Advanced Search | Search All That Chat


ATC Rush/Standing Room LOGIN REGISTER THREADED MODE

Threaded Order Chronological Order
re: Teachout on FIDDLER
Posted by: NewtonUK 08:39 am EST 12/23/15
In reply to: re: Teachout on FIDDLER - Chromolume 12:47 am EST 12/23/15
I will say that I would agree that the 2004 production was a better piece of theatre, a better production of FIDDLER - despite the effort in that production to stifle all comedy. When Mr Molina's run was up, Harvey Fierstein redressed that balance beautifully.
I also fall on the side of those who believe that universality comes from specificity. The red anorak, the girls dressed as boys dancing at the wedding, the lack of 'Jewishness' in many performances - all of these create a general world, just as MR Sher created in his production of AWAKE AND SING. Watching the life of Tevye and his shtetl in 1905 allows us to go - oh my, I identify with all of this' - much more than banging us on the head, assuming we're stupid, and saying - 'See - he's a modern NY JEw - just like these Jews - get it?" Except of course the Jews of Anatevka would never have bare heads.

I will say, one burden that MR Sher seems to have removed from FIDDLER is that of the events if WW2 which killed so many JEws. In 1964 - not more than two decades since we learned of the holocaust - the pogrom, and image of the JEws on the road, moistly with one suitcase per family, very strongly played on our feeling that these Jews were marching to their doom in the camps. All the revivals I have seen made us feel about the same.

What the red anorak DOES do, is give the final expulsion of the JEws from Anatevka a gleam of hipe and hapiness. After all, most of them have been talking about emigrating to America. And in fact. the pogroms of 1905 led a large % of the Russin Jews to emigrate to our shows.

Unintentionally, The Tsar and his viciously anti semitic soldiers and police, saved 100;s of thousands of Jews from death at the hands of the NAzis, or the Russians themselves.

So in a way, the pogroms of 1905 - as awful as they were - had a silver lining. The red anorak does remind us of that. From 1881-1917, 1.5 Russian Jews emigrated to the US. ANd have enriched our country SO greatly.
reply to this message
re: Teachout on FIDDLER
Posted by: Vectorbabe 12:58 pm EST 12/23/15
In reply to: re: Teachout on FIDDLER - NewtonUK 08:39 am EST 12/23/15
Thank you for your wonderful and sensitive reminder of the exodus under Tsar.

My family on both my grandparents sides made it out of the Russian/Polish shetls at the end of the progroms. (My maternal grandmother was a very small child. My paternal grandfather's parents made it here much earlier.)

It is because of this migration that my family was untouched by the invasion of the Nazis into Poland and the death camps.

But one thing I disagree with your comment.

From the first time I saw Fiddler (with Zero no less!) I always took the exodus from Anatevka to be the salvation of those Jews. I never saw them marching to their deaths. It was too early and those Jews were not welcome in many European countries.

Very few of the Jews leaving Poland/Russia would have moved to Germany or Austria. German Jews looked down on Polish/Russian Jews. Some might have moved to France, but for the most part they went to America with some going to Palestine as Yenta's travel indicates. In fact, it was those Jews in Palestine who started the Zionist/Socialist movement to create a state for the Jews.
reply to this message
re: Teachout on FIDDLER
Posted by: enoch10 05:52 pm EST 12/23/15
In reply to: re: Teachout on FIDDLER - Vectorbabe 12:58 pm EST 12/23/15
>> I never saw them marching to their deaths.

i don't know. one of the strongest memories i have of seeing it the first time - i was a wee young thing - was how my heart kind of clutched when i heard "krakow" as one of the destinations.

>> It was too early and those Jews were not welcome in many European countries. Very few of the Jews leaving Poland/Russia would have moved to Germany or Austria.

i'm not addressing this directly at you (honest) but sometimes around here i want to go, good lord you're beating the poor text to death. there is a line between something being so blatantly wrong that it takes you out of the moment and these excessive demands being made on an art form i don't think is designed to bear an abundance of scrutiny. they aren't breaking out into song either.

i can't speak for the authors/composers of FIDDLER but, believe me, if i had a choice between writing something that gives someone's heart a clutch the way mine did at "krakow" and being historically accurate to the size of the percentage for specific demographic historical data - it would'n't be a hard choice to make. at least not for me.

it is a tricky boundary and we all get to draw the lines for ourselves. i'll be the first to acknowledge that even the (apparently) trivial can be a deal-breaker. the discussions about happy trails seemed silly to me in a way that "actor x has too much of a gym physique for the time period" didn't. but sometimes i want to go - mary, please. it's a musical. lighten up.

i want to affirm again i'm not pouncing on you, specifically, about this. your point is a valid one to make. i just opted to talk about it now. i'm hesitant to do it most of the time because i think if there is anywhere to debate the minutia of the musical comedy it's here. i'm as guilty as the next guy. i do it, too. i really was very young the first time i saw FIDDLER and i was just learning about the holocaust. i remember thinking it was such a subtle and brilliant move, the placement of that name. it's a memory i'm fond of and we're quick to defend things we care about.

i liked this revival very much, certainly better than the last one. (i still think THE COLOR PURPLE is a better revival even if it's a vastly inferior musical) but what struck me the most about the performance was my thought at the end that while it was always crazy there is just no way in hell anyone in today's broadway could get away with pitching something, even something based on loved and respected stories, with "and we end with a displacement to avoid another pogram! it just wouldn't happen. the current state of broadway and, for that matter, the art form both are lesser for it. i wish that were not so.
reply to this message | reply to first message
re: Teachout on FIDDLER
Posted by: Vectorbabe 06:03 pm EST 12/23/15
In reply to: re: Teachout on FIDDLER - enoch10 05:52 pm EST 12/23/15
I didn't remember the reference to Krakow and it never registered with me.

But you're right.

Anyone hearing it would have had to been devastated at the thought of what was to come.

Thank you for pointing it out.
reply to this message | reply to first message


All That Chat is intended for the discussion of theatre news and opinion
subject to the terms and conditions. (Please take all off-topic discussion to private email.)

Please direct technical questions/comments to webmaster@talkinbroadway.com and policy questions to TBAdmin@talkinbroadway.com.



Time to render: 0.028862 seconds.