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‘Broadway Upholds Whiteness’: Lea Michele’s ‘Glee’ Co-Star Reacts After ‘Funny Girl’ Casting News

   DailyWire.com
Lea Michele Samantha Ware
Jason Merritt/Getty Images; Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

Lea Michele has officially replaced Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of “Funny Girl,” and her former “Glee” co-star Samantha Ware has feelings about it.

Michele was rumored to be taking the spot, and as of this week, those rumors came true. Ware posted on Twitter about the situation, saying, “Yes, I’m online today. Yes, I see y’all. Yes, I care. Yes, im affected. Yes, I’m human. Yes, I’m Black. Yes, I was abused. Yes, my dreams were tainted. Yes, Broadway upholds whiteness. Yes, Hollywood does the same. Yes, silence is complicity. Yes, I’m loud. Yes, I’d do it again.”

Her ire is likely related to accusations Ware made against Michele on Twitter two years ago, where she alleged that the 35-year-old actress made her life a “living hell” on the set of “Glee” and even threatened to defecate in Ware’s wig, per Entertainment Weekly.

“[Michele] said I don’t deserve to have that job,” Ware told Variety during an interview at the time. “She talked about how she has reign. And here’s the thing: I completely understood that, and I was ready to be like, ‘This is your show. I’m not here to be disrespectful.’ But at that point, we were already past the respect and she was just abusing her power.”

“Am I calling Lea a racist? No,” the actress said. “Does Lea have racist tendencies? I think Lea suffers from a symptom of living in this world in an industry that is tailored to white people.”

Michele never said she behaved badly toward Ware, but she did issue a general apology to anyone she hurt. 

“While I don’t remember ever making this specific statement and I have never judged others by their background or color of their skin, that’s not really the point, what matters is that I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people,” the “Glee” alum said in a statement, per EW.  

“Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused,” she said. 

The publication noted that Michele won’t be eligible for a Tony Award for her new lead role in “Funny Girl.”

A source told Page Six that Feldstein was replaced due to declining ticket sales. While Michele won’t reunite with her other “Glee” co-star Jane Lynch, who was portraying the mother in the show, she is expected to draw bigger crowds than her predecessor. 

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