Fiddler on the Roof Previews- Page 7

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 9:23pm

For real or is that a joke?

[Musical Master]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 9:31pm

SNAFU said: "SPOILER!

 

 

 

The Dream: the ancestors are Marc Chagall paintings."

 

Is this for real?

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 9:33pm

This disaster of a thread is what happens when we don't get a Whizzer first preview post. Please come back, Whizzer.

[Hamilton22]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 9:40pm

Dang, is Whizzer the theater God or something? Is he Gandalf? nah but really, is Whizzer seeing the show tonight?

:)

[Musical Master]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 9:43pm

Hamilton22 said: "Dang, is Whizzer the theater God or something? Is he Gandalf? nah but really, is Whizzer seeing the show tonight?

 

Whizzer is a well-thought out, smart reviewer who made it a wonderful BroadwayWorld tradition to review the first preview of a major show on Broadway.

Updated On: 11/21/15 at 09:43 PM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 9:50pm

Act One just ended. 

 

Won't write any details yet, but I'm feeling very positive despite the length and some thoughts on the physical production. But people were disappointed with The King and I's austerity at first, too.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 9:51pm

It is for real. I worked on it.

 

 

Updated On: 11/21/15 at 09:51 PM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 9:55pm

Okay, I will get specific enough to say the Bread and Puppet fever dream of a nightmare sequence is a delight, with fun spectacle and mask work. Great work on whatever you did, Snafu

[SNAFU]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 9:57pm

Made the masks.

 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 9:58pm

My favorite part of it

[Musical Master]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 9:59pm

WOW! That sounds theatrical and frightening! Good job SNAFU, can't wait to see the show soon.

[yfs]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 10:12pm

Should't everyone's curiosity be piqued instead of peaked? Mine isn't, particularly, although I'll eventually catch up with this revival. But my amusement at this thread has certainly peaked, and I don't think I'll be revisiting. 

 

 

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 10:15pm

I'm totally feeling peaked.

[BroadMagTech]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 11:19pm

Any new reviews anyone?

[evic]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 11:32pm

There was a breathtakingly beautiful production that played in Rio and Sao Paulo a few years ago.  The Fiddler was played by a little boy of about 7 years old.  And in the Dream sequence, Tzeitel and Motel were suspended over the bed  (homage to Chagall painting) and the deceased wore masks as well. Plenty of You tube videos- Um Violinista No Teljado.  The Tevye and Golde were superb.  Highly recommend watching-excellent direction and company.

[GreasedLightning]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 11:41pm

Musical Master said: "WOW! That sounds theatrical and frightening! Good job SNAFU, can't wait to see the show soon.

 

"

I am so glad to hear such enthusiasm for this revival, but "can't wait to see the show soon" at the end of every single one of your posts is not necessary. 

[Musical Master]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 11:55pm

Sorry about that, I'm really am excited for this one! 

[haterobics]

Posted: 11/21/15 at 11:57pm

Musical Master said: "Sorry about that, I'm really am excited for this one! "

 

Enthusiasm will NOT be tolerated!

[Musical Master]

Posted: 11/22/15 at 12:04am

LOL!

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 11/22/15 at 12:06am

 

This is not going to be, I think, the practically perfect revival that The King and I and South Pacific were. But then, I frankly am not sure if Fiddler is as strong of a show all the way through. It's still definitely another success for Bartlett Sher, and I look forward to catching it again after it tightens up. 

 

Danny Burstein seemed oddly subdued at the top, especially compared to Tevyes past, but ended up finding the laughs from a very character-based place. He was quite moving. I thought the small contemporary framing device, a surprise coming from Sher, was one of the production's best ideas. The cast was generally very good; invested and real. The show runs quite long at the moment, but I prefer seeing these actors take the moments they need over the fast-forward barely-scenes in many recent musicals.

 

I actually think the last revival might have been more aesthetically interesting and cohesive, but I was a kid at the time. The sets here seem like a war between several concepts, all of them pretty austere. The flat houses are probably meant to evoke some specific folk art or painter, but they just look like  cartoons. They're practically Dr. Seuss, in contrast to the very geometric practical set pieces. Then there are the painted flats in visible frames, which more than anything felt like part of an old Hollywood movie-in-a-movie studio scene, like Singin' in the Rain. Some of the sparest sets, particularly the train station and the rolling trees, worked very well. Visually, the nightmare is the highlight of the evening. An upstage pit/staircase was also used to great effect--particularly in the opening. The stage goes past the proscenium a bit here, and I think the whole thing would have benefited from being staged in the Beaumont's thrust space.

 

The real star here, as with South Pacific and The King and I, is the music. It's just so incredible to hear an actual orchestra, one that isn't six members or piped in from some other room, sounding like a click track. It's worth seeing the production just for this. 

Updated On: 11/22/15 at 12:06 AM

[Musical Master]

Posted: 11/22/15 at 12:16am

Nice review Scarywarhol. Just a few questions: Does the Fiddler fly at any point in the show as reported? Other than the sets, how does the costume and lighting design hold up? What did you think of the choreography? These last questions: What was the audience reaction like? How was "Sabbath Prayer" staged?

Updated On: 11/22/15 at 12:16 AM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/22/15 at 12:23am

Thanks for your review! 

 

Also, as far as I understand, a click track is literally a track of clicks used to keep musicians in perfect sync like a metronome often used when the music needs to be in precise sync with an action on stage. It's not a pre-recorded orchestral track like many seem to believe. When a show uses click tracks, and the term is being properly applied, that's all it is. It's a digital metronome.

[Tag]

Posted: 11/22/15 at 12:33am

^But a click track can be linked with prerecorded music, vocals, sounds and/or video, so that live elements are added in the right time.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/22/15 at 12:37am

But that doesn't seem to have been Scarywarhol's intended use of the phrase. 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 11/22/15 at 12:47am

The Fiddler did fly. The first time was behind a flat of the roof, also rising from the ground. It created the suggestion that he was perched on it, but he clearly was not literally, so it didn't really bother me when just the Fiddler came flying back as Tevye makes the titular simile at the end of the song. 

 

The lighting is beautiful and very atmospheric. Sometimes almost expressionistic, cutting through haze on a sparse set. the costumes are very traditional but well-done. Envious of some of the younger men's coats... I think the clothes were a bit more colorful than the last production. 

 

I thought the choreography was mostly wonderful, and the big numbers delivered. (To Life, The Wedding...). But I don't have a great eye for dance. Sabbath Prayer was very simple, with Tevye's family and then other townspeople huddled around candles at their own tables.

 

The audience was actually kind of noisy. Lots of food smuggled in; lots of singing along. A lot of large Jewish families and groups, which was nice. I don't want to start another discussion like the Color Purple thread but I think what it really is with both audiences is that, because the shows are marketed to a specific demographic, you get a lot of folks who don't go to the theatre very often coming in. That is a good thing. But I think this is the only reason why the audiences at both were more disruptive than at most shows. 

 

Updated On: 11/22/15 at 12:47 AM