Harvey's a hit says bway.com

::shoots self::

---

at least everyone who complained about Molina not being able to sing can have a just reason to complain now... but I saw Harvey on Letterman last night he wasn't THAT bad. of course I was still laughing at Paul for singing "Welcome to the 80s"...

Cariani i thought was great. After the show, someone asked him if that was his idea to be so crazy...he said Leveaux wanted it like that....

---

Yay for both Harvey and Andrea! I would love to see the two of them together.

I'm seeing Harvey in a few weeks (I suspect he'll stick around in it). I was supposed to go on Wendesday - even had a ticket- but an unavoidable work-related problem caused be to skip out on it, alas.

I should note this other review. I suspect this show is going to drive audiences right down the middle. Happily, it has generated a buzz about this show that was never there with Molina.

A friend liked him very much, said he has enormous charisma - so much so that when he leaves the stage you hungrily await his return. He crypitcally noted that "whatever your take on him, Harvey makes an unforgettable Tevye."
Talkin' Broadway's review of Harvey in Fiddler

---

Updated On: 1/20/05 at 09:29 PM

I'm so pleased that such an enormous risk has paid off. Bravo to all concerned.

Well those are two VERY different reviews...Broadway.com ate him up and talkin broadway tore him up...

Can't WAIT to see what the Times says. Is Brantley doing it?

Hmmmmmmmm ......

"A master of droll comic melodramas in fringe theater long before he became a Broadway star with his "Torch Song Trilogy" in 1982, Mr. Fierstein inflects every line with at least a touch of the grandeur of old Hollywood movies, whether he's being husky with sentimentality, smoky with regret or growly with displeasure.

This can be quite a bit of fun. Tevye's first solo, "If I Were a Rich Man," takes on a fascinating new life, as Mr. Fierstein slides and rasps through its wordless connecting phrases. But it is sometimes hard to credit this exotic spirit as that of a tradition-bound father who has trouble making the adjustment to changing times.

**********************************

As for the show's new Tevye, it would seem that this "Fiddler" has gone from having too little of a personality at its center to having too much of one.

Still, as Tevye himself might argue, better an overspiced feast than a famine."



So, I guess that means he likes Harvey? Sort of? Mostly?
I swear, with Brantley, I can never tell ......

---

I loved Harvey. Listen to me folks.
Harvey plays the role with heart and soul. The man is one of the most passionate actors around.
If only he was warm and fuzzy.

Updated On: 1/21/05 at 12:21 AM

I was not there tonight. I was there a few weeks ago.
I WAS MOVED.

Theatremania raves:

"I don't have the genealogical charts handy, but isn't it possible that Edna Turnblad is a direct descendant of Tevye? Both the hero of Fiddler on the Roof and the heroine of Hairspray are doting parents, protective of their adolescent daughters and suspicious of outside forces -- be they new dances, music, or ideas -- that might shake up the family unit. Tevye and Edna are both in long, solid marriages. They have large appetites for food and for life, and they don't like surprises. When confronted with the unexpected, their core values are tested; they're forced to learn about forces in the world that are bigger than their own small universes, and the audience eats it up.

All of which is to say that Harvey Fierstein's previous musical theater assignment and his present one, replacing Alfred Molina in David Leveaux's revival of Fiddler, may not be as far apart as they appear. Taking on considerably more distinguished material (not that there's anything wrong with Hairspray) and stepping into peasant clothes and tzitzith formerly donned by Zero Mostel and a host of other estimable actors, Fierstein seems at home. Aided by a superb new stage spouse, Andrea Martin's Golde, he centers the somewhat fragmented energy of Leveaux's revival, focusing our attention where it belongs: on a paterfamilias whipsawed by change, questioning of his creator and not always satisfied by the answers. Fierstein doesn't entirely negate the miscalculations of this prettied-up production, but he does invest it with humor and tenderness that were decidedly lacking in the earnest Molina. Having also seen Mostel (at the end of his unruly final tour, giving an unruly performance that turned Fiddler into Hellzapoppin'), Paul Lipson (proficient but boring), Herschel Bernardi (excellent), and Molina, I can say that Fierstein's Tevye is one of the most personal and touching.

***********************************************

Those who perceived Fierstein's presence here as stunt casting will have to eat their words. Though his is not be the most vocally secure Tevye, Fierstein has performed a valuable service to this revival: He has relocated, and even fortified, Fiddler's potentially boundless heart."

http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/5558

---

Sorry, babe.

---