Sher and the White Wall: Every Production?!

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/19/16 at 11:13pm

*Slight Spoilers Below*

So tonight I saw Fiddler - It was fine. I don't think it really proved to me why it needed to be revived. The acting was all over the place with the daughters coming up last. And the sing...oh the singing. Was there no singing audition beforehand? Why was every song a ballad? Oof. But the choreography and the lighting were gorgeous. 

Anyway, people gave Doyle so much **** for the "actors as musicians" concept, which he only did twice on Broadway. But Sher has now done the "wall revealing a white wall" concept one too many times. It's tired. We've seen it before. We know it's coming. It's over. I've seen him do it now 3 times. And it's getting a little ridiculous that no one seems to care. 

His directing on this was both breathtaking - the curtain with Chava - but most of the time really awful. The actors hovering around the set pieces in the middle of a scene - well, you know a scene transition is coming, so that takes the audience out of the story. The use of the pit in the back was gorgeous for Tradition, but then seeing Yente try and get out of the pit every every other scene became distracting and wondering why they were all coming from underground? 

 

 

 

 

Updated On: 1/20/16 at 11:13 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/19/16 at 11:16pm

RippedMan said: "Why was every song a ballad?"

 

How is that Sher's fault? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updated On: 1/19/16 at 11:16 PM

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/19/16 at 11:20pm

I'm not talking about the actual songs - I love Fiddler, one of my favorite shows - but Matchmaker was moving at a glacial pace, To Life seemed to move very slowly. He directed it. The first act felt like 10 years. 

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 1/19/16 at 11:25pm

To each his own. I think Sher brings a matchless (no pun intended), truly special quality and touch to his productions that moves me each and every time. I absolutely adore his work.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/19/16 at 11:28pm

I'm not dissing him. Usually I love his work - Bridges had me in tears for 2 and half hours - but usually his productions are perfection. And this one just really fell apart for me. I was most let down by the acting and singing. I just felt like no one really held their own in their songs. Far From The Home I Love, my favorite song, sounded beautiful but was oddly staged and very surface acting. I just expected him to dig a little deeper. 

And the stage hands dressed like Mary Poppins chimney sweeps was just...awful. 

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 1/20/16 at 6:03pm

As someone who hasn't seen the productions, could someone explain the effect being criticized.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/20/16 at 6:25pm

Was it in Women on The Verge?  I don't remember.  That's the only Sher I've seen.  I prefer new shows.

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 1/20/16 at 7:00pm

I know there certainly was no white wall in South Pacific.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 1/20/16 at 7:05pm

There was an essentially identical effect though, used for arguably similar reasons. 

 

I've always found the ol' Bartlett Wall Removal effective in the moment, so I'm fine with it for now.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 1/20/16 at 7:08pm

Can someone please be more explicit? The only big white wall that comes to my head is the one in the Kingdom of Siam that lifts up ominously (and gorgeously) in The King and I. What else?

[AndersonTours]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 12:31pm

I don't remember a white wall in Golden Boy. I also saw his Le Comte Ory at the Met, which was glorious and no white wall. Are we to criticize every artist who double dips here and there? 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 1:18pm

Def. happend in Golden Boy. If I remember correctly there's a scene with the girlfriend and the boxer, and the wall slowly lifts during the scene, and then in the next scene there's a crash? 

A similar thing happened in his play at Playwrights with Jonathan Groff, wasn't a white wall, but a red line. 

And again it happens in Fiddler. 

Maybe it's just his signature thing. But, like I said, it's weird that no one's called him on out on it, since people gave Doyle such hate for his "signature." 

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 1:23pm

I wish he would stop having the actors move furniture: Bridges & Fiddler.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 1:25pm

King & I too, but at least the ensemble were "servants" and I think that kind of thing comes off much better in a thrust space. 

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 1:28pm

Totally forgot about that. It didn't bother me in King and I.

[JayG 2]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 1:40pm

I absolutely loved this production. I thought the Matchmaker Matchmaker's staging made perfect sense. In fact, thinking about what just preceded it- this is the only way it could make sense.

To Life was not performed any slower than it usually - at least to my ears.

Miracle of Miracle was the best I've seen it performed.

Cast was mostly excellent... although Brustein did not completely get to me. He gave a very good performance, but something was lacking for me. Maybe a certain charisma, which was noticeable in If I Were a Rich Man. The Russian guy was weak, but it is a small part. Loved the three daughters.

The prologue and epilogue worked beautifully. Quite moving. The end of this show at last Wednesday's matinee drew audible sobs in the mezzanine.

Great looking production. Wonderful choreography. He is a master at revivals. Originals, not so much. Bridges (Just okay and saved by the score) and Woman Under... (Awful, playing like an early out of town tryout) were far less successful than Fiddler, South Pacific, King and I, Golden Boy, Awake and Sing and Joe Turner, which were master classes in theater staging. He probably is not a very good dramaturge and needs a virtually perfect script.

But NO ONE can beat him in terms of revivals

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 1:43pm

JayG 2 said: " and Woman Under... (Awful, playing like an early out of town "

 

What show is that? 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 1:43pm

Forgot Joe Turner. Great production. 

Yeah I think I just don't care for his design style. Fiddler could be such a gorgeous show by why are we having stage hands wheel around trees that are very visibly on wheels? And watching Fruma Sarah awkwardly slide in from the wings was less exciting. Wish that could have been staged in a more interesting way. 

And the flying Fiddler...I just couldn't handle. I was laughing. It just looked so silly. 

[Musical Master]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 2:18pm

Bartlett Sher and his crew have done such wonders for South Pacific, The King and I, and Fiddler on the Roof to the point where they may be remembered as the "Broadway dream team". As for the wall raising concept I think it works for both latter revivals because the way they are staged at the end of their musicals is that these people don't know what's going to happen to their lives once they lost something that they've been close to for so long (the court of Siam to their King and the Jewish people to their old home that they've been forcefully evicted from). But as in the case of The King and I, they have a new King and they are ready to move on where as with Fiddler on the Roof it could be implied that a good number of them know their path and as long as they have each other they will find a way to survive. At least that's how I saw them when I visited NYC the last time, both are amazing stunning productions but if you had the choice of just the two of them I would say The King and I is the best one to see because everything about it is so magnificent to the point where it could be near-perfection.

 

Bartlett Sher and his crew should do Follies for the Vivian Beaumont in the future, think of the magnificent, memorable and powerful things they could do with it.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 2:21pm

I find at the Beaumont I love his style. I think they work beautifully on that stage. I don't remember stage hands having to move the scenery or anything. But in his "for profit" productions, I found his directing sloppy and cheap looking? I don't know why. 

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 2:23pm

Are these more of Sher's tricks or those of designer Michael Yeargan?

[Musical Master]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 4:19pm

Well Sher and Yeargan do collaborate together on the entire look of the revival along with Zuber on costumes and Holder on lighting. But I think Michael Yeargan was interested in the idea of a wall that fits in context of the characters and the environment of the musical. Though with the wall in Fiddler on the Roof I'll admit is pretty weird compared to the palace wall in The King and I which does make sense in conceptual and environmental purposes. I guess the wall only works when the ending comes around, but some could interpret the wall as tradition itself with the three daughters and the impact their choices have on Tevye which causes the wall to finally be gone and the tradition itself is out there in the unknown and Tevye and the rest of his family hopes to find it again in America.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 4:28pm

bwaylyric said: "Are these more of Sher's tricks or those of designer Michael Yeargan?"

 

Actors moving set pieces is Bart.

 

[broadwayboy223]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 5:01pm

I get chills thinking of Sher doing Follies.  Maybe in a decade he could direct Kelli and Audra as Sally and Phyills! I would die.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 1/21/16 at 5:06pm

The wall flies up to reveal the bright white light of Loveland