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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