ForBeanie Feldstein, life’s candy and the sun’s a ball of butter.
It’s a moment she’s been dreaming about for nearly her entire life.
“I’m a Jewish girl that loves musicals.
Beanie Feldstein in ‘Funny Girl’.Matthew Murphy
And unlike other revived classics, no one has seenFunny Girlin a Broadway house in 55 years.
“Nobody really knows the show,” Mayer emphasizes.
“Everyone knows the movie.
Barbra Streisand in ‘Funny Girl’.Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock
Fierstein used a light touch, streamlining the script and strengthening it dramatically.
“I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, but I want the characters to feel more full.
I want you to understand why you care about them.”
Fanny Brice.Hulton Archive/Getty
That vitality is something she hopes to carry with her into rehearsals and infuse the entire production with.
That includes going against the tendency to pigeonhole women like Brice and Feldstein as quirky sidekicks.
An essential part of that is honoring Feldstein and Brice’s distinctly Jewish identity.
Beanie Feldstein at New York Fashion Week.Cindy Ord/Getty
There’s so much connective tissue there.
It is incredibly profound to get to play one of the most remarkable Jewish women in existence.
not a leading lady.
“She’s got a very particular physicality and a way of being.
Fanny says, ‘I’m a bagel on a plate full of onion rolls.’
And that’s Beanie she’s not like the others, in a very contemporary way.”
It’s high time we reinstate Fanny Brice at the center of her own story.
Beanie Feldstein is just so much her own person and such a light on stage.
That’s not [this].”
Feldstein echoes the approach.
“I worship Barbra,” she says.
“But I have to focus on my goal, which is to play Fanny and honor Fanny.”
“She’s so unapologetic,” Feldstein muses.
[I had] that laser-focused, tunnel-vision, singular drive that nothing’s-going-to-get-in-my-way energy.”
Feldstein’s zeal and dedication make the work itself the reward.
“Bringing her legacy to a contemporary audience after so long, it’s the greatest honor.”
And in doing so, Feldstein may just turn out to be the next greatest star.
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