The 1964 musical Funny Girl is a hot topic right now as Lea Michele has joined the revival cast, living out her Glee character’s dream of performing as Fanny Brice. That’s why this week we’ll be taking a look at Funny Girl and the drama surrounding the recent casting choices.

Before I decided to write about the show, I had only ever heard a few songs from it (namely “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” “My Man,” and “Funny Girl” because of Glee) and attempted to watch a pro-shot of it but could not make it through the whole thing. The plot is pretty bland; it’s an account of the early 1900s actress and comedian Fanny Brice. The plot revolves around her rise to stardom and her relationship with Nick Arnstein, neither of which are too fascinating in my opinion. The most relatable and redeeming aspect of the show (besides the beautiful music) is Brice’s rise to fame despite her not fitting in with the beauty standards of the time. It really takes an incredible leading lady with a strong voice and comedic timing to bring the show to life.

As for the music… it’s incredible. Most of the songs have that early 1900s Christmas music-esque vibe, and mixed with incredible vocals from Barbra Streisand on the original Broadway cast recording, the soundtrack truly stands out. The lyrics rhyme in the most impressively satisfying ways, such as “Is a nose with deviation such a crime against the nation?” from “If A Girl Isn’t Pretty.” The best songs from the cast recording are the three aforementioned songs that were covered on Glee, which brings us to the Lea Michele drama.

Lea Michele is best known for playing the role of Rachel Berry on Glee. Rachel Berry is a young girl in the glee club who dreams to be just like Barbra Streisand. Even in the TV show, there is a revival of Funny Girl in which Berry lands the lead role, and Michele herself expressed interest in playing Fanny Brice someday on various occasions. After the Funny Girl revival opened to bad reviews, the artistic team decided to do something drastic and cast Lea Michele, despite the many allegations about Michele’s racially-motivated and toxic behavior on the set of Glee. After Michele tweeted about her support of the Black Lives Matter movement, fellow cast member Samantha Marie Ware responded by claiming that Michele made her time on Glee a “living hell” and used “traumatic microaggressions” against her. In co-star Naya Rivera’s autobiography, she wrote about Michele’s competitiveness and critical nature that prevented them from getting along. Even yesterday, co-star Chris Colfer said on a podcast that he would not go see Lea Michele in Funny Girl because he can be “triggered at home,” implying that seeing Lea Michele in a lead role would “trigger” him. All of these comments blur the lines between Rachel Berry as a character and Lea Michele’s reality, as Rachel Berry’s whole personality was being a self-centered diva who would do anything to be a star. It all begs the question, did Lea Michele make Rachel Berry or did Rachel Berry make Lea Michele? There’s also that whole rumor that Lea Michele can’t read, which in my opinion is a ridiculous yet somehow effective way to diminish the reputation of a problematic celebrity. While the jury is still out on whether or not she can read, Lea Michele can definitely sing, so hopefully her behind-the-scenes behavior has changed since her time on Glee.