Remembering Sheldon Harnick, "Fiddler on the Roof" Lyricist

Sheldon Harnick, who wrote the lyrics for Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello, and She Loves Me, died last week in New York at the age of 99.

As Robert Berkvist wrote in The New York Times,

“Fiddler on the Roof” was more than a hit show; it was a phenomenon. It won nine Tony Awards, including one for its score. It was made into a hit movie in 1971, has been performed all over the world, and has had five Broadway revivals, most recently in 2015. (A Yiddish-language production was an Off Broadway hit in 2019 and played a return engagement in late 2022.)

In addition to “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” the score included a number of songs that would soon be regarded as classics, including “Tradition,” “Sunrise, Sunset” and Tevye’s humorously wistful lament “If I Were a Rich Man” (“There would be one long staircase just going up/ And one even longer coming down/ And one more leading nowhere, just for show”).

As a tribute to Sheldon Harnick, we're sharing a video of an on-stage discussion with Jeffrey Lyons during the Florida Holocaust Museum's 2013 To Life event, when Harnick explained how the song If I Were A Rich Man evolved from a Hasidic nigun during the development of Fiddler on the Roof.

Enjoy!

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Remembering Chaim Topol: Iconic Israeli Actor, Singer, and illustrator

Last Thursday we lost one of the great Jewish entertainers of our time with the death of Chaim Topol at the age of 87 after a multi-year battle with Alzheimer's Disease.

He was best known for his role as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof — first in stage productions of the famed Shalom Aleichem musical in London and then later in the iconic film, before eventually returning to the stage with the role.

It was during the London run that he began being known by his last name only, as the English producers were unable to pronounce his first name.

As Amy Spiro wrote in the The Times of Israel,

Born in Tel Aviv in 1935, Topol began his acting career while completing his service in the army’s entertainment troupe where he met his wife, Galia. After his release, he joined a theater group, appearing in multiple productions before his first film role, the 1961 drama “I Like Mike.”

But it was his 1964 role in the film “Sallah Shabati” that first gained Topol serious attention, both domestically and internationally. Topol played the title role in the now-iconic film about the hardships of a Mizrahi immigrant family living in a transit camp.

In later years, Topol – who also wrote several books and illustrated several others – devoted himself to philanthropy, in particular as president of the Jordan River Village. The facility, which opened in 2012, runs a year-round camp in the Galilee for children living with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

 Topol illustrated approximately 25 books in both Hebrew and English. He also produced drawings of Israeli national figures. His sketches of Israeli presidents were reproduced in a 2013 stamp series issued by the Israel Philatelic Federation, as was his self-portrait as Tevye for 2014 commemorative stamp marking the 50th anniversary of the Broadway debut of Fiddler on the Roof.

Video clips from "Fiddler" are showing up all over the Internet, but today we'll share two clips showing other sides of Topol... singing Eli, Eli, the poem written by Hannah Senesh, on Yom Hashoah in Auschwitz-Birkenau on a March of the Living in 2012, and a scene from Sallah Shabati.

A memorial ceremony was held on Friday morning at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv. Hundreds of people came to pay their respects in the ceremony in which Culture and Sport Minister Mikki Zohar, Rivka Michaeli, Oded Cutler, Gabi Armani and Topol's daughter Adi gave speeches.

Zohar said "His works will be remembered for ever, etched into Israeli culture."

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Miracle of Miracles! Yiddish "Fiddler on the Roof" Returns to Off-Broadway for 7 Week Run

Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish is returning by popular demand for seven weeks only in an Off-Broadway limited engagement at New World Stages, directed by Academy Award and Tony Award winner Joel Grey and starring Steven Skybell as Tevye.

If you haven't seen the Yiddish version, produced by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, here's a chance to experience the richness of a production that will have English and Russian supertitles. It will be playing from November 13 to January 1 at the New World Stages at 340 West 50th Street in Manhattan. The video (below) of the cast rehearsing the opening song Traditsye (Tradition) will give you a taste of this show.

Don’t miss the beloved story of a community and its struggle to balance traditions and desires in a changing world. The little town of Anatevka will bustle with the sounds of mame-loshn in this Yiddish language adaptation.

The production has been hailed as “a richer, deeper interpretation” by The Wall Street Journal, “a mitzvah” by Time Out New York, and AM New York gives it four stars, calling Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish “perfect.”

Enjoy!

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Four Tevyes Come Together for a Very Special L'Chaim

If you liked the music of Fiddler on the Roof, you're going to like this.

On June 25, 2020, four actor/singers who played the role of Tevye got together at a virtual dinner for Chai Cancer Care in Manchester, England. They joined in singing To Life - L'Chayim with lots of energy and joy.

Chaim Topol - Broadway, Original West End, Film (1967-1994)

Dudu Fisher - Various Productions

Andy Nyman - West End (2018-2019)

Yehezkel Lazarov -Broadway National Tour (2018)

Enjoy!

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Yiddish "Fiddler" Actors Form New Sexy Yiddish Singing Group Called "Mameles"

A trio of actors who met while members of the cast of the Yiddish version of Fiddler on the Roof have created a new singing group that brings back memories of The Barry Sisters.

As Julia Gergely wrote in the New York Jewish Week,

The women who make up the trio, Maya Jacobson, Raquel Nobile and Jodi Snyder, had gotten together for a night of fun and to reminisce about the 2018 production of “Fiddler on the Roof” (“Fidler afn Dakh”) at the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, where they met as members of the cast.

Jacobson had been listening to The Barry Sisters — a duo whose Yiddish covers were wildly popular in the mid-20th century —  and realized it was time for the next generation to carry on the tradition.

“I heard The Barry Sisters’ version of ‘Abi Gezunt’ and I knew I wanted to record this with these two, my favorite people and some of the best performers I know, and make a trio,” Jacobson, 25, told the New York Jewish Week. “I knew people in the Jewish community would be really into this. Yiddish is such huge part of Jewish culture stomped on by the Holocaust that is really being found again.”

Despite acting in Yiddish productions and singing Yiddish covers, none of the women speaks Yiddish fluently, though Jacobson bragged that she had a continuous 71-day streak in Yiddish on the language-learning app Duolingo.

The name of the group, The Mamales, is an homage to the 1938 Polish Yiddish film “Mamele.” It starred Molly Picon, “Second Avenue’s longest-reigning queen and the best-known Yiddish actress/singer later on Broadway,” according to the Milken Archive of Jewish Music. Picon wrote the lyrics for Abraham Ellstein’s melody and performed "Abi Gezunt” in the film, where it became an instant hit.

Enjoy!

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International Stars of "Fiddler" Unite to Sing "Sabbath Prayer" as Broadway Reopens

Last week international stars of Fiddler On The Roof from productions staged all over the world, united in singing “Sabbath Prayer” in eight different languages. 

The piece was meant as a collective prayer for the safe return of Broadway and theatres everywhere -- a prayer for protection, ease, health, and a safe return of in-person gatherings, and for the relief those communal moments will bring. 

The piece was produced by Adam Kantor and Reboot and presented by OneTable and Broadway.com. It features singers from performances in English, Yiddish, Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Japanese, and Tagalog.

Shabbat shalom!

Fiddler Cast Sings "God Bless America" in Yiddish

Lisa Fishman and Ben Liebert, members of the cast of the Off-Broadway hit, "Fiddler on the Roof" in Yiddish, conceived and co-produced a performance of "God Bless America" sung in Yiddish. It features the show's director, Academy and Tony Award-winning actor, Joel Grey, along with Steven Skybell, who starred as Tevye. Yiddish was one of the two native tongues of Irving Berlin, who wrote the iconic anthem.

“God Bless America” was originally written in 1918 for a musical revue by Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant born Israel Beilin, while Berlin was in the U.S. Army. Deciding the song didn’t fit the tone of the revue, the song was set aside. 

Twenty years later in 1938 with the rise of Adolf Hitler and fascism, Berlin revisited and revised the song and released it as a prayer for the country and a patriotic song of peace. “God Bless America” was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith. 

The Yiddish version of the song being presented by the cast, entitled “Got Bentsh Amerike,” was originally translated by producer, musicologist, performer and Yiddish Radio Project co-creator, Henry Sapoznik, who worked on Yiddish translations for Mandy Patinkin’s album, Mamaloshen.  

The video features Steven Skybell, the award-winning actor who played Tevye in Fiddler in Yiddish, along with Jennifer Babiak, Samantha Hahn, Ben Liebert, Stephanie Lynne Mason, Rosie Jo Neddy, Raquel Nobile, Drew Seigla, and Rachel Zatcoff. The production also includes a special message by  Joel Grey. 

Additional Fiddler cast members appearing in the video (from both the Museum of Jewish Heritage production along with the Off-Broadway, Stage 42 production) include: Joanne Borts, Josh Dunn, Michael Einav, Lisa Fishman, Kirk Geritano, John Giesige, Lydia Gladstone, Abby Goldfarb, Mary Illes, Josh Kohane, Maya Jacobson, Moshe Lobel, Evan Mayer, Jonathan Quigley, Nick Raynor, Bruce Sabath, Kayleen Seidl, Adam B. Shapiro, Jodi Snyder, James Monroe Stevko, Ron Tal, Bobby Underwood, and Mikhl Yashinsky. 

The video also features Lauren Thomas, who played the titular role in Fiddler, on violin, along with the show’s clarinetist, Zisl Slepovitch, on piano. 

Enjoy!

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A tip of the kippah to Stan Lieberman for bringing this video to our attention.

Parody in the World of Coronavirus: "Maskmaker, Maskmaker" by Abby Goldfarb

The stay-at-home isolation of this coronavirus era has triggered a bounty of creative parodies of popular songs, many of which are posted on YouTube.

Abby Goldfarb, an actress, singer, and improviser based in New York City has created and performed Maskmaker, Maskmaker, a funny parody of Matchmaker, Matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof. She is a native New Yorker, born and raised in the West Village. Abby is a graduate of Emerson College's BFA Musical Theatre Program (2013).

No stranger to Fiddler, she was seen in the Drama Desk Award winning Fiddler on The Roof in Yiddish, directed by Joel Grey.

Enjoy!

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(A tip of the kippah to Mickey Greenblatt for bringing this video to my attention.)

"Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles" - A New Documentary Arrives This Friday

A new documentary, Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles will be starting its run in select theaters this Friday, August 23.

It's the origin story behind one of Broadway's most beloved musicals, Fiddler on The Roof, and its creative roots in early 1960s New York, when "tradition" was on the wane as gender roles, sexuality, race relations and religion were evolving.  

As David Gordon wrote in his Theatermania review,

The film presents a deep dive into the cultural history of the show, which will no doubt thrill theater aficionados. There's production footage from Broadway and world productions, demos performed by songwriters Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, and interviews with everyone from Chaim Topol (the Tevye of the 1971 film adaptation) to Lin-Manuel Miranda.

As the documentary shows, whether it's presented as a traditional Fiddler on Broadway with professional actors, or in Brownsville, Brooklyn with a cast of African-American elementary school students, or in Thailand with an all-Thai company, the performers and audience find a way into the material. 

So when and where can you see it? The hour and a half long documentary will be playing in Manhattan at the Landmark Theatre on West 57th Street starting Friday August 23. It will also be at select AMC Theatres. Dates and times will be posted at the AMC website starting tomorrow.

Enjoy!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places - "Sunrise, Sunset" from Yiddish "Fiddler" - in Tokyo!

Sunrise, Sunset in Yiddish? Sure, it's a featured song (Tog ayn, tog oys) in the Yiddish version of Fiddler on the Roof, now playing in an extended run Off-Broadway at Stage 42 in New York.

But it's also being played in Tokyo and on YouTube by a Japanese klezmer band called Jinta-la-Mvta. It's is a musical group founded in 2004 by Ohkuma Wataru, clarinetist and bandleader of the groundbreaking Japanese experimental folk band Cicala Mvta, and his partner and drummer Kogure Miwazo.

Ohkuma’s interest in Klezmer music began in the late 80s. He was one of the first Japanese artists who listened to and played the genre. He has a repertoire of dozens of Klezmer tunes through his distinct perspective, setting him apart among non-Jewish klezmer musicians. 

Considered as one of the few Klezmer experts in Japan, he has also penned various pieces on Klezmer and Japanese liner notes of Klezmatics and Frank London. Since the Great Northeast Japan Earthquake and the subsequent nuclear crises in 2011, the band started to perform not only on club stages and festivals but also at anti-nuclear protests and demonstrations on the streets of Tokyo, attracting a new and wide range of audiences and fans.

The  YouTube post includes a greeting to the Yiddish-speaking audience:

Tayere Yidn, mir zaynen tsuzamen mit aykh. Libe fun Tokio
(Dear Jews, we are together with you. Love from Tokyo)

Enjoy!

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"Fiddler" in Yiddish is a Big Success. What Other Broadway Shows Would be Better in Yiddish?

Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish has been a big success and is now playing off-Broadway. But wouldn't other Broadway shows benefit from Yiddish translation?

At the 2019 Easter Bonnet Competition, the award for best presentation went to the cast of Off-Broadway’s Fiddler on the Roof - in Yiddish, which asked the question, “What if other Broadway classics were translated into Yiddish?” 

Their answer was a side-splitting medley of the Yiddish versions of The Book of Mormon, Chicago, Dreamgirls, Hamilton, Legally Blonde, South Pacific, West Side Story and Wicked, culminating with the show’s legendary director, Joel Grey, singing “Git op mayn grus tsu Brodvey” (“Give my regards to Broadway”) from George M!.

The skit was written by cast members Ben Liebert and Adam B. Shapiro with Yiddish lyrics by Mikhl Yashinsky. Records were shattered and inspiring, comical and soul-stirring performances were shared at the 33rd annual Easter Bonnet Competition, which raised $6,594,778 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the highest amount ever for a Broadway Cares event. 

Enjoy! 

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(A tip of the kippah to Esther Kustanowitz for bringing this video to our attention.)

Fiddler on the Roof - in Yiddish ! Interview with Star Steven Skybell and Director Joel Grey

We saw the new Folksbiene production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish when it first came out last year. Since then we've been talking about it with friends who joined the crowds who trekked down to the tip of Manhattan to see the production that was extended many times.

Now it's moved to an off-Broadway location for an extended run through September 1.

In an interview with Laura Heywood than runs for 30 minutes, Steven Skybell, the actor who plays the lead role of Tevye, and Joel Grey, Oscar and Tony award winning actor and the show's director, sit down in front of a studio audience and tell their personal stories about the show and what it means to them.

It's a somewhat longer video than we usually post, but we think it's worth the time to watch.

Enjoy!

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