Feldstein ’15 Wows in Broadway Debut

(By K Alshanetsky ’17)

Actress Beanie Feldstein ’15 has made her Broadway debut as Minnie Fay in the sold-out, Tony-winning revival of Hello, Dolly! this past April. The role has her playing a fresh-faced shopgirl in this comedic musical theater hit about a meddlesome matchmaker named Dolly Gallagher Levi. Starring alongside the iconic Bette Middler and Broadway veteran Kate Baldwin, Feldstein is living out her childhood dream night after night in Broadway’s Shubert Theatre—and certain magazine outlets, such as Vogue, are asking whether we are seeing the next Middler in Feldstein.

In the recent interview with Vogue, she recounts just how long she has practiced for this very moment:

I did my first little kids musical, ‘The Sound of Music,’ at 5, in a jungle gym, essentially. I was a made-up Von Trapp child, Ingrid Von Trapp,” Feldstein says. “The way other kids would watch ‘The Little Mermais’ or ‘Sesame Street,’ I would watch ‘Fiddler on the Roof’.

Since graduating from Wesleyan (with a major in sociology), Feldstein has kept a busy schedule. She starred in the May 2016 film Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising alongside Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, and Chloe Moretz. Most recently, she also appeared in Whitney Cummings’ The Female Brain with Sofía Vergara, and wrapped production for Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird with Saoirse Ronan.

Feldstein’s brother happens to be screen actor Jonah Hill, whose advice to her through all of these projects has been to remember how lucky they are to be doing the work that they love. She echoes this sentiment in the article:

I think we all feel so incredibly lucky to create something that brings people joy every night. It’s the greatest gift of my life. I wake up every morning, like, ‘How? Why me?’

Click here for more information about the 2017 Hello, Dolly revival, and follow Beanie Feldstein on Twitter here.