Sher and the White Wall: Every Production?!

*Slight Spoilers Below*

So tonight I saw Fiddler - It was fine. I don't think it really proved to me why it needed to be revived. The acting was all over the place with the daughters coming up last. And the sing...oh the singing. Was there no singing audition beforehand? Why was every song a ballad? Oof. But the choreography and the lighting were gorgeous.

Anyway, people gave Doyle so much **** for the "actors as musicians" concept, which he only did twice on Broadway. But Sher has now done the "wall revealing a white wall" concept one too many times. It's tired. We've seen it before. We know it's coming. It's over. I've seen him do it now 3 times. And it's getting a little ridiculous that no one seems to care.

His directing on this was both breathtaking - the curtain with Chava - but most of the time really awful. The actors hovering around the set pieces in the middle of a scene - well, you know a scene transition is coming, so that takes the audience out of the story. The use of the pit in the back was gorgeous for Tradition, but then seeing Yente try and get out of the pit every every other scene became distracting and wondering why they were all coming from underground?

Updated On: 1/20/16 at 11:13 PM

I'm not talking about the actual songs - I love Fiddler, one of my favorite shows - but Matchmaker was moving at a glacial pace, To Life seemed to move very slowly. He directed it. The first act felt like 10 years.

I'm not dissing him. Usually I love his work - Bridges had me in tears for 2 and half hours - but usually his productions are perfection. And this one just really fell apart for me. I was most let down by the acting and singing. I just felt like no one really held their own in their songs. Far From The Home I Love, my favorite song, sounded beautiful but was oddly staged and very surface acting. I just expected him to dig a little deeper.

And the stage hands dressed like Mary Poppins chimney sweeps was just...awful.

Was it in Women on The Verge? I don't remember. That's the only Sher I've seen. I prefer new shows.

There was an essentially identical effect though, used for arguably similar reasons.

I've always found the ol' Bartlett Wall Removal effective in the moment, so I'm fine with it for now.

I don't remember a white wall in Golden Boy. I also saw his Le Comte Ory at the Met, which was glorious and no white wall. Are we to criticize every artist who double dips here and there?

I wish he would stop having the actors move furniture: Bridges & Fiddler.

Totally forgot about that. It didn't bother me in King and I.

JayG 2 said: " and Woman Under... (Awful, playing like an early out of town "

What show is that?

Bartlett Sher and his crew have done such wonders for South Pacific, The King and I, and Fiddler on the Roof to the point where they may be remembered as the "Broadway dream team". As for the wall raising concept I think it works for both latter revivals because the way they are staged at the end of their musicals is that these people don't know what's going to happen to their lives once they lost something that they've been close to for so long (the court of Siam to their King and the Jewish people to their old home that they've been forcefully evicted from). But as in the case of The King and I, they have a new King and they are ready to move on where as with Fiddler on the Roof it could be implied that a good number of them know their path and as long as they have each other they will find a way to survive. At least that's how I saw them when I visited NYC the last time, both are amazing stunning productions but if you had the choice of just the two of them I would say The King and I is the best one to see because everything about it is so magnificent to the point where it could be near-perfection.

Bartlett Sher and his crew should do Follies for the Vivian Beaumont in the future, think of the magnificent, memorable and powerful things they could do with it.

Are these more of Sher's tricks or those of designer Michael Yeargan?

bwaylyric said: "Are these more of Sher's tricks or those of designer Michael Yeargan?"

Actors moving set pieces is Bart.

The wall flies up to reveal the bright white light of Loveland