A Fiddler's Night Music Memoirs in a Cherry Orchard

[robbiej]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 1:34pm

It all starts with the set. I walked into the Minskoff (a theatre I hadn't been in since I saw my first Broadway show, SWEET CHARITY with Debbie 'The Oscars have sucked since they've gotten rid of me' Allen) and immediately thought that I was about to watch Peter Brook's production of THE CHERRY ORCHARD. All it needed was an Oriental rug. My boyfriend asked 'Are we seeing the musicaliztion of MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA?' And my best friend, who saw FIDDLER the night after us said 'All you need is one gorgeous settee and you have the perfect set for A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC.' In fact, each of those shows would have been better served by the set than this wrong-headed production of one of my all time favorite shows. And it was a harbinger of doom.

FIDDLER is not complex. It's not cryptic. It tells a wonderful, moving, already-pretty-dark folk tale about tradition vs. modernity, and how a family struggles to move forward. But most importantly, it's a musical. And it demands to be played as such.

I appreciated David Leveaux's European sensibility in the revival of NINE. But, even though FIDDLER takes place on a shtetl in Russia, it is wholly American in its sensibility. As well as Jewish. Now...a WASPy Brit can certainly reach outside himself and direct an American musical about Jews. But not if he imposes a WASPy Brit sensibility on the production.

I remember reading an article with Patrick Wilson in Playbill when OKLAHOMA came out where he stated Trevor Nunn was directing the piece as if it were Chekhov. Unfortunately, neither OKLAHOMA nor FIDDLER are Chekhov. Directing them as such distorts them to the point of unrecognizability. The characters in FIDDLER and OKLAHOMA are not languishing in the silence of their lives, struggling with meaning. They are people who work hard every day to build something, be it a family or a state. They do not have the luxury to sit and think all day long if they should go to Moscow. They raise cattle, tend homes, deliver milk and, at times, wish for a better station in life. But they are not maudlin or self-absorbed. Therein lies the problem with this FIDDLER. Instead of being peasants, they come off as the Chekovian bourgeoisie.

Never does Leveaux let emotions run high enough to justify an orchestra coming in and a character bursting into song. IF I WERE A RICH MAN is not about a penniless milkman, but about someone in middle-management wanting a nicer car. MATCHMAKER is a modern girl's wish for a prom date, not a shtetl girl on the verge of womanhood facing a marriage to someone she doesn't know. Tzeitel's plea for her life (not marrying Lazar Wolf) turns into a slight temper tantrum. And all of this kept me at such a remove from the show that I had to flee after the first act. I could no longer watch this beautiful show coast on tepid emotions and small performances.

Why was Tevey's dream inspired so much by Chagall? Does the Anatevka Museum of Art have an impressive collection? Did Tevye order a Chagall coffee table book from Amazon? It makes about as much sense as the Christmas lights on the roof. Is Santa really coming to bring presents to Schprintze and Bielke??? And why, oh why does Motel have every tic known to the psych ward at Bellevue??? Not to mention he has more chemistry with Yussel than with Tzeitel. A low blow, I know, but if the very gay Leonard Frey can convince in the movie of FIDDLER, why can't John Cariani (of unknown sexual orientation...at least by me) not even begin to convey any sort of interest in Sally Murphy's Tzeitel (a talented actress completely stymied by this role).

If TEVYE'S DREAM can't even manage a chuckle out of me, you know you're in trouble. And you call that a pogrom??? I call it redecorating.

Lordy how I wished I could have stayed to hear FAR FROM THE HOME I LOVE or IF I LOVED YOU. But I couldn't abide watching talented actors in a wonderful show sink lower and lower into the abyss.

PS Jerome Robbins told the brilliant Beatrice Arthur that FIDDLER is 'not a show about a matchmaker.' Would that David Leveaux gave the gentleman playing the beggar the same advice!

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 3:17pm

I'm sorry you had a bad experience in the theatre - but I'm also glad you got on here to give your opinion - you sound like you know what you are talking about and it pretty much matches the reviews - I won't waste my money on this revival - I'll wait for something worth seeing - like Sweeney next week - oh Yeah!

[robbiej]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 3:46pm

Don't just save your money...save your precious time!!!

I didn't even pay for my tickets and I wanted a refund.

Now SWEENEY should be something!

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 3:53pm

My roomie is the associate conductor of Sweeney and he says its pretty amazing (from an insider's viewpoint)...I just can't wait to see Elaine Paige - I loved her in Sunset Boulevard. And I've done a production of Sweeney, myself many years ago - so I have a special fondness for the show.

[brdwaybaby17]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 4:07pm

"Schprintze"..... just thought I would let you know it is spelled Sphrintze. yeah.....

[robbiej]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 4:13pm

Thanks so much.

I know...spelling mistakes just completely negate any possible validity of anyone's post.

[brdwaybaby17]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 4:31pm

I can't tell if that was sarcasm (oh, wait, it was)..... you know I can't hear you voice and sometimes I am dumb lol. Sorry if I offended you. It is just I played that role, and when I put it in my bio for a play, they always spell it wrong and it drives me crazy!! They totally butcher it sometimes, like Scrinptze. What is that?? lol Updated On: 3/5/04 at 04:31 PM

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 4:39pm

robbiej has a good sense of who's kidding and who's not - I doubt if you offended him - people in general on these boards are very nice, from my point of view.

[robbiej]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 4:47pm

Bdwy,

Your tone came off smart-alecky...and there's only room for one smart-aleck on this thread:

ME!!!!!!!

[tcoppola]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 4:53pm

Not to add insult to injury, but the song between Tevye and Golde in Act 2 is "Do you Love Me"--not "If I Loved You". That's song is the Act 1 ballad from Carousel....

I'm sure it was ust an error as a result of disheartened emotion....

[brdwaybaby17]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 4:57pm

yeah, I was thinking that, but I didn't want Robbie to get mad at me!!! waaaaa!!!

[tcoppola]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 4:58pm

Just call me Smart Aleck #3

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 4:59pm

Noooooo--do not piss him off!! =)

Robbiej is very sweet and very smart. I so wanted to see Fiddler--I've never had the chance to see it on stage! =(

Darn.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 5:19pm

I think RobbieJ is just jealous because he wanted the role of Yente to be given to him when Barbara Barrie went bye-bye, and when he didn't get his way he decided to trash the show. I personally would love to see RobbieJ as Yente! Thanks for the review. I would say it helped me to decide whether I should see it or not but I don't have any plans in the near future to go to new york...yet, but hopefully I will.

Updated On: 3/5/04 at 05:19 PM

[magruder]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 5:27pm

One could argue that as a dream, "Tevye's Dream" has a right to be fantastical. As for why was it inspired by Chagall, I saw it as this production's stylistic nod to the original Boris Aronson designs that WERE reminiscent of Chagall.

[MusicMan]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 7:45pm

But in Aronson's design, Chagall represented the workaday world of Anatevka, where its occupants already live on the edge of transcendence. As Michael Feingold so astutely writes in this week's Village Voice, "In the world of Fiddler, Chagall is a naturalistic painter."

RobbieJ, your review couldn't be more excellent and true.

(FYI: The beggar is given more prominence in this production, thanks to Leveaux. Apparently, it's part of the "concept," God knoweth why.)


Updated On: 3/5/04 at 07:45 PM

[Alex the Cat]

Posted: 3/5/04 at 8:13pm

I am almost dreading seeing this show now... I see it on St. Patrick's Day, which is almost fitting I guess. I will never ever ever again buy tix for a show that are discounted as soon as they go on sale! I see 'Producers' the night before- I could've saved myself the price of a hotel room and taken the train home after that.

Thanks for the review, Robbie- sounds like one of the other reviews I read (think it was the Washington Post) which called it 'Violinist on the Veranda'. Aarrrgghh....

[robbiej]

Posted: 3/8/04 at 10:35am

Yes...any and all mistakes were made because I was in a blinding rage when typing this.

As for my jealousy about not getting Yente, son, you could not be more wrong.

It was because I was denied the chance to play Fruma Sarah that I'm beyond pissed.

One more thought on the dream. Maybe I could have gone along with the whole dream sequence Chagall painting...if the number didn't just sit there like a painting. BARELY ANYONE MOVED!!! I mean...send a poor actor out in a mule head and canes and let him just sit there??? For the love of St. Pete, people!

[EddieVarley]

Posted: 3/8/04 at 10:50am

Bravo Roobiej, and believe me after seeing this also I agree on most all of his points and then some. It lacked "joy", having returned to both HAIRSPRAY and THE PRODUCERS in the last few weeks I can say I got buckets full of joy revisiting those productions and not so much at Fiddler, the music is wonderful and hearing some of the songs sung by the talented cast was a "nice" way to spend the evening yet it was in no way a treasured theatrical watershed...but, "To Life" and Robbiej getting his inspired butt in a Broadway show asap! Ya heard!

[MusicMan]

Posted: 3/8/04 at 11:43am

Missing was not only joy but "soul."