She’d go on to squeal in honest shock every time a song began (as if, somehow, this was unexpected at a musical she clearly knew).īehind me, a young man: “No, I haven’t seen American Horror Story. The woman next to me squared her jaw and clasped her hands. The gentleman next to me was very composed and would remain so for all of 30 seconds before the show’s overture began. Nearly blinded by the photo shoot that producer Jordan Roth was having in the lobby, I walked to my seat. He’s a self-proclaimed “Lea stan,” and that’s why he came. I met Chris, a lawyer who said he’d seen the movie a million times but never the stage show. But the overall vibe, somewhat surprisingly, was that everyone was there for Michele in good faith. After it was announced that Michele would replace Feldstein, the rumor mill could not stop itself from churning, and working actors would be smart not to bite the hand that may eventually feed them.

Most of the people I spoke to were hesitant to give personal details, and many of them I recognized as working actors in New York theater.

We were in line for the bar, and she refused to give a proper quote or go on the record anonymously for this because “I’ve signed too many agreements in my life,” she said.īut there was a shroud of secrecy hovering over many of the attendants. “Literally everyone I know is here,” a young woman standing in front of me told her friends. Thankfully, the rather cruel rumor that many audience members would arrive wearing Sue Sylvester tracksuits (a nod to Michele’s Glee co-star Jane Lynch, who dipped from the production a convenient few weeks before Michele replaced Beanie Feldstein in the lead role) did not prove true. The few straight men I spotted were appropriately holding their girlfriends’ seats as they caught up with their BFA besties in the lobby. Walking into the August Wilson Theatre, the girls chirped happily while the gays raised their eyebrows. There was no way I was going to miss her opening night, partly because I love the musical and partly because who knew what was going to happen? I figured Michele would sing the hell out of every song in the show, but what were the other theatergoers expecting? On September 6, Lea Michele returned to Broadway for her Funny Girl debut, and if that sentence throws you back to 2010, let me take it a century further: If this were 1922, when Fanny Brice (the titular Girl) was reigning in Broadway’s Follies, you could catch me in Times Square wearing a newsboy cap, real “Extra! Extra!” like, holding a daily paper that reads, “Lea Michele Slays Broadway.”

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