Posted: 10/15/15 at 7:34pm
^ Feel the exact same. People on here were predicting all the awards when they announcing Les Miserables was coming back... we all know the outcome. We never know if something is going to be a hit anymore. Plus, this is the 5th revival.
Posted: 10/15/15 at 7:53pm
I'm really looking forward to this! I've never seen a production of Fiddler before.
Posted: 10/15/15 at 7:59pm
I don't know. Maybe it's me, but I don't think it matters who is in the production, I'm just not excited for this show. I've seen the tour, the 2004 revival, various regional & community theater productions. How many times can I see a show?? When I saw Kinky Boots about a month ago, I remember a group of ladies a row in front of me saying "Oh, I see Fiddler's coming back?" to which someone replied "really? do we need another production of Fiddler?"
Posted: 10/15/15 at 8:10pm
I got chills when Danny started singing, I think he's definitely a shoe-in for the Tony. Who else would he be competing with? Lin-Manuel Miranda?
Posted: 10/15/15 at 8:14pm
I don't know who the woman is in the middle during Matchmaker but she has a dreadful voice and no ability to blend. Perhaps she's the one someone else referred to. Her vibrato needs to be cut in half.
Posted: 10/15/15 at 8:42pm
enjoyable2 said: "I don't know who the woman is in the middle during Matchmaker but she has a dreadful voice and no ability to blend. Perhaps she's the one someone else referred to. Her vibrato needs to be cut in half. "
That is indeed the previously mentioned Alexandra Silber. Usually I like her vocal performances but agree she sounds terrible here. Might just be the rehearsal room (bad acoustics) or just that she hasn't polished her performance yet.
It all seems very nice, though I didn't have the extreme reactions many others did to the clip.
Posted: 10/15/15 at 10:05pm
phan24 said: "I got chills when Danny started singing, I think he's definitely a shoe-in for the Tony. Who else would he be competing with? Lin-Manuel Miranda?"
Alex Brightman-School of Rock
Andrew Keenan-Bolger-Tuck Everlasting
Zachary Levi-She Loves Me
Telly Leung-Allegiance
Austin McKenzie-Spring Awakening
Josh Segarra-On Your Feet!
Benjamin Walker-American Psycho
And possibly Leslie Odom, Jr. if he ends up being eligible as a leading actor.
Posted: 10/15/15 at 10:15pm
Do people really care about another Fiddler revival?
Yes, we see Fiddler on the Roof a lot, but for good reasons as it is indeed a timeless classic.
We should also remember that the last revival that David Leveaux directed spurred a lot of controversy. The chief complaint that many people felt was that the Jewish soul was drained from it. It was even dubbed Episcopalian.
Updated On: 10/15/15 at 10:15 PM
Posted: 10/15/15 at 11:09pm
Well with that list, I think his only contender is probably Walker.
But who knows what will be running or happening by June.
I'm more excited to see how they fill that vast Broadway stage. Sherr is great at LCT, but his other Broadway's show have had some weird designs.
Posted: 10/16/15 at 7:52am
I just watched the video and it looks great so far, especially Danny who I think was born to play Tevye. I saw the 2004 revival and speaking as both a Jewish person and a lover of this show in general, it really drained a lot of the soul from the piece. It was quite beautiful aesthetically but Alfred Molina was highly miscast and unconvincing as a Jew. I returned and saw Harvey Fierstein and Andrea Martin later on in the run, both of whom I loved and who I thought elevated the production.
Posted: 10/16/15 at 9:01am
So you are saying that only Jewish people can play the role of tevye to truly get the nuance of the character? Cause thats what it sounds like you are implying.
Posted: 10/16/15 at 9:07am
^I don't know about that, but the benefit of having an actual Jew play Tevye is just that level of authenticity.
Posted: 10/16/15 at 9:24am
This is pretty hilarious if anyone believes that.. So by that logic then' every elder in book of mormon should be mormon to really get that 'level of authenticity '
Gimme a break.
Updated On: 10/16/15 at 09:24 AM
Posted: 10/16/15 at 9:39am
A lot of the most memorable Tevye's have been played by Jewish actors.
Zero Mostel
Topol
Theodore Bikel
Harvey Fierstein
Updated On: 10/16/15 at 09:39 AM
Posted: 10/16/15 at 10:58am
Massofmen, of course they don't have to be Jewish to Play the role, but when you are either directed or choose to play Tevye and Golde like John and Jane Smith from Des Moines, IA (I'm looking at you, 2004 revival), it completely ruins the piece. They might as well just join up with the czar. I nicknamed that revival Goyim on the Roof.
Posted: 10/16/15 at 11:05am
Jeffrey Karasarides said: "^The difference there is that Jews are an ethnicity and Mormons are not."
I'm sorry to be that guy, but "Jews" is not an ethnicity. It's a religion. You can be of any race and be Jewish.
Posted: 10/16/15 at 11:22am
Posted: 10/16/15 at 11:41am
From now on I am only seeing Jesus christ superstar with an actual Christian playing Jesus. Or Jewish person for that matter seeing that Jesus was a Jewish person. Otherwise it won't be as authentic.
Posted: 10/16/15 at 11:45am
Ethnicity and race are also not the same thing.
Anyway, I wasn't implying that only Jews can or should play Tevye, but it certainly doesn't hurt. The last revival really was Goyim on the Roof, which is an opinion shared by a great many people.
Posted: 10/16/15 at 11:57am
The difference is that --
Melanie Moore refers to herself (her character) as Hava.
Danny Burstein refers to her (his daughter) as Chavala.
p.s. It's like the difference between yech and yeah!
Updated On: 10/16/15 at 11:57 AM
Posted: 10/16/15 at 12:22pm
Not just a rehearsal, a very early rehearsal; they're on book, in that no man's land between putting down the script and moving beyond the music stand and full-out performing. And the camera's right on top of them. I have actor friends who hate this type of footage, and it's understandable. It's almost impossible to use this as a measure of what these singing actors will be like on stage. Forget rehearsal, just the aesthetic distance. That said, I thought Danny was rather wonderful. Honoring the role's requirements while bringing something entirely new. And his relative youth is a plus. Mostly, these people look right.
Posted: 10/16/15 at 12:37pm
Actually you were implying that.
No worries! The next time I see gospell I will make sure to check out the last name of the guy playing Jesus and it better be Anglo Saxon or it won't be as authentic.
Posted: 10/16/15 at 12:47pm
About Tevye's ethnicity, look, to me it's simple-- the guy's not an abstract Jewish guy, he's specifically a poor Russian Jewish milkman in a specific place and a specific time. He looks a certain way, he moves a certain way and he sounds a certain way. And most important, this play is SPECIFICALLY about the DIFFERENCES between Tevye and his shtetl brethren with the Christian Constable, Priest and others in the wider Christian Russian world. Minimizing those differences as Molina's performance and Leveaux's staging did in the eyes of many is not a question of personal choice-- they are mucking with the whole point in telling the story.
Posted: 10/16/15 at 1:29pm
massofmen said: "Actually you were implying that.
No worries! The next time I see gospell I will make sure to check out the last name of the guy playing Jesus and it better be Anglo Saxon or it won't be as authentic."
Except, well, you know this Jesus fellow was neither Anglo nor a Saxon.
Updated On: 10/16/15 at 01:29 PM
Posted: 10/16/15 at 1:35pm
I LOVE Danny Burstein, but I really like a Tevye who is bigger than life (and I'm not speaking of size). He's warm, believable, and of course -- very Jewish -- but he doesn't seem to be the enormous character I love in Tevye. I have to agree a bit about the girls sounding a little shrill -- and much more polished and professional, killing the idea of girls having fun with the song. But the one I like the least was Motel, who should be practically peeing his pants with excitement. This guy was just too busy concentrating on sounding good.
Of course, it's a long way from performances and all that could change -- hopefully. But right now I just don't see the show being that much "fun".
