This Fiddler might need to tune his fiddle...** Let me preface this review by saying one thing -- I appreciate, applaud, and celebrate the achievement of every actor who has the courage to step on a stage. I also celebrate the creative teams who facilitate the mounting of productions. Regardless of what I feel about a production (again, this blog is strictly opinion based), I will never say that someone is "untalented" or "unfit for the theater." Some productions work. Some don't. I encourage everyone to go see theater no matter what 1 small reviewer may say or think. Theater is hard work and deserves to be rewarded no matter what. We are in a difficult time in the history of the arts. Support local theater. Please! It's such a vital part of our community and we need to be there. And that means the good, the bad, and the mediocre. **
Fiddler on the Roof has established itself as one of the true classics in American musical theater. From the second the audience hears that familiar fiddle start the show, they are thrust into the world of Anatevka. However, in this production, Anatevka is a bunch of mushrooms, sunflowers, and fabric. The whole show looked thrown-together and even the cast couldn't salvage this true classic.
In a show about traditions, director Paul Gurgol has opted to mess with some “traditions” that help to define Fiddler. Matchmaker has no mops, the scene where the Russians invade feels rushed and unmoving, and apparently women are allowed to consume alcohol freely at the bar??
Russ Borski, costume and set designer, did not succeed at his job. The costumes had no detail and were not always period. They looked like a bad comic strip and did not work at all. Motel wore a giant furry hat at his wedding (is he a pimp?) and Tzeitel wore a napkin for a wedding vail. It's as though the other half of the village was hiding from the lackluster sets and costumes. I have never seen a production of Fiddler where every man in the show had peyos ("Jewish curls"). While I understand the religious meaning behind this, I felt that it was too distracting on some characters. I have always thought that Fiddler would be a difficult show to design poorly – the material dictates so much to start with. And yet, somehow Russ Borski has managed to make me rethink that statement.
Trad Burns has done some very nice things with the lighting. He really paints a picture instead of just “tossing” light on a stage. His use of silhouette was effective. Larry Goodpaster’s orchestra was fine, however the cast seemed to be out of sync. Cut-offs and entrances were not together, and I lost many of the words due to poor diction. Richard Ingraham’s sound design was well suited for those characters who wore microphones. However the ensemble tended to be over-powered by the orchestra.
The cast is decent. However, the ensemble isn't strong at all, which is extremely detrimental for a show like Fiddler. The ensemble was just not together. Many of the men were even men! Most were clearly under the age of 17, at least. The vacancy of any real men in the ensemble was just bizarre. The most confusing part was witnessing the Russians at the wedding doing the bottle dance (their shiny pants and sloppy wigs did not suffice to disguise them). Do not double cast the Russians as Jews and put them in less than camouflaged costumes. The cast was far too small to be a convincing village.
The show is lead by the three daughters, Tzeitel (Morgan Greene), Hodel (Patricia O'Toole), and Chava (Dani Apple). The three girls shine with a wonderful performance by each. They work well with the direction given, but their performances could have been so much more given better direction. Greene is real and honest as Tzeitel, O'Toole is sweet and likeable as Hodel, and Apple is convincing and truthful as Chava. Even though the three daughters are perfect, their beaus do not match up. All three husbands are nice, but nothing special. George Roth takes a different take as Tevye, but it makes me miss the Tevye everybody knows and loves. Overall, I liked George Roth as Tevye, but I think other people fit the role better. Not for one second of the show did I buy Adina Bloom's performance as Golde. None of her performance was in the moment, real, or convincing. She wasn't “over the top”, just not real and honest. I give her an A for effort, but I don't think this role was her cup of tea. Rhoda Rosen is perfection as Yente. The Fiddler, though a seemingly great dancer, seemingly couldn't keep time with her pantomimed violin.
All in all, the show is just completely weighed down by the an apparent lack of direction, and the cast is entirely too small. Almost everybody in the cast (with a few exceptions) was flat, just like the cartoony set. I can only question Russ Borski and Paul Gurgol for their choices in this production.
Fiddler on the Roof
September 19- October 18
Beck Center for the Arts
216-521-2541
WOW - There's "honest" and there's "nasty"... this one was nasty. It reminds me of the saying..."Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw mud and one saw stars." If you go to a show looking for negatives, you will always find something...especially in community or semi-professional theater. This isn't Broadway with a million dollar budget. Honest is good, but an honest review doesn't have to be mean-spirited.
ReplyDeleteIf a productio does not deliver the entertainment
ReplyDeletevalue of the ticket price the audience is cheated. Making excuses because a production is
community theater vs. professional is not valid. There are ample numbers of talented non-professionals available in the area available to be cast. I eaw this ineffective prodution. The critic hit it right on the button.
Wow...it was that bad? Good thing I said no to this gig...lets face it...shows at the beck wont get better until they have a makeover with the production team b/c they are the ones that make these horrible shows-not the actors.
ReplyDeleteThe Beck Center is a community theater posing as a professional one by occasionally offering an Equity contract (like the brilliant George Roth, who really is wonderful in this!). The do good work the majority of the time.
ReplyDeleteI saw the production and thought it was adequate, a little on the community theater side, but not as bad as you make it out to be.
Whenever I read reviews in which everything or almost everything is criticized I think that the reviewer wishes they were a performer instead of a reviewer!
1. Beck is going to continue on its slippery slope into the dumper until Scott Spence is fired, forced to retractively repay his salary and prosecuted.
ReplyDelete2. This blog's administrator should immediately trace "Anonymous'" IP address and identities, and turn them over to his IP and the police on account of the harrassing, homophobic slurs.
Hahahaha "Turn him over to the police"! Like it's illegal to comment on a blog you dickhead. Michael Alan Miller = Genius FTW
ReplyDelete"hey all, I'm Honest- T the guy who's soooo cool that after 20 years, I moved back from the West Coast to economically depressed, boring, back-water Cleveland to go cloack n dagger and write reviews of local community theatre. Did you know that mathematically speaking I'm at least in my twenties and THIS is what I consider the best way to spend my time? I'll tell you why, it's because my lifestyle of making tons of money, traveling to exotic places, and dating gorgeous women got kinda boring and so trashing community theatre performed by people with day jobs is a great way to feel better about myself. Did I mention I'm really cool?"
ReplyDeleteExcuse me, Anonymous, but your comments contain hate speech, which is illegal. On top of the fact that you're a craven coward. Why don't you identify yourself in some verifiable way? You're proibably one of Scott's little ball-licking chorus boys.
ReplyDeleteI can't even believe that someone flagged this blog already. Why? The comments from the homophobe are certainly rude and inappropriate, but that's an idiotic commenter, not the writer/creator of the blog. Free speech people! Aren't we as artists all about that?
ReplyDeleteBeck Center doesn't consider itself to be community theatre - it thinks it's pro. It charges a ton of money for tickets ($31) and regularly uses Equity Actors.
ReplyDeleteWow. Now I know why theater reviews don't have reader comment sections, because they are filled with disgrunted actors or directors who have been shunned by better theater companies (ie: The Beck) and finally have a venue to tear them down, anonymously as well, even better!
ReplyDeleteThe only thing more pathetic than this laughably horrible "reviewer" pretending to respond to his own critics in his comments praising himself (the glaringly obvious second comment on this page)are the angry, jaded half wit local actors with no talent who finally jumped on the opportunity to bash on the largest and most professional community/semi pro theater in Cleveland, from which they have obviously been turned down from in the past.
I don't work for the Beck, and also will readily admit that I was less than enthused about "Fiddler" as well as some other shows they have produced in the past, but they by no means tanked and were miles beyond what 90% of the other theaters in Cleveland were able to do. That's not even talking about the critically acclaimed, sell out shows the Beck really nails on the head.. just looks at the biggest hit of this past summer, "Evil Dead" say what you like about the show, but it sold out nonstop for months and garnered rave reviews, and they have at least a few of those each year. As for the rest? Well it's not Broadway, what do you expect? It's certainly better than most other crap put up in this town and usually by miles.
And good math with the equity contract comment. Sure, they aren't a full equity house, never have claimed to be, but they offer at LEAST one, usually two, and more (fiddler has three) contracts for every single show they do. Slippery slope?? Unless you're talking about uphill, you're obviously retarded. The only slippery slope I see is their ridiculous ticket prices.
So, bad actors of the world rejoice! You have a new home to grumble and complain about theaters that wouldn't cast you if you paid them too. No one will ever know it's really you!! How exciting!! You are the best!! Clevelanders will finally recognize the fact that you couldn't act your way out of a paper bag.
And to "Honest-T".. thank you so much for your wisdom and brutal honesty, your reviews are a breath of fresh, misspelled air. I can't tell you how long I have been waiting for an arrogant retard who hasn't even lived here the past 20 years and is too much of a pussy to reveal his identity to tell me what is and isn't worth my hard earned cash.
@anon's last comment: you just proved you with Honest T with the closer.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a theatre actor who ever cares about working with Beck or any other local theatre, so I can just objectively say this whole thing is horribly pathetic.
uh, my faux pas on the last comment. Anon, you're funny...I dont actually know anything about Beck...never been there.
ReplyDeleteHello everyone. Well, clearly, the person who posted as "Honest T" above is NOT me. This has been a very interesting debate brewing. I have to interject a few thoughts. Please read them for what they are. I'm being completely forthright and open. Don't try and read into these thoughts or twist them to mean anything other than what I am clearly stating here:
ReplyDelete1) I am NOT a professional reviewer. I am merely a theater-goer who enjoys writing my thoughts down. If you disagree with me, that is absolutely fine. I would never take offense at that. in fact, I appreciate debate as I firmly believe that it fosters talk about the arts. And any publicity that the theater world can receive is good.
2) I have stated multiple times that this is strictly an opinion. This is not gospel. Not fact. Not dogma. I simply wrote out my thoughts on 1 production. And, as the preface to my blog states, I appreciate all theater. I encourage everyone to go see this production of Fiddler and form their own educated opinions on it.
3) I think the Beck has always done good work. I remember some fantastic productions from years ago with very fond memories. And I don't doubt that much of that fine work continues today. I simply didn't care for this one particular production. I did not intend to destroy anyone's career by what I have written. In fact, the suggestion that such a thing is my intention is rather ludicrous. This is 1 small blog. Not a major newspaper.
4) In my thoughts about the show, I never said anything that was more harsh than other reviewers in town have said. I did some research on back-issues of local reviews and, let me tell you, there have been some awful things said about people, places, and shows. Things that I would not say. I simply gave my thoughts. Nothing more.
5) In reference to #4, I find it interesting that so many of you have commented on this blog and made some very rude statements. Not just direct, but intentionally mean. "Homo," "gay," and "pussy" are words that I would not say to anyone. Even if I hated them. I don't think that's necessary. If you disagree with me, then so be it. But wouldn't it simply be easier to not read this blog then? Instead, several of you have stooped to a level that it far lower than anything I have said in my "review" of the show.
That's all for now. Again, I am very thankful for the strong arts base in Cleveland. It's one of the reasons I'm so thankful to be back here. I wish you all continued health, success, and happiness.
~T
Hey Michael Alan Miller,
ReplyDeleteOMG you said "Ball Licker" someone call the cops!!!!1!!
The United States federal government and state governments are broadly forbidden by the First Amendment of the Constitution from restricting speech. See, e.g., Gitlow v. New York (1925), incorporating the free speech clause. Generally speaking, the First Amendment prohibits governments from regulating the content of speech, subject to a few recognized exceptions such as defamation[26] and incitement to riot.[27] Even in cases where speech encourages illegal violence, instances of incitement qualify as criminal only if the threat of violence is imminent.[28] This strict standard prevents prosecution of many cases of incitement, including prosecution of those advocating violent opposition to the government, and those exhorting violence against racial, ethnic, or gender minorities. See, e.g., Yates v. United States (1957), Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969).
I WIN AGAIN. I DID IT FOR THE LULZ.