The Broadway production of Funny Girl is expected to announce the casting on Monday at 1pm ET.