Lea Michele’s foray into Broadway musical Funny Girl sounds like a hit, after its first night got a glowing audience reception.
On opening night that featured no critics, the musical received four different standing ovations before the intermission, showing Michele may have just been the perfect pick for the revival of a Broadway classic. Harvey Fierstein who was part of the production team was among those with a standing ovation, alongside the likes of Jonathan Groff and Glee creator Ryan Murphy.
A highlight according to those in attendance was a throwaway gag from Michele which seemed to join in on the meme of the actress not being able to read. The recent meme has taken over the internet in the last few months, although it’s almost surely not true. Her line “I hadn’t read many books” got raucous laughter from the audience according to Deadline, and it’s likely to remain a hit joke for as long as the meme does.
The show won’t be doing performances for critics until later in September, but early social media reaction suggests a solid remake of a classic.
So anticipated is the musical that audience members were taking bootleg recordings of the first performance and uploading them online like cinemagoers recording Marvel post-credits sequences.
The last few days have been an excellent time to be online for musical theater or celebrity disasterclass fans. Yesterday’s Venice Film Festival saw drama aplenty as Don’t Worry Darling debuted with allegations of castmates spitting on each other and a feud between Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh.
It really is showbiz, baby.