Susan Granger’s review of “Fiddler on the Roof” (Museum of Jewish Heritage – Off-Broadway)
The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene is one of the world’s best-known Yiddish theater companies, and this current production of the 1964 American musical is accompanied by English and Russian subtitles, projected on the sides of Beowulf Boritt’s simple set of paper panels and fabric banners.
Based on the folk tales of Sholem Aleichem, the story takes place in the fictional shtetl of Anatevke, where Yiddish was, indeed, the spoken language among its Jewish residents. (The ‘real’ village was probably near Kiev in what is now Ukraine.)
The observant dairyman Tevye (Steven Skybell) converses with God on a regular basis, often concentrating on the tension between religious tradition and the possibility of change.
Israeli actor/director Shraga Friedman’s translation, which debuted in Israel in 1965, has some interesting quirks. For example, Tevye’s signature song “If I Were a Rich Man” has become “If I Were a Rothschild,” referring to the most prominent European Jewish family of that period.
The rest of the exuberant company includes Tevye’s wife Golde (Mary Illes), their ‘eligible’ daughters (Stephanie Lynne Mason, Rosie Jo Neddy, Rachel Zatcoff) and suitors (Daniel Kahn, Cameron Johnson, Ben Liebert), plus, of course, the scene-stealing match-maker Yente (Jackie Hoffman).
Director Joel Grey, perhaps best known as the Emcee in “Cabaret,” confesses he doesn’t speak Yiddish, nor do many members of the cast which include some players from Bartlett Sher’s 2015 Broadway revival – all of whom took a crash course in the language. Actually, Grey is only a generation removed from the Yiddish theater; his father was comic/musician Mickey Katz.
Music Director Zalmen Mlotek conducts the 12-member orchestra, recalling the genuine klezmeric origins to which to music often alludes, while Stas Kmiec reproduces much of the original staging and choreography.
It’s so authentically, joyously Jewish that I was kvelling!
This “Fiddler on the Roof” is made its U.S. debut at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place in Lower Manhattan, on July 15 and has been extended through October 25 – and the ticket price includes admission to the museum.