harvey fierstein in fiddler- Page 2

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 9:33am

"Harvey (along with Andrea Martin, and later, Rosie O'Donnell) brought a much-needed (Jewish) warmth and sensibility to the role and the show itself."

I don't mean to be picky, Yankee, but you put Rosie's name in parentheses along with "Jewish," so they looked like they went together, which is why neddyfrank said that. Anyways, yeah...haha.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 2:23pm

Seeing him play the role was an extraordinary theater experience. I wrote in threads back then that the way he played the scene in which he disowned his daughter for marrying a non-Jew was informed by the kind of anger and guilt parents of gays have felt when they disowned their gay children: He had to do it, because everything he had ever been taught was telling him that she was dead to him, but his heart was breaking.

It was an extraordinary performance and I feel lucky for having seen it.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 2:31pm

"The sets were stunning."

There were sets? It looked like it was set at Tavern on the Green.

[steven22]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 5:32pm

he was great when I saw him (twice)..adrea martin was also great..rosie sucked..wow! she as horrible

[sanda]

Posted: 1/31/08 at 6:25pm

That omission has been remedied to some extent by Mr. Molina's new replacement. Even at his quietest, Mr. Fierstein, who won a Tony Award for "Hairspray," has the presence of a waking volcano. And lest anyone think he needs drag to be big, let it be noted that he wears Tevye's tattered trousers with a homey and winning ease. To see the gray-bearded, bright-eyed Mr. Fierstein pulling a horseless milk cart with sardonic resignation is, you may well think, to look upon the image of the Tevye of the Sholem Aleichem stories that inspired the show.

It is Mr. Fierstein's greatest asset as a performer, that unmistakable voice, that perversely shatters this illusion. Theatergoers who saw - or more to the point heard - this actor in "Hairspray" will require at least 10 minutes to banish echoes of Edna. But even audience members unfamiliar with Mr. Fierstein may find him a slightly jarring presence.

Tevye must to some degree be an everyman, albeit in exaggerated, crowd-pleasing form. And Mr. Fierstein, bless him, shakes off any semblance of ordinariness as soon as he opens his mouth. Every phrase he speaks or sings, as he shifts uncannily among registers, becomes an event. And the effect is rather as if Ms. Channing were playing one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's simple, all-American heroines in "Oklahoma!" or "Carousel."

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.
--Ben Brantly
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/01/21/theater/reviews/21fidd.html


So it is up to Mr. Fierstein, the famously throaty actor (and multiple Tony winner) who took over the starring role from Alfred Molina nine months ago, to fill the vacuum. He does this by stepping up the vocal mannerisms (even more than when I last saw him), embellishing every third or fourth syllable, spoken or sung, with ornamental slides and runs, often at the expense of intelligibility. Not since Mercedes McCambridge dubbed the part of the demon in "The Exorcist" has there been such a vocally baroque performance.

A warning to those of delicate hearing: the show is now so overmiked that when Mr. Fierstein exercises his nasal tones, your eardrums go into shock. When Ms. O'Donnell tries to match him in stridency in the duet "Do You Love Me?," you may find yourself longing for a more aurally soothing environment, like the runway of a busy airport.

"--Ben Brantly
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/10/14/theater/reviews/14fidd.html


Casting folks, casting folks, give us a quote:

Why cast a star with such a throat?

Casting folks, casting folks, you should have known,

This "Fiddler" would earn a groan.



--Peter Marks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/AR2005101402001.html

[xoangel2789xo]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 1:34am

I saw him Rosie O'donnell...thought he was really good.

[jeniferrenepatricia]

Posted: 2/19/08 at 1:49am

Thanks, steven22....my feelings exactly about Rosie.