Fiddler On The Roof Revival- Page 4

[Phillypinto]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 6:38pm

I think it depends on how dramatic the character change is. Even with just cherry jones playing her character so different, I would consider the whole show reimagined since she is the central character and played it VERY differently than in the past. just one actor can completely reimagine a show in my opinion. It depends though

[SweetLips]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 7:15pm

Exactly--whoever said it-this thread is confusing me-but whoever plays the part,THAT is the difference. It's 10 YEARS later-many have died, lost interest[I suppose if they died they would have lost interest] and those that don't,won't-BUT, those that will,will and then there is an audience that has NEVER seen Fiddler-so there-work that lot out and do your own bottle dance at home.

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 7:18pm

I know many had a problem with it but I actually loved the Spanish dialogue in West Side Story.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 7:48pm

How many productions of Menagerie have you seen? Jones was extraordinary but was still essaying the same character every other actor before her has played. She didn't play the character "so different," she played it as written bringing her own sensibility to the role. It's all there on the page and is just a matter of how you interpret it, not how you *change* it.

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 7:50pm

Alright we get it, wilmingtom. Changing Fiddler on the roof is blasphemy and we should be ashamed for thinking of ways to change this unchangeable masterpiece. cheers.

Updated On: 10/2/14 at 07:50 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 7:59pm

Well, the people in this thread who want to see Fiddler "re-invented" seem to be incapable of actually articulating HOW it should be- or even WHAT a re-invention is.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 8:00pm

Read Alisa Solomon's new book, "Wonder of Wonders: The Cultural History of Fiddler On the Roof" and you may understand more fully. And I'll ask one last time, what would you change? The book? The score? The setting? The characters? Share.

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 8:09pm

"Well, the people in this thread who want to see Fiddler "re-invented" seem to be incapable of actually articulating HOW it should be- or even WHAT a re-invention is"

Like I stated previously, I have no idea how someone would go about doing it. But I know it could be done.

Updated On: 10/2/14 at 08:09 PM

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 8:13pm

"what would you change? The book? The score? The setting? The characters? Share."

For this type of show I think the setting and time period need to stay the same. I just can't accept that there isn't a new way to do fiddler that no one has seen before.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 8:19pm

How about a multi cultural Fiddler?

A Hispanic Teyve? An African American chorus?

Let's really imagine it.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 8:21pm

...and set in North Korea in the 50s. I'm liking it.

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 8:24pm

Not only has most theatre going audiences seen Fiddler on the Roof SEVERAL TIMES.... most theatre going audiences have BEEN IN Fiddler on the Roof. There is just no way to update or reinvent this piece. I think I could do a one man show of Fiddler. I'll bet I know every line. The last revival of Fiddler was pretty dreadful.. Harvey Fierstein? Oy! I kept thinking he was going to run away with Motel... who was butcher than him. Danny Bernstein is a fine actor but it would be great to have an Israeli actor... ala Topol do the role. Topol was on tour with it in the last five years I believe. He probably should have played Fruma Sarah. Fiddler, Guys and Dolls, Gypsy... we've seen them enough. Please, No More. What are we to do? What are we ever to do?

[Kad]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 8:27pm

"Like I stated previously, I have no idea how someone would go about doing it. But I know it could be done."

And maybe it WILL be. Bartlett Sherr is an extremely capable director.

But no matter what, people are going to be able to take a glance at a photo of the production and say, "That's Fiddler."

[Phillypinto]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 8:53pm

"Alright we get it, wilmingtom. Changing Fiddler on the roof is blasphemy and we should be ashamed for thinking of ways to change this unchangeable masterpiece. cheers. " Thank you ShakinBaconGirl! and honestly why not change up the diversity in Fiddler. Thats totally interesting, and its a way to reimagine it like i said. Fiddler on the Roof is about tradition. Jerome Robbins and Hal Prince wanted to make a show that all types of people could understand. I think you guys are really narrow minded, and can't think outside of the box. I totally get that its set in a very specific time which makes the story what it is, but that still doesn't mean that it can't be reimagined. and i did give ideas as to what can be done to change it to stand by my argument. I want a new production and it can be done!!


Hal Prince on Fiddler on the Roof

Updated On: 10/2/14 at 08:53 PM

[Phillypinto]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 9:05pm

If i were doing a revival of Fiddler, i would make the cast as diverse as possible, and really try to bring out as many different traditions as possible. I think that would be really wonderful and touching to a lot of people with different backgrounds.

[evic]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 9:24pm

Like Ricky Martin as Tevye, Whoopi as Golde, Lucy Lui as Tzeitll? British directors should stay away from this classic. Yes- the last revival was pretty bad, despite Robbins choreography. And they did no favors by adding those 2 awful songs. You need a Jewish director who personally understands the humor, and the world of the shtetl and the customs of the culture. There was a beautiful production of it in Brazil several years ago.

[Kad]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 10:08pm

You don't NEED to interpolate other traditions into the staging for people to connect with it. Diverse casting, sure! But, frankly, what your suggestions don't serve the material. They serve yourself. And that's not what a good director is about.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 10:30pm

There ARE all sorts of tangential staging conventions present in the original Broadway production that could happily be done away with. I'm thinking of those silly in-ones with a poorly painted traveler curtain pulled across the stage for Yente and townspeople to gossip about the letter, or other in-one scenes for Tevye to be confronted with various offspring. Our current technology affords more cinematic ways to go from scene to scene. And I do agree with other posters above who have suggested that a genuinely Chagall-esque design scheme has a place in Fiddler. I'd love to see what that show would look like.

But for me the essence of the Robbins staging, the choreography, the townsfolk gathering on the turntable and then parting, are as integral to the brilliance of the show as the Bock/ Harnick score and the Joe Stein libretto. As Harnick once wrote, "Pull out a prop, and where does it stop? Where does it stop?"

Updated On: 10/2/14 at 10:30 PM

[Phillypinto]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 11:20pm

"You don't NEED to interpolate other traditions into the staging for people to connect with it. Diverse casting, sure! But, frankly, what your suggestions don't serve the material. They serve yourself. And that's not what a good director is about."

Its a musical for god sake, you people make it out to be the end of the world! Who gives a **** if its not serving the material 100%! The show has been done a million times, I think its time for a change. Thats all I'm getting at. Did Diane Paulus serve the original material for the Porgy and Bess revival? NO! and that show won best revival, and that diva has a tony award!! Stop being so damn precious over a MUSICAL!! ITS CALLED ART!

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 11:22pm

^ Um.....

[Melissa25]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 11:25pm

I didn't care for the last revival at all. Harvey as Tevye and Rosie O'Donnell as Golde. Double Oy.

Lucy Eth- I totally agree with you about Adam Heller. He was superb as Tevye at Goodspeed this last summer. Would love to see him again.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 11:33pm

^ Frankly I thought Diane Paulus served the original material perfectly in PORGY. And she certainly didn't think "wouldn't it be fun to scatter a few Asians and Caucasians amongst the poor tenants of Catfish Row in the interest of some bogus diversity, God help us".

In a show specifically about racism (or anti-semitism), the last thing a show needs is some random casting choices to flag how color-blind the revival's director might be. Oh please, FIDDLER is a show ABOUT discrimination against Jews, just as PORGY is about racism aimed at Blacks, just as THE KING AND I is about the conflicts between Asians and Europeans. Could Audra MacDonald or Kelli O'Hara sing Lady Thiang beautifully? Sure, but the understanding of the racial divides in the show would be weaker as a result.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 10/2/14 at 11:38pm

Paulus served the original material of Porgy and Bess beautifully. That's why she and her production won so many Tonys. That show has also been done, as you say of Fiddler, a million times. And do you know why?

[A Director]

Posted: 10/3/14 at 12:01am

Phillypinto, You and your sidekick, ShakinBaconGirl are pishers. It appears you boys don't understand that two different actors playing role are going to be different because they are different people. Each actor is going to see different things in the role which will influence their performance.

You boys are probably not aware that Stein, Bock and Harnick were happy the last Fiddler revival did not look like the original production and the other revivals.

With each post, you keep digging your hole a little deeper. You hit rock bottom with this.
"Its a musical for god sake, you people make it out to be the end of the world! Who gives a **** if its not serving the material 100%! The show has been done a million times, I think its time for a change. Thats all I'm getting at. Did Diane Paulus serve the original material for the Porgy and Bess revival? NO! and that show won best revival, and that diva has a tony award!! Stop being so damn precious over a MUSICAL!! ITS CALLED ART!"

Your rant proves you are one of those arrogant directors who think they know better than the authors of a show. Who cares if the Porgy and Bess revival won best revival. I doubt with the vote was unanimous. With the blessing of the Gershwin Estate. Diane Paulus turned Porgy and Bess into a musical. She gave us a Cliff's Notes version of a great opera.

To borrow a little from Fiddler on the Roof, "May God bless Diane Paulus and keep her far away from Fiddler."
Updated On: 10/3/14 at 12:01 AM

[A Director]

Posted: 10/3/14 at 12:05am

>Paulus served the original material of Porgy and Bess beautifully. That's why she and her production won so many Tonys.

Wilmingtom, I know many people who would disagree with your comment.