AUGUST 26 • 2021 | 67

WICKED, FUNNY GIRL, AN 
EX BECOMES A MENSCH
The PBS special Wicked 
in Concert premieres on 
Sunday, Aug. 29, at 9 p.m. 
There are encore showings 
the same evening and the 
following day. The title refers 
to the mega-hit musical that 
opened on Broadway in 
2003. It tells the back-story of 
the Wicked Witch of the West. 
The music and lyrics were 
written by Stephen Schwartz, 
now 73. The “book” (story/dia-
logue) was written by Winnie 
Holzman, now 67. 
The PBS special will not be 
a restaging of the musical. 
Rather, a diverse group of 
singers from many genres will 
perform the Wicked songs. 
Two stars of the original 
Broadway production will 
co-host: Kristin Chenoweth 
and Idina Menzel (Frozen), 50.

In other musical news, it 
was announced that Beanie 
Feldstein, 28, will star in 
the first Broadway revival of 
Funny Girl since it premiered 
in 1964. Funny Girl was a 
semi-fictional biography of 
comedian Fanny Brice (1891-
1951). As everyone knows, it 
made Barbra Streisand, now 
79, a star. 
When Feldstein got her 
first roles, I thought she was 
just “coasting” on the fame 
of her brother, Jonah Hill, 
37. But she was very good in 

the hit comedy Booksmart 
(2019) and I’ve seen clips of 
her singing and she’s good 
(not Streisand, but who is?). 
Her voice was good enough 
to get her a co-starring role 
in the film version of Merrily 
We Roll Along, a Stephen 
Sondheim musical. It co-stars 
her lifelong friend Ben Platt, 
27. Merrily has been shot, but 
no release date is yet set. 
The second, eight-epi-
sode season of the Amazon 
Original series Modern Love 
premiered Aug. 13. The series 
is inspired by a N.Y. Times col-
umn of the same name. The 
columns are short, but almost 
always are good. The Amazon 
episodes are also short, 
no more than 35 minutes. 
However, unlike the columns, 
most Modern Love episodes 
are unsatisfying. Characters 
are underdeveloped and plot 
lines are “jerky.” 
The first season got mixed 
reviews, and all but two of the 

episodes in the second sea-
son were panned. The good 
news is that the only episode 
with a Jewish thespian is one 
of the two. Sophie Okonedo, 
53, co-stars in the eighth epi-
sode, titled Second Embrace, 
With Hearts and Eyes Open.
Okonedo and Tobias 
Menzies co-star as Elizabeth 
and Van, a long-divorced, 
middle-class couple who have 
two daughters, about 8 and 
10. While the girls live primarily 
with Elizabeth, their father is 
very much in their lives. Early 
in the episode, Elizabeth notic-
es how Van has morphed into 
a great father and a consider-
ate, able co-parent. Well, you 
can guess from the title that 
they get together again. 
The episode is set in 
London, Okonedo’s home-
town. She is the daughter of a 
Nigerian father and a English 
Jewish mother. Okonedo was 
raised by her mother and firm-
ly identifies as Jewish. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

BY DANNYB PHOTOS/WIKIPEDIA

Beanie Feldstein

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