Is Lea Michele looking forward to returning?

This is a preview of the pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by senior entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon. To get the full newsletter in your inbox every week, Sign up for it here.

I’ve spent a lot of time this week thinking about Lea Michele’s vagina.

It’s everywhere — meaning in headlines, tweets, news stories, and at the center of every conversation I’ve had with anyone I’ve ever met. “That vaginal story is crazy, isn’t it?” “Sir, I asked if you would like guac on a burrito. It is secondary. ”

That story is from the new documentary Spring Awakening: People you already knowwhich documents the rehearsal for the unlikely reunion of the original cast of the Broadway musical for the 15th anniversary concert and sees them revisiting what happened to bond Tony wins by surprise.

It premieres Tuesday on HBO. I saw it, and cried and cried and cried. Yes, I was even moved by the anecdote about the vagina.

The undeniably memorable moment was revealed in an early report of what happened in the documentary. Michele, who plays repressed teenager Wendla, and co-star Jonathan Groff, who plays the lead role, and Melchior, her romantic partner, are discussing the quick closeness with which they form a friendship. At the time, Groff was in the closet, even with his closest friends and confidants. Michele was madly in love with him. Sure. It’s Jonathan Groff. Line up, Lea.

“Jonathan and I have become close. We were so in tune with each other,” she explains in the film. “At one point, I literally showed him my entire vagina… He was like, ‘I’ve never seen a woman’s vagina before. Can you show me?’ And I said, ‘Sure thing.’ And I took a table lamp… and showed it to him. That’s how we got along.”

Out of context, it’s outrageous. Everyone feels confused. For a star who has spent the last year getting her spirits up after countless bad presses about accusations from former colleagues of malicious behavior on set, saying this out loud in front of the camera seems like a no-brainer. is another misguided, illogical step.

But context, of course, is everything. (You can level me with a drop of dust, I’m shocked when something goes viral online without any context.)

The point is, in the documentary it’s an organic, relatable story that’s part of a beautiful sequence in which the two stars are candid about their relationship and how it feels. with a confused boy from Lancaster, PA, confronting his gender while shooting a cannon to become a Broadway star, and then she sees her role as his support system how.

She’s incredibly charming and funny when she tells that story, but also very compassionate and sympathetic to what Groff has been going through. Believe it or not, the story of Lea Michele’s “whole vagina” is a poignant moment.

Spring Awakening: People you already know there’s some revelation in how it uses these stars’ emotional reunions to revisit and re-document.

To Michele, it was a reminder of how magnetic and effortless her humor is. There’s so much self-perception about her personality that it’s surprising that the controversies surrounding her past behavior would suggest otherwise. It also makes a case for redemption. Anytime she sings or performs in concert, you will be mesmerized. Variations on the wonderful whispers of “she is so talented…“Boiled from every conversation I overheard from the crowd at the early screening I attended. Groff burst into tears as soon as she started singing the opening song “Mama Who Bore Me” during the first rehearsal.

For musical theater fans especially, the decidedly mixed reviews Beanie Feldstein has received for her performance as Fanny Brice in the recently-opened revival of Funny girl, a role for which Michele has made no secret of campaigning over the years but is likely to be dropped once her scandal becomes a big story, her soulful and soulful vocals set off the question of whether there is a way for a return. Is Now the Time for a Lea Michelaissance Award?

But there wouldn’t be any inclination to long for that return if the documentary itself weren’t so successful in its nimble interweaving of pain and inspiration when it comes to nostalgia. This is a musical that deals with adolescent sexuality and hormones, mental health, abuse, homosexuality, suicide and abortion, but it’s also meant to be seen and confirmed. acknowledge who you are and how you feel at a tumultuous time approaching adulthood.

To see Groff and the cast grapple with what it meant to them while playing those themes 15 years ago — and then do it again now with the passage of time and the ensuing wisdom of life experience — It’s fascinating and thrilling. I remember being in college and watching the show many times when it first opened, fascinated by it — like Groff, closed and in New York trying to figure out everything, maybe not even sure why. why does it make so much sense?

But it wasn’t until I saw the cast perform in the documentary and talk about these things that I realized the original work, its score, and how these characters can really form.

Great art makes you think that way. The same goes for Lea Michele’s vagina.