Fiddler on the Roof Previews — Page 17

I saw the show last night and here is my review:

As someone who has loved Fiddler for years, I was incredibly disturbed when they decided to bring the show back to Broadway. What more could they possibly suck of out of this wonderful show? After hearing the reactions from others I decided to book my ticket and see for myself if there is any reason for this show to be back.

I had just watched the film a few days before seeing the revival because I wanted to refresh my memory of Fiddler and I completely forgot how amazing the film is.

But back to the revival. Danny is a very endearing Tevye. As others have mentioned he's definitely playing Tevye from a different place and it pays off in spades. The love for his daughters, his heartbreak when they leave him. Every thing he does is very calculated (in a good way) and he steals the show. I'm not sure how he will rank up with the Hamilton guys but this could definitely be his win.

Jessica Hecht was remarkable as Golde. Golde has the most challenging part in the show. Juggling between showing absolute motherly love for her daughters and at the same time showing a mild distaste for Tevye. She balances the part beautifully and her character arc is much more exciting in this show than the other Goldes I have seen before. By the end of the show she's a completely different character and to be able to watch her arc was a treat

The rest of the cast was fine. No one else really stood out besides Danny and Jessica. The others play their parts rather straightforwardly like we have seen dozens of times.

The 3 daughters had very good chemistry. Matchmaker was very different in this production. It was a bit slowed down and it was more of a grim interpretation. I liked it but at the same time, there's such an energy to the song that I thought was lacking. The song is so great and while I think the song services the actors better, I don't think the actors serviced the song.

Danny's If I were a rich man surprisingly lived up to my anticipation. He had his back to the audience a few times but man was his amazing to watch. It sounded like they beefed up the orchestra on it also, which i liked.

Now let's go on to the physical production. Many have said they didn't like the set and honestly, i can't decide. The set works very well, I think I just prefer the 2004 revival set instead. While the set is somewhat a disappointment, what Sher does with it is Amazing. "Tradition" gave me chills with how the actors entered.

The framing device worked wonders for me and I think it did pay off in a big way but I'll explain why later.

All I'm going to say about the stagehand thing is DAMN. Get it together people.

Don't get me wrong, Sher directed this show amazingly well, but what the hell is with the stagehands?

Honestly, this might be my favorite direction from Sher. His work on South Pacific and King and I are great but he really took a lot of chances with this production to try and make it fresh and not seem like a relic. I don't think all of the creative direction paid off with this show, but I definitely respect what he was aiming for. It's a very ambitious production.A little Messy...but ambitious. And I like that. Theatre doesn't have to be perfect. But it has to touch you. And this show did many times in many ways

As I was saying in the beginning, I struggled to understand why we need this production now. Why now? Why on God's green earth would we ever need another Fiddler revival. And then it hit me during Anatevka.

In a time where the world is debating on whether refugees should be able to come into our country, we forget that Fiddler is not just art. It's also life. People right now are living the lives of the characters onstage. Everyone hesitant on letting refugees into our country needs to see Fiddler. Donald Trump needs to see Fiddler. The whole damn world needs to see Fiddler. The world needs to see this revival.

It would be wonderful if this show didn't speak to anyone anymore because then that would mean everyone in the world would get their sh*t together and prejudice and racism would be gone. But that probably won't happen anytime soon. So I welcome a Fiddler revival anytime it wants because truth be told, We need Fiddler in our world right now. We need it a lot more than it needs us.

Updated On: 11/29/15 at 09:58 AM

The stand outs is Danny and Adam, from what I read. What I heard. Congrats you saw it.

enough said.

I see so many shows that I sometimes find myself taking theatre as a live art form for granted at times. Then a production comes along that makes me remember just WHY I am so passionate about Broadway and live theatre. The new revival of Fiddler on the Roof is one of those productions. Bartlett Sher has gifted Broadway with another beautiful, visceral, and moving revival. After The King and I, I thought it would be impossible for him to pull of the same thing again in the same year. Boy was I wrong.

I honestly can not speak highly enough of this production. The opening image is absolutely stunning, and I LOVED the framing device. I don't want to say too much more about the opening image and framing device because they are some of the best bits of the show. The staging of Tradition was so chilling and thrilling. The cast slowly come up from the upstage pit was such a powerful way to start the show.

Danny Burstein's Tevye is spot on. He definitely has his own take on the role, and I personally loved him. Jessica Hecht's Golde was perfect. I thought her voice was just fine. As others have mentioned, she is heartbreaking in the second act. Everyone else was great with Adam Kantor being a standout. His performance of Miracle of Miracles was so charming, sweet, and endearing.

I know a lot of people mentioned having problems with the set being too sparse. The design is very austere and simple which works for this production. I loved the use of the upstage pit for entrances and exits. The stagehands moving set pieces actually didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. It would have been nice to have them in costume or have cast members move the set, though.

Out of Sher's productions I have seen The Light in the Piazza, South Pacific, The Bridges of Madison County, and The King and I. I would consider Fiddler to be in the same vein as The King and I with a little bit of Bridges mixed in. Bartlett Sher is such a wonderful director, and I am so grateful that we have a director like him working on Broadway. I can't wait to see what he does next.

I would go so far as to say that Fiddler is my favorite production I have seen in 2015 followed closely by The King and I. There is just so much to love about Fiddler to begin with, and this revival makes it possible to love the show even more because it is just *that* well done.

How does the Hodel handle Far From the Home I Love? That's my favorite song

broadwayboy223 said: "How does the Hodel handle Far From the Home I Love? That's my favorite song"

Beautifully. Samantha Massell is the best singer in the cast IMO.

I have to agree with a lot of your assessments on Bartlett Sher as a director. Not only does he have taste, but he has the talent for creating something beautiful, visceral, moving and when it comes to these great 20th century musicals, he finds not only the pure, raw emotional resonance; but he makes them feel new again. That's what happened with his glorious and breathtaking revivals of South Pacific and The King and I, if there are future directors who want to tackle this sort of challenge, Sher's work on these shows should be a great example is how to do it. From the reports so far, Fiddler on the Roof is no exception, Sher and his talented crew have done it again!

Aw, isn't this sweet?

The newest Tzeitel, Alexandra Sibler, meeting her idol, Dame Angela Lansbury!

Twitter (video)

Looks like I might be the cheese that stands alone here: we were generally underwhelmed by the Saturday night performance, and have taken the last couple of days to figure out why.

Reason 1: We really loved the performance of The King and I we had seen just the day before! Which is a major turnaround for me, having been only lukewarm about King & I when I first saw it 9 months ago. Wow, has that show matured well! Sher & company really felt the material deep in their bones, a sense that I never got from their take on Fiddler. It wasn't especially Jewish; it wasn't Goyishe. It was just... neutral.

Reason 2: Aside from Burstein's Tevye and Hecht's Golde, who both did nice if not spectacular work, so many others in the cast seemed so generic in their choices. The daughters were interchangeable to me, the secondary leads disappeared into the ensemble, and it's a real problem for a production when you can't distinguish the dancing Jewish villagers from the dancing Russians in the "L'Chayim" number. Wasn't that the whole point of that sequence?

Reason 3: An austere, minimalist set can still be rich and meaningful. If you doubt it, take a look at the gorgeous emptiness achieved on the stage of Therese Raquin (or even The King & I) every night. But if you keep a stage empty, then every detail you DO put on it must have meaning. So how on earth does a white brick back wall and some white brick portals have anything to do with Russian Shtetl life? A friend of mine who works on the show suggested the set is intended as a modern white theater space in which the period story is told. (That's why the painted sky drops fly in with visible battens and rope rigging.) It's a legitimate approach, but the sense I got from those visual choices is that Michael Yeargen just didn't feel connected enough to the material to make a more heartfelt personal design.

The evening did offer rewards in several departments. The music making was gorgeous; the choreography (both new and old) was generally terrific, and truly inspired in the augmented bottle dance. The sound was lovely throughout (quite surprising for a show so early in its previews).

But then there's Reason 4: The Original Broadway production (which I saw once at age 11 and then in its revival at age 23) was among the all-time great shows ever, both in concept, in score and in design. If you're gonna revive it you'd better have a damn good reason why. I don't think these collaborators ever really found that reason.

Updated On: 11/30/15 at 11:28 PM

EricMontreal22 said: "Hamilton22 said: "He STILL hasn't done away with the stagehand crap? Oy!

Is it meant to play into the framing device and just isn't registering with audiences? It seems like such an easy fix (I mean, they could even just put the stage hands in basic costumes) that to not have addressed it by this point seems on purpose.

"

Eric, having not seen the show and only read this thread, it seems to me like part of the framing device. I agree.

It absolutely, certainly is not part of the framing device.

While I was leaving the second early preview of 20th Century, I was a little down. The audience response at curtain call was pretty tepid and I had even felt a little bored during the second act. I questioned all the great expectations that I had had.

When I returned about six weeks after the opening all was different. It was a total joy and the audience was so into it that they sang along during the "I have written a play" scenes and at curtain call all (well, 90%) of the audience leaped to its feet not just applauding but cheering.

Seeing the third preview of Fiddler, I was further handicapped by being in the next to last row of the rear mezzanine as part of a large group. Everyone I spoke to in the group really liked it and so did I. I'm pretty sure that when I see it again, after it opens from a reasonable seat, that I will find the Sher magic.