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Post by marion on Jul 11, 2019 17:55:56 GMT
I think there might be a number of versions about, so this is the production by Trevor Nunn which transferred from the Meniere Chocolate Factory and stars Andy Nyman.
I liked it very much. In fact I'm rather wondering if I have misremembered the film because I liked it more than I expected. I'll have to watch if it is on TV again. It was a small auditorium and quite an intimate production. Actors came onstage through the audience most of the time. It was very well performed, clearly spoken. Maria Friedman played the wife and Anita Dobson was the matchmaker. I thought it was quite heartfelt and so poignant at the end. It got a lot of laughs though and the dancing was excellent.
My major complaint is the audience etiquette! My. God. Why people come to the theatre and spend over £50 for a ticket and then just talk to each other is beyond me. I handed out several death stares and a strangled (and unabbreviated) FFS to the couple behind. Then we had the usual mobile phone eruptions. And at the very end, in the most poignant tableau with snow coming down.... a bloke in front got a text alert. Cue another FFS! Oh yes, I forget... During said tableau but before the end of the show, a woman behind - in the middle of the row - decided to leave!!!! And this wasn't an overexcitable Hamilton audience, this was a very sober looking, mostly pensioner audience. Disgraceful.
But apart from all that, I thought it was really good and if it tours it would be worth a visit.
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Post by bidiein on Jul 11, 2019 18:09:20 GMT
OAPs are sometimes the worst Marion. But there is a generation coming up that simply do not know how to behave a theatre, despite pleas from the theatre manager to switch off devices etc and in some cases pointed remarks from the cast.
I am sure your Death Stare got results, even if not immediate.
Fiddler is an excellent show and seems relevant whenever it is performed - there is always trouble in some part of the world with small communities being driven out.
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Post by goodhelenstar on Jul 11, 2019 18:28:16 GMT
I saw a student production of this which was excellent. It was their first evening and they overran by about 20 minutes, but no one minded. The ending, with Tevye walking off stage by himself, having alienated himself from one of his daughters because he couldn't accept her choice of marriage partner, was heartbreaking. Pretty bold for a musical, which is supposed to make you leave feeling good about life!
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Post by marion on Jul 11, 2019 19:32:26 GMT
I'm glad ours didn't overrun by 20minutes as it was just under three hours anyway! My friend wondered if the last minute text alert we all heard was from someone's Uber! I'm going to put our ending in a spoiler, it was very moving. {SPOILER:Click to Show}The whole village have packed up and leave in the snow. Carrying all their cases, they walk through the audience in silence. And I think they went round a couple of times as there were many of them and that made all the more affecting.
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Post by profbooboo on Jul 11, 2019 20:28:38 GMT
I saw a version of this many years ago in Birmingham with Topol in the lead, I think it was the 90s! The ending sounds very moving. Having the cast in the theatre/in the audience makes it more intimate.
I agree about theatre etiquette. If you really do need to leave and youre in the middle of a row at least wait until the end of a song or scene not slap bang in the middle. Maybe the theatre should show a quick slideshow before the performance starts with a photograph of what the people behind are looking at. The light and glare from a phone. And a photo from the point of view of the performers, with audience members faces lit up while the actors are on stage. I'm sure some people think they're invisible or the light on their phone is the same as a single bulb on a Christmas tree! The cinemas the same, that's why I rarely go now. I'm not paying nearly a tenner to have the glare of people's phones and text message alerts interrupting it. Some of these people must not be bothered about the show to act the way they do, so why pay £50+ for a ticket?!
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