Well, the "full" title of this entry is "Fiddling on Roofs A Goy Can Get Shingles" in a bizarre, unpoetic revising of "Playing with Matches a Girl Can Get Burned..."
Yes, it's my "Fiddler on the Roof" review.
OK, first I will say that I don't think it was terrible. But I don't really think it was special. How telling is it that there was no standing ovation? It was an emotional experience for me, seeing the show. I was raised in a Jewish environment, and the songs and stories from "Fiddler" were a key element of my youth. I know every song from that show. Heck, I played "Sunrise, Sunset" on the piano (Hey, I was good, shut up) at my grandparent's 50th Anniversary party. I'm pretty sure it was played at my bar mitzvah reception, and at both my sister's. So the music was a very real connection with the religious part of me (which used to be quite strong, though we don't quite know where it's hiding right now, nor do we care to).
So while I felt an emotional response to many of the songs, and some of the scenes (how heart-wrenching is it when Tevye decides that Chava is dead -- and then when she comes back to bid them a safe trip at the end, as she and Fyedka are also leaving -- and he says "God be with you." I mean... That's intense. But it's intense writing, and I didn't feel like it was Alfred Molina's intensity). But I didn't feel an emotional response to the production. I think the most exciting things to watch were Jerry Robbins' work: the Russian dance, and the Bottle Dance.
The scenes that should have moved us, especially the mini-pogrom at Motel and Tzeitel's wedding? Eh. Not so much.
The set was haunting and evocative but I'm not sure it was the right way to go. That freaky roof was quite distracting and weird, and the orchestra onstage was really a bad choice. It's not the kind of show where you can get away with that. It's really the kind of show where you don't need to be "reminded of the theatricality of it." It's the kind of show where you really want the proscenium to be a window onto this world. So when they take away the proscenium (the production is as close to a "thrust stage" as you can have in the Minskoff) and put the orchestra in the middle of the action like a mariachi band, well, it's hard to see Anatkeva as Anatkeva. And I think that the village is a very important character in "Fiddler," and it is disappointing that this production does not treat her as such.
Another thing that disappointed me was that noone really seemed Jewish to me. The rabbi didn't talk like a rabbi; the "ai dai dai" type Jew-scat in "Rich Man" didn't feel like the mournful intonations of a cantor. It was just... whatever it was. And how come Randy Graff was the only one who knew how to pronounce Chava? The Hebrew ch sound should not have been that difficult for Molina - it's not that different from J like Jimenez in Spanish.
And if you compare what Nancy Opel did to what I can only imagine that Bea Arthur could have done with the role of Yente... oh, don't get me started on another part of it.
Let's just say I was underwhelmed by the show.
I was, however, overwhelmed by the number of outrageusly cute guys my friend and I saw last evening. Both at pre-theatre dinner (at Del Frisco's. Amazing steaks AND gorgeous men in suits. How can you go wrong?) and at the theatre, there were cute guys everywhere. They were, like, popping out of the woodwork. It was quite pleasant. Probably more memorable than a fiddler. Even if he's on a roof.
Posted by Jon at March 5, 2004 12:24 PM | TrackBack