“Fiddler On The Roof” – 6^th February 2014

One of the biggest shows on television of the 1970s was Starsky and Hutch. In music teenage girls had the choice between Donny Osmond and David Cassidy and in this police drama they could either favour the blond ( later chart-topping), blue-eyed David Soul  or the darker, more serious Paul Michael Glaser. My wife’s teenage self was fervently in the latter group. Along with the late Pete Duell he saw her through the stressful teenage years.

Fast forward 30 plus years and her face on Christmas Day when she realised her former heartthrob was not only touring in one of her favourite musicals but was coming to Cardiff, was a picture. 

Even that didn’t match the delight when he actually appeared, receiving an old-fashioned round of applause from an audience that made this 50 something feel young. “Fiddler On The Roof” is one of the great musicals. Over 50 years ago this year Zero Mostel created the role of Tevya, a poor Jewish milkman in Russia at the turn of the 20^th century.

For me there are few better musical openings than “Tradition”. In this one number Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick explain Jewish life, past and present, although in Tevye’s eyes both should be the same.  Life, however is constantly changing and his first challenge comes from his oldest daughter, Tzeitel who wants to marry Motel the tailor for love rather than Laser Wolf for money and prestige. Whilst he comes to accept this arrangement he struggles to cope with his other daughters marrying a revolutionary student and then a Cossack.

This is a serious, heavy subject but the writing looks for the humour and the humanity in these situations. Here, Paul Michael Glaser comes into his own.  Amazingly, he played Perchick in the 1971 film, though he now looks like the perfect Tevya. He has always had a talent for light comedy and this quickly comes to the fore as he brings Tevye to life battling to come to grips as life changes around her. Unusually for musicals these are real people in real-life situations, so director Craig Revel Horwood needs actors who can sing. Also, in these days of budgeting restraints it is not possible to have a band so he prefers performers who can actually play instruments as well, a choice he made when we saw his “Chess”  a few years ago.

This made for a even more exciting evening with one of the highlights being Jon Trenchard’s version of “Miracle of Miracles” where he played his instrument in what shouls have been his singing breath break.

The ending is one of the most heart-breaking in musical theatre but in keeping with the Jewish philosophy they ultimately refused to be defeated and soon determined to try and remain upbeat.

Having seen and enjoyed “ Topel’s” Tevye revival in the West End in the early 1980’s I believe I loved this show more, or that may just have been watching my wife’s face as her younger self’s pin-up proved to be a great musical star.

This show is a triumph. If you have a chance to watch it on its national tour go. You won’t be disappointed.

THE WORLD'S END

THE WORLD’S END

Since living in Cardiff I have managed to see one play in Welsh, but only on a surtitled night. So, it was a first for me to watch a Welsh play in an evening there was no translation.

I can’t say I had high hopes for the show and only agreed to accompany Anne to the Sherman theatre to see “The World’s End” = “Fe Ddaw’r Byd I Ben” as it was more convenient than on a translated night?

Two American evangelists are convinces of the imminent end of the world leading Sarah to return to Wales to spend the remaining days with her family. At the same time her father kills himself (offstage) and we gradually discover that all the characters had troubles in some way.

Obviously not understanding the language was a problem. , but not such a disadvantage as I had been expecting. I knew that certain English words had no Welsh equivalent , “having a wank”, “pleasuring myself” etc and the scenes with the Americans were an unexpected bonus. However, it was generally quite easy to follow and the staging ( on two levels) was very impressive indeed.

It had been billed as a work in progress but it looked like the finished product to me. The acting was of a very high standard ensuring that the characters didn’t lapse into melodrama or caricature. For me, the star was Siw Hughes as the mother who had the audience roaring with unexpected rude speech and a hilarious drug taking scene. I lost a lot of the humorous lines but it was great watching the rest of the audience laughing hysterically.

For a new play it was quite long (over two hours) and definitely needs some trimming. They seemed to have a perfect ending with most of the cast standing on the kitchen table showing off their lovely Welsh voices in unexpected “Climb Every Mointain” and more traditional Welsh tunes but there were a few more plot explaining scenes to follow. That would be my only suggestion to change the final scenes and leave the audience with the visual memory of that table top moment.

Despite not understanding over half the dialogue I still enjoyed this play a lot more than many plays I had seen in English.

An unexpected delight.

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG

I first became aware of Mischief Theatre in 2013 when 1 saw & loved “The Play That Goes Wrong”last August. We laughed so loud and so long it was an obvious winner of DARKCHAT’s Best Shows award.

We therefore duly headed to Pleasance in Islington in December to see their follow-up “Peter Pan That Goes Wrong”. This, again, was enjoyable but I felt it occasionally struggled to sustain the full ninety minutes.

Although I was delighted to see that it had deservedly been granted a national tour I was apprehensive that it would be not be as tight as the hour long show. I therefore  didn’t book any tickets but was delighted when some friends had 2 spare tickets in the front row.

This is one of those shows that starts before the curtain rises with members of the backstage crew wandering amongst the audience and one unsuspecting member being ushered on stage to assist in various tasks.

The first half is basically the Edinburgh show. Co writer Henry Shields sets the scene of the potential shambles to follow with a highly enjoyable monologue as Cornley Polytechnic embarks upon ;”The Murder at Haversham Manor”.

We are now in true Amateur Dramatics territory. A clanky company puts on a clanky murder mystery and as you can guess from the title anything that can go wrong doe go wrong. I do think it helps if you have an understanding of what goes on behind the scenes in these companies. Having been involved in them myself I am fully aware of the potential pitfalls of dodgy props, dodgy actors, missed sound cues, missed lines etc.

This all sounds like genuine farce territory but in the capable hands of Mischief Theatre it became an art form. Belly laugh follows belly laugh and there is something comforting about knowing what is about to happen and hearing roars of approval from the audience behind.

By the time we reached the interval my chest was aching from having laughed so much and I wonder where we would go from here. I needn’t have worried as the insertion of a missing dog and a set on two levels ensured there would be no let up in the humour.

There is no point trying to list all the great jokes and set-pieces but my favourite is a ninety minute set-up for a 3 second music joke. I loved this show the first time I saw it but amazingly I enjoyed it more the second time and this time I have to say it is arguably the funniest show I have ever seen. There can be no higher praise than this.

If you missed it in Cardiff but have the chance to catch it omn tour don’t miss it. You will regret it forever.