Broadway Insider Claims Gaga was First Choice for 'Funny Girl' & Lea Michele Smelled Blood after Beanie Faltered

Another rumor circulated about the "Funny Girl" revival, this one from theater gossip and TikTok personality Sweaty Oracle, a.k.a Jonathan Lewis in a new Rolling Stone interview.

Asked about the problem–plagued (he says cursed) revival of "Funny Girl," he gave life to the rumor that the producers wanted Lady Gaga to initially play Fanny Brice. "Because they didn't wait for Lady Gaga to open up her schedule to do it. That's where it started. This production originally, they reached out to Gaga and they were never gonna give her enough money to star in this production. Look at what the set looks like. They don't have anything close to Gaga money."

@sweatyoracle #duet with @leamichele mom can you come pick me up, im scared.  #broadway #leamichele #funnygirl #glee #gleeks #springawakening #musical #musicaltheatre #theatrekid #theatre #fy #fyp ♬ original sound - Kardashian Clips

He continues, saying that Idina Menzel was attached to the project for some time before it was announced that Beanie Feldstein was going to play Fanny Brice. In the contretemps over the mixed response to Feldstein's Broadway debut, he says: "I'm a Beanie defender. I saw Beanie. I did not think she deserved a third of what hate she got. Was she miscast? Possibly, but Sutton Foster is miscast in 'The Music Man' and there aren't a hundred threads about how her voice can't sing the score as written. Beanie was at least trying to do the original keys, but people are going to compare that role to Barbra Streisand, whether you like it or not."

He thought the casting of Feldstein a good thing, but the producers made a tactical error when a rehearsal tape of the actress singing (poorly) leaked. "But it's her dress rehearsal, she's holding back for her first preview. It was unfair to judge, but that started circulating. My sources say, Lea smelled blood in the water around the time and took [director] Michael Mayer into a bar and was like, look, if you need me I'm here, which is how those seeds started. So already you have competing Fannies in the director's head. As the show is opening, it just became a cluster fuck so quickly."

When the rumor of Michele getting the role began to circulate, Lewis was shocked. "(S)omeone texted me, 'Lea Michele is replacing Beanie,' and I thought they were kind of pulling my leg because the devil can't win that hard. I tweeted it on a private Twitter account I have, and I was like, 'this isn't true. But I'm hearing that Lea Michele is gonna be Fanny.' So my initial response was complete disbelief. And then the story started unraveling behind the scenes. And I was like, oh my God, she did it."

He also addressed the rock star response that Michele's first performances elicited on social media, claiming that they are part of a systemic problem with the Broadway theater. "Broadway does not call out its abusers. Broadway does not call out its members who are racist. Broadway does not call out its members who perform gross acts of sexual assault, sometimes against minors. All of these stories are pretty public open stories. There's dozens of them. Broadway protects and harbors those people..." 

He added: "I think because Broadway is a tight knit small group, so that when you get in it, they close the gates around themselves in a way. The movie industry, people are just trying to get their next project and trying to politically weasel their way through. Broadway kind of binds together. I don't know why Broadway bands together like that, but I think a big reason of it is they're like this kind of fucked up family, this kind of inbred, Southern, pull-out-the-shotguns-when-somebody-comes-up-the-driveway family."

Whether "Funny Girl" is cursed or not, Michele's taking the role was put on hold after she was diagnosed with Covid. She returns to the role on September 20.