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

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/28/14 at 10:45pm

Sammy's has a certain swing. Maybe they'll cast the new revival color-blind?

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/28/14 at 10:53pm

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

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/28/14 at 10:55pm

About this specific show?

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/28/14 at 10:57pm

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

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

[B-Way4Life]

Posted: 10/28/14 at 11:13pm

Any opinion on Mandy Patinkin as Tevye?

[elimeyer]

Posted: 10/28/14 at 11:26pm

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

[RippedMan]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 12:39am

I didn't read that thread, nor will I, but I think a color-blind casting could totally work. At this point the show is just the show. I don't think having a black Matchmaker is really going to upend the storytelling. For most audiences Anatevka is just a made-up place in a made-up world.

[missthemountains]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 1:02am

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.

[GreasedLightning]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 1:06am

I feel like this will go somewhere relatively small. I'm hoping it does not take Pippin's place at the Music Box.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 9:12am

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

[Stew123]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 10:03am

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.

Tell me how many commercial revivals have returned profits without a star or well-known person attached to it. Other than Pippin and Hair, I cannot think of any.

[Phillypinto]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 11:35am

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

[MusicAndPassion]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 12:38pm

With a strong creative team, this could be a beautiful revival. Danny Burstein would be fantastic as Tevye. He hits the emotional side of every role with a tenderness that breaks that audience's hearts, and he play humorous sides so well that the audience laughs in sync. I've seen him in 5 different productions and clearly am a huge fan. I think he's Tevye would be very, very strong.

10 years is a fine time, in my opinion, for a revival. I'd love to catch a Broadway production of this show.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 1:10pm

"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.

[Stew123]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 2:13pm

There should be a purpose behind a revival. Maybe it's a famous star, a unique take, or something that hasn't been done in awhile. I don't see Fiddler having any of these characteristics.

And it seems to me that Broadway theaters are quite crowded with no shortage of shows these days, so I disagree with you.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 2:20pm

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

[Stew123]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 2:31pm

You may not require those things, but there has to be some motivation for paying $150 a ticket than just a retread of a classic show that's been done already. And only 10 years ago! Give someone else a chance!!

[Kad]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 2:40pm

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

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 2:45pm

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

If it is, maybe they should have rotating Tevyes every two weeks, like Love Letters? Let everyone in that age range get their at bat?

[Stew123]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 2:53pm

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.

[broadwaytbay]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 3:03pm

Why do we bring revivals back. No one knows. perhaps it is a "TRADITION" (tradition)?

[Kad]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 3:05pm

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.

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 3:09pm

"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."

What other choice would you have?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 3:47pm

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.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 10/29/14 at 3:59pm

I don't understand this "give someone else a chance" thinking. If "someone else" had the money/vision/material to book a b'way theater they would do it. Period. Do you really think if they had waited another week, some newbies would have realized the "chance" and grabbed it?

And ten years ago presents a pretty decent amount of "turnover", people that didn't catch the last revival for any number of reasons: they were too young then, they weren't into theater yet, it didn't interest them at the time, they had their gall bladder removed....anything. I've never seen a professional production of Fiddler, even though I've performed it, choreographed it AND directed it.

If it fails, it fails, like most new productions. It didn't hamper anyone else's chance at anything.