Lea Michele congratulates former Glee co-star Alex Newell as she shares selfie from Tony Awards

‘Congratulations @thealexnewell,’ Michele wrote

Lea Michele has showed support for Alex Newell as she shared a photo with her farmer Glee co-star taken backstage at the Tony Awards.

Both actors were in attendance at Sunday (11 June) night’s celebration of Broadway theatre, where Newell – who is non-binary – took home the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical. You can find the full list of winners here.

Michele performed at the ceremony with the cast of Funny Girl, leading Glee fans to reflect on previous tensions between the pair. In 2020, Newell was one of the cast members to support accusations of Michele’s “bad” behaviour on set of the musical comedy.

However, Michele appeared to suggest that there were no hard feelings between the pair on Monday (12 June), as she posted a picture backstage of her and Newell smiling together.

Michele was dressed as Fanny Brice, the lead character in the musical Funny Girl. She currently stars in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl, having inhereted the role from Lady Bird’s Beannie Feldstein. Newell, meanwhile, appeared in her costume from her award-winning turn in Shucked.

“Congratulations @thealexnewell !!!! @thetonyawards,” Michele wrote.

In the comment section, fans claimed the two actors were demonstrating “maturity” by posing together.

“Hey, look! 2 people have matured and moved on with life. Good for them, both very talented,” one fan wrote.

“Now this is what you call GROWTH!!!! Congratulations,” another commented.

“Maybe they both said, ‘Look how far we’ve both come, the past is the past & let’s move forward’,” someone else theorised.

Back in 2020, Newell, who rose to fame on the reality spin-off series The Glee Project and played Wade “Unique” Adams on Glee, defended co-star Samantha Marie Ware after she accused Michele of making her life a “living hell” on the Fox show.

“When my friend goes through something traumatic, I also go through it,” Newell tweeted. “That’s what friendship is and if you can’t understand that then you’re part of the problem. I mean that for both sides of this coin!”

Michele apologised at the time for her behaviour, suggesting that her “privileged position” might have been why her co-stars thought she was acting “inappropriately”.

You can read the biggest talking points from Sunday’s ceremony here.