Break a Leg, Harvey and Andrea!- Page 2

[Iris Chacon]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 3:44pm

It remins me of Rebecca Luker. She can sing beutifully. But she can't act to save her life and she is so boring and stiff on stage. I want to see a performance that takes me in and involves me emotionaly. That is what Harvey is giving at the minkskoff right now.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 3:46pm

Yes, Iris is absolutely right. Even as a classically trained singer, I'd MUCH rather see someone who can act their a** off and sing only minimally than vice-versa. It's theater, not opera.

[umgeoboy]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 3:46pm

yes but it is supposed to be musical theatre :-P

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 3:47pm

Right. Again, not opera. Musical is the descriptive - theater is the object.

[umgeoboy]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 3:48pm

yes but it is still supposed to be musical enjoyable. Sorry Harvey as tevye is not musically enjoyable to me.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 3:49pm

It's a subjective thing - no one can tell you what you prefer. I'm just saying what I prefer. And I can't wait to see Harvey.

[Iris Chacon]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 3:51pm

umgeoboy;
Then don't go.

[umgeoboy]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 3:55pm

don't worry Iris I don't plan on going to see Harvey in Fiddler. I saw it with Alfred Molina and enjoyed myself, but have no plans to see it with Harvey.

At the same time I have the right to have a friendly debate over the merits of having someone who is a stronger actor vs singer as a lead with Rath.

It seems a common concensus that Alfred is the stronger singer yet Harvey the stronger actor.

[sanda]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 3:55pm

lna,

Harvey's voice as Tevye is not inperfect. If you called missing note as inperfect, you are really tolerant to Harvey.

I only watched Ms.Luker as Lily in the secret garden and I love her very much. OK, maybe she is stiff in other shows, but in TSG her voice is beautiful. Let me put it this way, in that specific show, if there is another Lily who act wonderful but missed the notes. I defintely will say that Ms.Luker is much better than her.

And I don't think Molina's acting bad either. His " If I bend that far, I will break" is the most heartbreaking words I ever heard. Harvey's dilivery cannot match him.

[sanda]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 4:08pm

and Iris,please forgive me. I did not intend to destroy your high attitude toward Harvey. He is very talented.

The reason why I post in this thread again and again is because Mr.Molina is my first Tevye and I was so moved by the beautiful show and him. After the show, it shocked me that there were so many negative words toward this productiona and Mr. Molina. At beginning, I thought maybe I did not watch some Tevyes who were more wonderful than Mr.Molina. Others have a higher expectation toward the show than mine. However, after watching Havey's Tevye, I am really disappointed. And it irrates me that there are so many ppl who bashed Mr.Molina before now praize Harvey. I feel angry about this because I watched Harvey on my own eyes and I know he is not that great, at least not better than Mr.Molina.

This makes me doubt the credit of other's saying. Maybe I am a little naive. Updated On: 1/20/05 at 04:08 PM

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 4:25pm

Ok, I am still so confused BEYOND BELIEF (::hums Master of the House::)

Sanda,

I could not agree more. I thought Harvey was going to be so much better. He was comic and all but thoroughly missed when he had to be the fatherly figure. When he yelled and got angry I thought he was going to pass out from trying to get angry. It just completely missed. I feel terrible for all the people that have to listen to him sing every night.

I know Harvey doesn't have the greatest voice, so I was expecting a very funny, yet spiritual (as it's meant to be) If I Were a Rich Man. Failed. He did not do anything extremely memorable during the song, other than sticking is tongue out at the end when he chants (after talking about the Rich men coming to get advice from him). When I say memorable, I mean in a completely notorious way.

Sabbath Prayer was lackluster at best. Andrea Martin is not as vocally strong as Graff. What's sad is that she carried that song. I have no real complaints about her. But Harvey just seemed to be there.

Sunrise, Sunset. Ok, I will give Harvey a thumbs up (but just one). The song is low, and he did a moderate job with it.

Chavaleh. I got more emotion from the chorus and Chava than from Harvey. Not to compare, but when Molina did it I was left unsure who to feel sorry for. "On the one hand," Tevye just lost his daughter. "On the other hand," Chava just lost her family. When Harvey performed it I was left feeling sorry only for Chava.

(Note, I only put in a few songs to give a general idea)

Harvey is a great comic actor. He is also a great writer. Unfortunately, his singing left a lot to be desired. I thought, "Hey, it's Harvey Freakin-Fierstein! He may not sing, but the emotion will definately make up for that. Swing and a miss!

Now, back to Sanda's original comment.

When I first saw Molina I said, "OK...he's a good actor. He's a good singer. He just lacks that yiddishkeit. When I heard Harvey'd be doing it, I thought, "Enter Yiddishkeit." Sure, it enetered. But the singing and full fatherly emotion left.

Looking back, I like(d) Molina a whole lot more.

As for the rest of the cast, they are still brilliant. Nancy, Robert, and John particularily stand out.

Andrea Martin is very good with the comedy. I prefered Randy Graff vocally and Graff's comic approach was not bad at all.

Harvey may be a big name, but he is, to go against the poster's saying, "Not a Match!"

EDIT: I know Harvey tried his best and really wanted to do the role. I feel better for negatively criticizing him so, but I believe in my opinion 100%.

P.S. I walked into the theatre knowing full well that he woulndn't do great vocally. I had higher hopes for his acting. Updated On: 1/20/05 at 04:25 PM

[Iris Chacon]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 4:32pm

Cool.. Different strokes for different folks. But once again i go back to the original intent of this thread. BREAK A LEG HARVEY AND ANDREA!

[lna]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 4:43pm

sanda,

I didn't say that Harvey missed only one note; I haven't seen him in Fiddler yet. I know that he doesn't have a beautiful singing voice, and I don't expect him to be perfect. I don't think you are destroying anyone's attitude towards Harvey, because if we like him, we like him. I think most of us know what he can do.

I think that your views are perfectly valid; they just don't describe my experience of theater. I can respect/accept that. I've heard a lot about (and seen) Rebecca Luker, and she's just not a big star, nor was I blown away by her performance (despite her beautiful singing). Some people are affected more by the acting, some by the singing. If you care about the singing that much, there are some actors you aren't going to appreciate. (And you're going to shake your head when people praise them.) Just be prepared!

I heard Barbara Cook talking about singing. She said (this is very roughly paraphrased) that some actors are able to sing and to act at the same time, while others can sing very well, but don't seem to be able to "act" the songs. I realize I've heard songs that sounded wrong to me, and it was because, as she said, the singer wasn't paying any attention to the words. So even though every note was perfect, I didn't care for it.

I know some people really liked Alfred Molina's performance (I don't think the reviews criticized his acting exactly). Most of the criticism I heard was that Tevye should be larger than life, and that they didn't think Molina turned in that kind of performance.

It's a matter of liking different things, and I don't think you need to change what you like. Just learn to read between the lines in reviews!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 5:01pm

still it would have been more fun to have a new recording of fiddler with Havey and Andrea instread of the new WT recording with Brooke. Although, it's nice to know that fiddler is going to stay open for a while... we have two actors already waiting to take over for Harvey... Michael McKean and Bruce Vilanche... Updated On: 1/20/05 at 05:01 PM

[Doc]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 5:02pm

Well, I'll give my 2 cents worth once again, since at least both sides of the coin seem to be present here. I agree with those that have made the point that is is after all a Musical #1. Opera no, and yes, acting is important, but the singing should not hurt one's ears.

I wish any actor a hearty "Break a Leg," and will do so here, but at the same time after seeing Fiddler last week with Harvey, I will not return while he is in the role of Tevye. He is an incredible actor, but I believe that he is miscast as Tevye. I do understand that others think that he is "perfect."

That said I loved it with Albert Molina and Randy Graff. Saw it once with the understudy for Tevye, Mark Lotito and while he did not play the part with the energy of Albert he was still good. I saw Albert in the role three times actually and his energy did, for me, make him "larger than life."

Fiddler's music is too beautiful to not have someone that can at least carry a tune. Chavaleh, such a beautiful song, was so bad with Harvey that had I been on a aisle, I would have left the show to spare my ears. Andrea Martin was fine as Golde.

Updated On: 1/20/05 at 05:02 PM

[Phantom2]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 6:31pm

I definitely have to catch Harvey in this role soon. I'm sure he'll be just swell!

Updated On: 1/20/05 at 06:31 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/20/05 at 6:32pm

doc, whos albert