“Funny Girl,” starring Lea Michele, wraps up the Labor Day weekend

The critics gushed. In The New York Times, Jesse Green described Michelle as “a missile: an entertainer who, with her first words (“Hey, cool”), fires straight at her target and hits it”. In the Los Angeles TimesIn Exclaim!, Charles McNulty wrote “Lea Michele gives a powerful tour for the ages.”

Her run on the show is made even more compelling because of its backstory: On “Glee,” Michelle plays a character representing Streisand, sings songs from “Funny Girl,” and then lands a starring role in a fictional revival. Michelle, from an art-to-life imitation perspective, seems destined to play the role on Broadway, especially since the Real World revival was directed by Michael Meyer, who played a significant role in Michelle’s career by casting her in his breakout role, in “Spring Awakening.” when she was still a teenager. But by the time the “Funny Girl” revival got under way, Michelle was denounced on social media after being accused of behaving badly toward her TV co-stars, and production turned instead to Feldstein, the beloved star of “Booksmart.”

The “Funny Girl” revival began last April, but so have the critics Generally Fearful of Feldstein’s performance, sales began to decline by the summer. That’s when Feldstein left, and Michelle arrived, creating an extremely dangerous scene for a show in need of a shake-up and an actress in need of a new narrative. “This was a defining moment in Michelle’s career,” McNulty wrote.

Michelle’s performance impressed audiences, and as soon as she arrived, the show was taped Cast album. She tirelessly promoted the show, and she dances it in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Paradekvelling, above a letter from Streisand on “Late Night with Seth MeyersPlay charades with Jimmy Fallon.The Tonight Show. In interviews, she used a mixture of charm, remorse, and humility.

The production team, led by Sonya Friedman, offered no explanation for the decision to close, and a spokesperson had no comment. But it was widely expected within the industry that once Michelle’s tenure ended, the show would end. This isn’t particularly unusual for a star-driven musical revival: “Funny Girl” will have outpaced the recent revival of “The Music Man,” for example, which ran 13 months and ended with the departures of the big draws, Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster.