I went to the Mishkoff theater last night to see Fiddler on the Roof. Oy, i forgot it was school vacation week so all the jewish suburban families were out for a midweek break to take in a show..(why werent they at Grandma's in florida- like the rest of the Jews..maybe NY suburban jews dont got to florida for break?)
so i was being pushed and shoved by eating disordered girls and boys in Juicy Couture shirts and Million dollar pants and coats.. MOthers with face lifts and everyone had a cellphone.. Teenagers can be so grumpy... What is the equivilant to smoking pot? smoking pot? these kids looked like they would rather be out at the Mall or smoking pot.
then i hear a woman....NOT the woman behind me who kept screaming BRAVO, but a woman reporting that "she married Bobby Flay... you know one of the judges on the wickedly ....show...i start to think... that same bobby flay who is the head chef at Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay, who gives a scholarship to kids in LIC to got to culinary school like joe allen did for him. Bobby Flay who eats his way across the country (not like al roker) but more sophisticated and mostly barbeque... Bobby Flay... IRON CHEF...
the suburbs were showing all over the theater...
there was a little boy in the end seat in the 3rd row with his dad.. I went over to him and asked him what i should look for because he looked liked a theater expert... he looked at me.. with distrust and shrugged.. His dad explained this was his FIRST show..Oh..i said, i thought you have been to many many shows and asked how old he was 7 1/2 he said proudly... well i advised him to look for singing and dancing tonight..
the music swelled in a beautifully staged set... and i started to cry.. most of the music made me cry...I cried for my dad never being a rich man, i cried for the husband that the Good Lord hasnt brought to my sphere, i cried for my grandparents who left russia under similiar conditions, i cried because i am part of a community of jews, my small town with its antisemitism, my adult community of NY where Jews are as common as Goldberg....i cried through most of the play....maybe it was just a release...
as for harvey fierstein...I think his performance lacks the emotion the connection to TEvye...he plays a duller man who in shining moments you see his heart.. a tevye with a different voice... A voice that doesnt reach into your past and rip out your heart, a more modern voice... A tevye who doesnt make you believe he lived it.. Harvey baby REaCH into the sexism you have faced as a gay man... and make me believe you know the pain TEVYE faces... Harvey...make me believe that you have lived with a fiddler on your roof....
the staging was excellent and use of space was great.. teh orchestra sat in the right back corner of the stage and the design was one of the best i have seen.. its a three hour play... so why did i go on a work day and school night... well 33.50 tickets that is why... i sat in the TDF braggers section... why flaunt your good fortune in the face of others paying 150.00 for orchestra seats...
what would the good book say... what would tevye say....
