Beanie Feldstein will miss performances of Broadway’s Funny Girl this weekend as she has tonsillitis and is “extremely contagious”.
Feldstein’s reserve Julie Benko will appear as Fanny Brice this weekend.
“At a certain point you just have to laugh,” Feldstein says in an Instagram video posted this afternoon. “If it rains, pour it on your old buddy’s hat.”
In the video, Feldstein says she has just returned from an appointment with her ear, nose and throat doctor and, under doctor’s orders, will not be able to take the stage until antibiotics render her contagious.
“The last thing I would want on this earth is for people I love to get sick,” she says, “and I’m not allowed to go on stage all weekend.”
Feldstein, whose recent announcement that she is leaving the show for good on July 31 caused a spate of headlines — only increasing the following day with Lea Michele’s replacement casting — begins her new Instagram video with a joke: “Hey everyone , I’m just getting in touch. What have I missed? What was going on? I’m starting …”
Benko will take on the Fanny role in August ahead of Michele’s arrival on September 6th and perform the show on Thursday nights thereafter.
Watch the video below.