Beanie Feldstein Will Miss Weekend of Performances in Broadway's Funny Girl Due to Illness

Beanie Feldstein, who will play her final performance as Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl July 31, will miss all performances the weekend of July 15 due to a bout with tonsillitis.

Stage and screen star Feldstein announced the news on Instagram, saying, "The last thing I would want on this earth is to get the people that I love sick. I am not allowed to go on stage through the weekend.… You just gotta laugh at a certain point. When it rains, it pours."

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As previously reported, Lea Michele will return to Broadway as Fanny at the August Wilson Theatre beginning September 6.

READ: Funny Girl Producers, Beanie Feldstein Respond to Rumors Surrounding Star's Departure

Standby Julie Benko will take on the role for all performances August 2–September 4 and will play Thursday performances beginning September 8. Benko has been with the company since the revival opened, notably filling in for Feldstein during her bout of COVID-19.

Tovah Feldshuh will also join the production as Mrs. Brice with Michele September 6. Feldshuh succeeds Jane Lynch, who also was previously announced to depart the production September 25 with Feldstein. Lynch will now leave the production September 4.

Funny Girl, which premiered on Broadway in 1964, features a score by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill and a book by Isobel Lennart, newly adapted by Tony winner Harvey Fierstein for this revival. The original production propelled a young Barbra Streisand to international fame; she would reprise her stage performance in the 1968 film adaptation, winning an Academy Award and a Golden Globe in the process. The biomusical tracks real-life singer and comic Fanny Brice from her humble beginnings in Brooklyn, New York, to fame and fortune onstage in the Ziegfeld Follies and as a radio and screen performer.

The production currently stars Feldstein as Fanny and Lynch as Mrs. Brice, along with Ramin Karimloo as Nick Arnstein and 2022 Tony nominee Jared Grimes as Eddie Ryan, both of whom are remaining with the show. The company also includes Peter Francis James as Florenz Ziegfeld, Ephie Aardema as Mrs. Nadler, Debra Cardona as Mrs. Meeker, Toni DiBuono as Mrs. Strakosh, and Martin Moran as Tom Keeney.

The ensemble features Amber Ardolino, Daniel Beeman, Kurt Csolak, Leslie Donna Flesner, Afra Hines, Masumi Iwai, Aliah James, Stephen Mark Lukas, John Thomas Manzari, Katie Mitchell, Justin Prescott, Mariah Reives, and Leslie Blake Walker. Rounding out the company are standbys Liz McCartney and Jeremiah James and swings Colin Bradbury, John Michael Fiumara, Danielle Kelsey, and Alicia Lundgren.

The production is directed by Michael Mayer with choreography by Ellenore Scott, tap choreography by Ayodele Casel, music supervision and direction by Michael Rafter, scenic design by David Zinn, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Kevin Adams, sound design by Brian Ronan, and hair design by Campbell Young Associates. Casting is by Jim Carnahan and Jason Thinger. The production also includes orchestrations by Chris Walker; dance, vocal, and incidental music arrangements by Alan Williams; additional arrangements by Carmel Dean and David Dabbon; music coordination by Seymour Red Press and Kimberlee Wertz; and vocal supervision by Liz Caplan.