Humorouz

Lea Michele has landed her dream role of Fanny Brice and will headline the current Broadway revival of Funny Girl starting September 6. Although previously set to finish her run on September 25, current star and Broadway.com Audience Choice Award winner Beanie Feldstein announced on social media that she will now depart on July 31, citing that the production “decided to take the show in a different direction.” Current Fanny Brice standby Julie Benko will play the part from August 2 though September 4 and at every Thursday evening performance during Michele’s run. No end date was announced for Michele’s engagement in Funny Girl, but tickets are currently on sale through March 26, 2023.

Four-time Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh will be playing Mrs. Brice opposite Michele, replacing Jane Lynch. Although she was also set for an exit on September 25, Lynch will now play her final performance on September 4.

Although she’s never played the role of Fanny Brice, Michele has a long history with the part and the show’s legendary score. She first sang “Don’t Rain on My Parade” in the first season of Glee, when her character Rachel Berry performed it in a competition. The song became a go-to for Berry and for Michele, who also performed it at the 2010 Tony Awards. Of course, in season four of Glee, Berry actually lands the lead role in a fictional revival of Funny Girl. And then, in 2014, Michele revealed that Glee creator Ryan Murphy had obtained the rights to the show, but his planned Broadway revival never came to fruition. 

Under the direction of Funny Girl director Michael Mayer, Michele is best known on Broadway for her breakout turn as Wendla in Spring Awakening (recently revisited for a 2021 reunion concert and HBO documentary Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known). Prior to that, Michele was seen on Broadway as a child in Fiddler on the Roof, Ragtime and Les Misérables. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy and two Golden Globe Awards for Glee, and she also notably appeared on the TV shows Scream Queens and The Mayor. 

Feldshuh is a four-time Tony nominee for performances in Yentl, Saravá, Lend Me a Tenor and Golda’s Balcony. Her additional Broadway credits include Pippin, Irena’s Vow, Rodgers & Hart, Dreyfus in Rehearsal and Cyrano. She has received Emmy nominations for both Holocaust and Law & Order.

Benko has been the standby for the lead role of Fanny Brice since the revival opened in April, having gone on many times during Feldstein’s bouts with COVID-19. Her prior Broadway credits include being in the ensemble of the 2014 revival of Les Miserables (and understudy to the role of Cosette) and being an understudy and swing in Fiddler on the Roof in 2015.

Funny Girl also features Tony and Olivier Award nominee Ramin Karimloo as Nick Arnstein, Tony nominee Jared Grimes as Eddie Ryan, Peter Francis James as Florenz Ziegfeld, Ephie Aardema as Emma/Mrs. Nadler, Debra Cardona as Mrs. Meeker, Toni DiBuono as Mrs. Strakosh and Martin Moran as Tom Keeney. The ensemble includes Amber Ardolino, Daniel Beeman, Colin Bradbury, Kurt Thomas Csolak, Leslie Donna Flesner, Afra Hines, Masumi Iwai, Aliah James, Jeremiah James, Danielle Kelsey, Stephen Mark Lukas, Alicia Hadiya Lundgren, John Thomas Manzari, Liz McCartney, Katie Mitchell, Justin Prescott, Mariah Reives and Leslie Blake Walker.

Funny Girl has music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill and a book by Isobel Lennart. The musical follows Fanny Brice, who rose from the Lower East Side of New York to become one of Broadway’s biggest stars under producer Florenz Ziegfield. While she was cheered onstage as a great comedian, offstage she faced a doomed relationship with the man she loved.

The new production features choreography by Ellenore Scott, tap choreography by Ayodele Casel, scenic design by David Zinn, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Kevin Adams, sound design by Brian Ronan, hair and wig design by Campbell Young Associates, orchestrations by Chris Walker, music direction and supervision by Michael Rafter, orchestrations by Chris Walker, dance, vocal and incidental music arrangements by Alan Williams and additional arrangements by David Dabbon and Carmel Dean.

The original production of Funny Girl premiered on Broadway in 1964 and famously starred Barbra Streisand. It was nominated for eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Streisand reprised her leading turn as Fanny Brice in the film adaptation of the musical in 1968, for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress.

Watch Michele sing “Don’t Rain on My Parade” at the 64th Tony Awards below!

Man seen lying on the ground with blood several feet around him, eyewitnesses say.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles is home to the treasures of the film world – and that’s where we met one of them.

“This is my hometown, right here, all of it,” said Jamie Lee Curtis, overlooking Hollywood.

“This is where you grew up, this is where you raised your kids?” asked correspondent Tracy Smith.

“I did. I mean, it’s weird, and beautiful.”

And for Curtis, “weird” and “beautiful” might be just the words to describe her life.

She’s known for a good jump scare, but in more than 40 years in the business she’s also been the one who could hold our attention – and make us hold our breath. And her best work, she said, comes in those moments when she can just let loose.

“When I’m free, I’m fantastic,” she said. “It’s a weird job. But when I can be free, I am unstoppable in everything. It’s just who I am.”

“And when did you feel the freest?”

“Work-wise? I mean, Deirdre, I’m flying!”

And she really does fly: in this year’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” her character, Deirdre Beaubeirdre, is an airborne assailant – and, in an alternate universe, she’s an even scarier villain: an IRS Auditor.

“Now, you may only see a pile of boring forms and numbers, but I see a story. With nothing but a stack of receipts, I can trace the ups and downs of your lives. And it does not look good. It does not … look … good.”

Curtis said, “I know women like Deirdre Beaubeirdre. I think we all do. We all have had so many disappointments, so many opportunities that then break your heart. And I think that Deirdre’s heart has just been broken. I know her. And I love her.”

Critics loved her, too. Oscar talk is already in the air. It’s the logical result of hard work, talent, and maybe good genes.

Her mother, Janet Leigh, famously scared us out of the shower in “Psycho.” But she was also someone who could hold her own in a scene with Frank Sinatra, in “The Manchurian Candidate.” And her dad, Tony Curtis, was a legend of his own. 

Jamie Lee was the second of their two daughters.

Smith asked, “You’ve called yourself the save-the-marriage baby?”

“Yeah, totally. Sure.”

“That didn’t save the marriage?”

“My parents divorced when I was three,” said Curtis. “It was horrible. Horrible, horrible, horrible. I was also raised by my mom, who came from nothing and treated this industry, like, with big wide eyes. I don’t have big wide eyes about it. I understand the industry. But I have the same gratitude for it.”

“Are you in any way like your dad?”

“Oh, sure, sure, sure. He would love to walk into a big room, Hello, everyone. Hello, It’s Tony. Hello.   You know, he loved it. He loved the performance of Tony Curtis. And I’m caught in the middle.”

And like both of her parents, Curtis went on to be a star, but it seems she was luckier in love than they were. She said she fell in love with actor/director Christopher Guest after seeing his photo in a magazine in 1984. “I was with my friend Debra Hill, and I said to Debra, ‘Oh. Huh. I’m gonna marry that guy.’ And she said, ‘Who?’ I said, ‘That one right there. I’m gonna marry him.'” Long story short, it actually happened later that year.

She said he can drop her to the floor with laughter, and so can her co-stars, not always a good thing on a movie set. Smith asked, “I read somewhere that you have a trick. How do you keep a straight face?”

“I’ve stepped on a thumbtack. I’ve put it my shoe. And if I’m standing there, I’ll just push my heel down on it. Because I have to. You have to distract your brain.”

“And it worked?”

“Oh, it works beautifully.”

Still, she’s best known for a serious role: Laurie Strode of the “Halloween” series. She was 19 when she was first cast in John Carpenter’s horror classic. And this year’s “Halloween Ends” is (reportedly) her final bow. 

To watch a trailer for “Halloween Ends” click on the video player below:

To Curtis, the Laurie Strode role was more than a part in a movie; she said it was a bridge to everything she ever wanted. “Every time I talk about it I cry. Because of what it’s given me.”

“What has it given you?”

“My entire life. My entire life is because of Laurie Strode. I don’t know what would’ve happened. I know I would’ve never found any success. And just the fact that people cared about her so much – powerful to have that. Incredible respect I have for it. And feel very honored by it, and proud.”

Curtis also runs an online business called My Hand in Yours, selling everything from bronze sculptures of clasping hands to hats to hand sanitizer, with every cent going to benefit Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “My little company has almost raised a million dollars in two years,” she said.

At this point in her life, so much of it is about giving back. She bought the naming rights to one of the Academy Museum’s structural pillars and dedicated to a couple of pillars of the industry: her parents.

“There she is,” she said. “She’s right there. But see, what I like is, see, they just left it totally rough-hewn. But it’s cool!”

And maybe it’s no surprise that Jamie Lee Curtis, who’s faced down death over and over in the movies, has a pretty clear idea of what she’d like to leave behind.

Smith asked, “When you think about what your own legacy will be, what do you think?”

“I hope my legacy will be kindness,” Curtis said, “that I get it, that life is hard. And I really feel like I’m aware that life is really hard for people. Maybe humor, a little humor would be good. Don’t take it so f***ing serious. You know, just, like, lighten it up a bit. But kindness. At the end of the day I hope it’s kindness.”

     
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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Lauren Barnello. 

Not every joke lands, especially on live TV. An especially awkward moment happened recently when Dancing With the Stars host Tyra Banks made a comment that prompted some shade from head judge Len Goodman.

It all went down during the Disney+ series’ Halloween night after Charli D’Amelio and her dance partner Mark Ballas listened to judges Len, Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough’s commentary on their Argentine tango. Moved by the performance, Len said that the dance transported him to a club in Argentina.

Around the episode’s 19:30 mark, Tyra interrupted: “I heard the audience make a sound when Len said he was transported to a club in Argentina,” as she jokingly made bass noises and pumped her arm up to demonstrate. “What you talking about a club?” she asked.

Len turned to Derek in confusion and replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” as he raised his hands in exasperation.

Catching up on #DWTS and Len being done with Tyra is killing me because me too LMFAO

— haley (@meteor_meatier)

Some Dancing With the Stars fans immediately noticed Len’s reply and stormed to Twitter to call out the cringe-y moment. “Catching up on #DWTS and Len being done with Tyra is killing me, because, me too. LMFAO,” one person tweeted. “Rumor has it, Len still doesn’t get Tyra’s joke #DWTS,” a different user wrote.

Though the exchange struck Len and fans alike as odd, Bruno backed Tyra up by saying he knew what she was talking about. “I’d go clubbing with you right now,” he chimed in.

Once Tyra sent Charli and Mark to the skybox to hear their scores, she rushed over to Len to explain. “When you said ‘club’, they laughed,” she said while miming the dance again. Len simply responded, “Oh, I see.”

It’s not the first time Tyra’s hosting has prompted some strong reactions on Twitter. Over the course of season 31, she’s gotten called out on the internet for mistakes she’s made, including mispronouncing people’s names. However, like Bruno, the DWTS cast has spoken up for her, including the judges and dancing pros Val Chmerkovsky, Emma Slater and more.

And despite all the criticism she’s received since joining the show in season 29, Tyra told US Weekly back in 2020 that she’s keeping her head up.

“Every host messes up. It’s just normal. It’s live TV. If it wasn’t live, there would be no mess-ups,” Tyra said to the outlet. “Even on America’s Next Top Model, I would mess up and tell my editors to leave it in. That’s what makes things human.”

Tyra went on: “If I didn’t want to mess up, if I wanted to be perfect, I know how to do that. There’s a very clear way as a host that you just read the words and you’re perfect and you know exactly how to do that. But when you’re relaxed and you keep it real, the mess-ups happen. And the producer in me knows that even though somebody might be like, ‘Oh, my gosh, you’re messing up!’ it’s live, and it’s real. It’s better than being like a doll.”