Fiddler on the Roof is BACK: November 2015 — Page 2

We just had the color-blind/queer the text/rework the whole show discussion like a month ago, no?

Yes, except I was wrong. It was earlier this month...

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1077061&PageSpeed=noscript

And the campaign to get Elli on Broadway begins! Danny Burstein as 'Tevye'... and Elli as his understudy and Lazar Wolf!

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We need a Fiddler revival like a fish needs a bicycle. Let's hope this time Michael Riedel still gets punched by the director, only twice as hard.

Why is there push back against revivals of a canon of musicals every ten years or so? Why should Broadway treat its most loved musicals differently than the opera world treats its most popular works?

And why don't people think a revival of a great show well cast and well done won't make money unless it has a huge star? Why is there this vested need to accept the common wisdom that one needs a star to sell a show?

Shouldn't Broadway also see it as an important goal in making its great talents - like Danny! - bigger stars, and perhaps particularly through revivals well suited to their skills and personalities, especially as the industry can't (unfortunately) consistently be counted on to produce great new musicals for our finest talents to star in? Didn't Nathan Lane, for instance, become a huge star in great part through his successes as Nathan and Pseudolus?

Also how much difference does it really make that some of the best revival successes which have not had stars were from non profits? Isn't the success of those shows due far more to the fact that those were well cast quality productions rather than them being from non profit theaters?

Updated On: 10/29/14 at 09:12 AM

What did David Leveaux do to Michael Riedel? And i agree, i'd love to see a new production of this.

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"Because there are a limited number of theaters in NYC, and I would much rather have the theater filled with a potential new Fiddler, than one that has been revived multiple times with no major immediate need to be revived again.

If I thought it was likely that this revival was likely keeping a potential new Fiddler from ever being seen, I'd agree with you. But I don't. Not because there aren't any great new shows, but because there is no reason to think that efforts to mount quality revivals precludes these shows being produced.

There should be a purpose for any production of anything.

But I can't agree with you that we should only see a Shakespeare, Chekhov or Williams play if it hasn't been presented for a while, features a huge star or is being presented with a unique take.

And I feel the same about Gershwin, Sondheim and Bock and Harnick.

I don't require that a great work (or even a worthwhile one) have a big name or a highly distinctive or radically new interpretation.

All I want are good shows.

Updated On: 10/29/14 at 02:20 PM

Give someone else a chance? It's not 1st grade show and tell.

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Yes, give someone else a chance. Real estate is precious in NYC. If a commercial production of Fiddler on the Roof is profitable without major stars after just being revived 10 years ago, then I certainly will admit I am wrong. I have not heard from anyone I know that they are clamoring for a revival like they were with Pippin.

Who was "clamoring" for Pippin before the production opened out of town? Before its raves? Certainly not the out-of-towners, the tourists, the bridge and tunnel crowd who buy the majority of tickets.

Fiddler on the Roof IS the star of Fiddler on the Roof.

Broadway isn't a fair place. If a production has the funding, it happens. All we should expect- and ask for- is that the production is quality.

If you want some more obscure works, perhaps you should expand your theatre horizons beyond Times Square.

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Again. How many times has On the Town been revived? And how would you say it's doing so far at the box office?

This is the third revival. It's been officially open for 2 weeks and I've no idea what the weekly nut is, so its' hard to say how well it is doing or will do. If it lasts even through New Year's Day, it will have surpassed the runs of the previous revivals. The original production only ran a little over a year.

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