21 Days Until Lea Michele Starts 'Funny Girl'

Much like Beanie Feldstein when she got tonsillitis a week before her final performance as Fanny Brice, I was off last week. It’s almost as if Lea Michele knew that I was going to be away and saved a major update for my return: she’s started rehearsing for Funny Girl on the stage.

On Friday, Michele shared the very first photo of her performing “Don’t Rain on My Parade” onstage at the August Wilson Theatre. This is huge.

Always too effusive for the moment, Michele captioned the photo with an ungodly amount of praise for Ephie Aardema, her Fanny Brice understudy. “The incredible @ephieaardema got a photo of me singing Don’t Rain On My Parade on a Broadway stage for the first time ever today,” the Scream Queens actress wrote, following it up by calling Aardema “amazing” and adding “I ❤️ YOU!!!” That is a lot of adjectives to bestow upon a person who took one photo, but we’re sure she’s great and that Lea has definitely developed a human relationship with her.

But let’s inspect the photo. Michele is wearing exactly what I would expect her to wear during a rehearsal: black leggings, black cardigan, and black LaDuca dance shoes. Notice that she is the only person on that stage in a heel — one member of the ensemble is literally in slippers. In fact, the ensemble mostly looks bored. Even in a still image you can tell they are doing the bare minimum to help her mark her number.

You might be thinking, “Of course they aren’t going all out, they know that number backwards and forwards.” Yeah, I am aware, please chill out. It’s still pretty funny that all of them look like they just woke up and Michele is belting her heart out. Just enjoy the photo.

In other Michele news, she got a new rug.

What a whirlwind!