Speaking out. Sammie Ware slammed Broadway after learning that Lea Michele would be replacing Beanie Feldstein in Funny Girl following the actress’ alleged negative actions on Glee set.
“Yes, I’m online today. Yes, I see y’all. Yes, I care,” the 30-year-old star tweeted on Monday, July 11. “Yes, I’m affected. Yes, I’m human. Yes, I’m Black. Yes, I was abused. Yes, my dreams were tainted.”
Ware concluded: “Yes, Broadway upholds whiteness. Yes, Hollywood does the same. Yes, silence is complicity. Yes, I’m loud. Yes, I’d do it again.”
The Nebraska native’s remarks come hours after Feldstein, 29, announced her early departure from Funny Girl after taking on the lead role as Fanny Brice in April.
“Playing Fanny Brice on Broadway has been a lifelong dream of mine and doing so for the last few months has been a great joy and true honor,” the Booksmart star wrote via Instagram on Sunday, July 10. “Once the production decided to take the show in a different direction, I made the extremely difficult decision to step away sooner than anticipated.”
Feldstein, who stepped into the iconic shoes of Barbra Streisand who originated the role in 1964, was previously set to take her final bow in September. Now, however, she will be departing the show on July 31. Julie Benko will fill in for the August shows, before Michele, 35, takes the helm on September 6.
The Spring Awakening alum called the news a “dream come true” on Monday. Michele continued: “I’m so incredibly honored to join this amazing cast and production and return to the stage playing Fanny Brice on Broadway. See you September 6th. @funnygirlbwy #FUNNYGIRL.”
Michele’s casting made headlines more than two years after she turned heads for her alleged poor treatment of many actors on the set of Glee, one of whom was Ware. The All Rise star claimed in June 2020 that the Emmy nominee made her time on the Fox series “a living hell” after Michele tweeted about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Ware detailed her alleged experience to Variety at the time, claiming that she was once scolded by Michele after she appeared to be “disrespectful” to the actress when she was “goofing around” off camera. (Michele played Rachel Berry for six seasons on Glee, while Ware portrayed Jane Hayward on 11 episodes in 2015.)
“She waited until the scene was over and she stopped in the middle of the stage and did a ‘come here’ gesture, like how a mother does to their child,” the What/If alum explained in the interview. When Ware refused to come to her, she claimed that Michele threatened her job.
Ware alleged that Michele said she would “s—t in my wig” and made other “traumatic microaggressions” toward her that made her “question a career in Hollywood.” The claims resulted in HelloFresh ending their partnership with the New York native in June 2020.
The former Scream Queens star, for her part, publicly apologized for how she made Ware and other former costars feel in the past.
“What matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people,” Michele wrote via an Instagram statement, noting that her Black Lives Matter message was only meant to “show of support for our friends and neighbors and communities of color during this really difficult time.”
