Lea Michele is back in the public eye more than ever these days — especially now as she takes centerstage on TikTok.
The former Glee star, 36, recently took over the role of Fanny Brice in the hit Broadway revival of Funny Girl after Beanie Feldstein left the production early.
After only a handful of performances, Lea announced she had contracted COVID-19 and would be out of the show for the following ten days due to proper theater protocol.
With her free time away from the show, the actress decided to expand her social media presence and officially join the popular video platform TikTok.
Her first video, which currently stands at 5.1 million views, shows her giving an ode to her much-anticipated opening night as Funny Girl’s leading lady.
While wearing a matching lounge set, the singer stitched TikTok user @javirod305’s viral video that included the text, “Lea Michele on opening night of Funny Girl.”
Lea Michele creates her first TikTok as an ode to Funny Girl
The sound accompanying the video was Lea’s own voice singing the hit song from the production, Don’t Rain On My Parade, with rousing applause and drum beats breaking up each line.
Lea recreated the video while lip-syncing into her hairbrush and mimicking the originator’s movements. “Clearly I can’t wait to get back to @funnygrlbwy next week,” Lea wrote.
When it comes to what users are saying about her first video, a quick glance at her comments section will show that Lea’s fans are committed to “sticking to the bit.”
Lea Michele addresses fans who joke she ‘can’t read’
Although some comments on her first video showed excitement for her debut on the platform, most were related to the ongoing joke that Lea Michele “can’t read.”
Fans loaded her video with replies such as, “LEA CAN YOU READ PLEASE BE HONEST” and “her immediately passing the phone to her manager after recording so he can type the caption.”
“I hope her assistant reads her this comment section,” one user commented, while another wrote, “Ain’t no way (that she can read this comment).”
The joke has gotten so well known that during her first few performances in Funny Girl, the audience audibly laughed when her character delivered the line, “I haven’t read so many books.”
However, Lea decided to finally address the joke with the ultimate strategy — if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
Her second (and most recent) video showed her participating in a TikTok trend in which creators use a popular sound byte and write in their own situation in which they would vent to someone over the phone. Lea’s video showed her “calling” her best friend Jonathan Groff to read her the comments on her first TikTok — since, you know, she can’t herself.
Although it seems as if Lea is having fun exploring the new social media platform while quarantined from the show, she is set to return to the Funny Girl stage once again on September 20.