Review: A ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ Revival With an Echo of Modernity

Adam Kantor's performance of Miracle of Miracles is sublime.

Mr. Isherwood writes, "It’s impossible to watch the people of Tevye’s town, Anatevka, marching toward their unknown destinies in the shadow of a threatened pogrom without thinking of the thousands of families fleeing violence in the Middle East and elsewhere today." He does not say that the director actually politicizes the production--but many commenters seem to have taken that from the article. I find that puzzling.

I saw nothing heavy-handed in "Fiddler"; to the contrary, I fell in love with the subtlety and gentleness of the performance. I rarely wish I were anyone else--but if I could, I would be Danny Burstein for a performance as Tevye, just to live for a few hours in that fist-shaking joy and wit (not to mention the voice). But that is an impossibility; a "tourist" cannot assume the role. So, as an audience member, I am grateful for what he and all the others have accomplished. If the show has relevance, it is not of the reductive sort; rather, it involves imagination and soul.

I was so looking forward to this show, largely in part of Mr. Burstein, Mr. Sher, and Mr. Isherwood's review. However, after seeing it recently, all I can think of is how Messrs. Robbins and Alecheim, may they both rest in peace, are rolling in their graves. This production is humorless and joyless. Golde comes across as a shrew with no love for her husband or daughters. Her only excitement seems to come when she might be able to marry off her eldest to a wealthy man. Tevye has no humor, no energy, no rhythm, no spirit. The number "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" was sad! SAD! And "Now I Have Everything" had no love in it! As for the choreography, it felt like slow-motion fight sequences from an action movie. The sets? I've seen better in high school productions. The costumes were nice. I'll give the show that. But I feel gypped and mislead. I don't get to New York that often, and I'm so careful about selecting what I see because I love theater so much. And this show is a travesty. The magic of Fiddler isn't about the tragedies that befall these people. It is about how their indomitable spirit and faith let them rise above it and survive. You'd never know that from this production. In a word, "Boo!"

I saw the wonderful original Broadway production with Herschel Bernardi as Tevya. Since Fiddler is truly a masterpiece, I have to wonder why Bartlett Sher feels so compelled to patronize the audience with the jarring and politically correct reference to current-day refugees. Doesn't he think that we can arrive at our own conclusions or interpret this work ourselves? The magic spell of this otherwise excellent production was shattered in the last five minutes by this jarring "statement" that apparently even Sheldon Harnick was against inserting into his show, and for good reason.

Saw the matinee today. Heartbroken to arrive and find out Danny Burstein was out as I've liked him in many shows before. But my worry was short lived. The understudy was really great. Adam Grupper. At the end of this show there wasn't a dry eye in the house. I adored it. It's long, but this audience seemed mesmerized. Highly recommended.

This show was a letdown: lackluster and boring. Saw it last week after looking forward to it for months. Only the dancing was interesting for its Chagall-esque figures. Danny Burstein failed to register as a soulful Tevye. Several others seemed miscast/misdirected too, and had weak voices to boot. Only Jessica Hecht scored as a believable Golde. She had heart, so it made her pitchy voice bearable and even somewhat lovable. Overall, a disappointing show considering all the hype.

I saw Fiddler today. I've seen it on Broadway with Harvey Fierstein, and at Lincoln Center. This is not the most memorable production. The production value of the version with Harvey Fierstein was higher. The choreography in that version was waystronger. The performances of most leads in that version were stronger, except for the role of Tevye. Mr. Burstein's Tevye was fantastic, EXCEPT for the fact tha he very much UNDERPLAYED the signature songs sot that they disappeared. A shame. The music is iconic. I get it. You don't have to make a huge fuss to bring the lyrics to life, but you need to be ALIVE. I felt that the director or the actor made a huge judgment call to underplay Tevye's main songs, and that decision was a huge mistake.The daughters were strong. The actors playing Motel and the teacher were STRONG actors, but weak singers. Their voices today, at least, were awful. The teacher, in particular, couldn't hit his notes.AT ALL. He was squeaky. Embarrassing..for a full scale Broadway production. The actor playing Motel, who I really really liked overall, was also NOT in good vocal form today. Anybody can have a cold or a cough or sore throat, so maybe that's what was going on. Tzeitel and Hodel sounded amazing. Wonderful voices, strong performances. The mother was strong today. I've read some critiques of her performance, but hers was excellent today. Overall, worth seeing. "Sunrise Sunset" with the entire cast..beautiful!!!

I'm curious as to whether the opening (and closin)g of the show put anyone in mind of Schindler's List.

I love Fiddler on the Roof; it was the first cast album that I played as a kid to relentless abandon, and I still love this show. I love the work of Bartlett Sher, but this production is a MAJOR MISS. Mr Sher's penchant to create beautiful stage pictures, which has served him so well in the past, in this case holds him and this production hostage. There is not an "echo of modernity", it's blaring, and startlingly inappropriate. Mr. Burstien is AWFUL! He never shakes off the contemporary persona of the opening and it sucks the life out of his performance. His Tevye is such a major misinterpretation that it proves to be a fatal flaw to the entire show. For as inappropriate as Zero Mostel's Borscht Belt out-takes were, there was underneath a unique and poignant sense of cultural identity that is sorely lacking here The setting, which is a shtel not only provides the canvass, but is the very heart of the piece. There is a life-force in it's rawness and its inhabitant's commitment to their heritage and traditions. For as polished, and as as beautiful as Norman Jewison's film version is, it wisely never abandons the sense of grit and desolation that is essential to the story. This production is simply too pretty. A few other quick thoughts: if you're going to set aside Jerome Robbin's choreography, you better be up to the task. Mr. Schecter is not. It's like re-painting the Mona Lisa, why would you want to? The three daughters are wonderful, everyone else's work is perfunctory.

Just saw "Fiddler" tonight. It's a show I know well. I was in it twice, I music directed it once and have seen several productions and the movie, which I love. Even when things aren't perfect, it's hard not be moved by this great work. Several things did bother me greatly in this production, though. There was absolutely no need to bookend the show with the modern day reader of the story. It took me out of the world and only distanced me from the story. A terrible directorial choice. I don't know if anyone else noticed, but the dance music has been radically altered here...and not for the better. What the heck was the added Arabic sounding snake charmer music and slow motion dancing about? I know well the Jewish musical modes, and Arabic music can be very similar, but the orchestrations there were very non-Jewish, and many of the other orchestrations, just bad. I greatly missed the Robbins choreography, too. I felt the cast did a good job, but I never really felt I was in Russia. Outside of Golde and a few others, it felt too modern in its speech and some acting choices. The Dream was a let down, as well. Certainly not very scary, though Fruma Sarah did a great job, especially considering she couldn't really move. This is one of my favorite shows and I wish directors would stop fiddling with what works perfectly, by their so-called "improvements". Innovation in direction and interpretation is one thing, but changing the material is another.

Excellent production. Highly recommend it.

Glad to see the Jonathan Hadary quote. My wife and I took her mom to the Arena Stage production for her birthday last year and we all loved it - great present. As far as I can recall, it was right up there with the Zero Mostel revival I saw on Broadway in the 70s when I was in junior high. I agree with the very positive assessment of the Topol movie as well.

I haven't seen the revival yet, and hope to because I loved the original. But I was shocked to see the praise for the movie version. That movie was endless. What it added was long drawn-out views of monotonous scenery, and much slower timing. If I'd wanted to see Dr. Zhivago twice I might have enjoyed it, but it had nothing of the flavor of the play - which is, let's face it, a comedy. While I certainly feel for today's refugees, I hope the new show is funny.

I saw the original production as a child. It was a eulogy to places that no longer existed and to an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle that was believed to be on its last legs. I was told that Hilter had failed to kill the Jewish People, but he had killed Yiddish and Orthodoxy.

Then I saw a production decades later. It was no longer a eulogy but had become a celebration of resurgent Orthodox Judaism, reconfigured in Hebrew and English. Unnoticed and silent, Elijah had come one Passover night, joined in a Sedar, and revived the lifestyle.

Now this musical play is again reconfigured for a new audience. A reminder of refugees past and present.

I have wondered if Shakespeares plays would be as beloved if we had all of the original stage directions and could not be reconfigured by each generation. Perhaps they could. It seems that there is hope that some of our newer creations will also raise to the occasion and pass the test of time.

Before "Fiddler on the Roof" was a comedy, i.e., when it was a series of short stories, by Sholom Alecheim, about the milkman Tevye, it wasn't the sort of cute, lovable, teddy bear of a story that it is today. It was gripping, dramatic and very, very sad.

I urge people to see the film version, entitled, I think, Tevye the Milkman, which was produced in Poland shortly before the Holocaust. It is of course in Yiddush, but I saw a version with English subtitles.

This version was sure of itself. It did not equivocate between modernity and tradition. It plainly condemned intermarriage, and in this original version the Jewish girl, who marries a gentile, is brutally harassed by her step mother.
This eloquent version, created shortly before our extermination, wisely tells we Jews to stick together.

If I were a rich man, ya-da-da-da-da-da-day, I would take a plane to New York today! If I were a wealthy man, I would land in the great U.S. of A. and go straight to Broadway! If I were a rich man, I would see Burstein thrive, and Anatevka come alive !

Saw Saturday matinee 12/26. Great performances, for the most part, highlighted by Danny Burstein's Tevye. Major mistake in dialogue - Ben Rappaport's Perchik, in a moment of intimacy with his intended, referred to Hodel as "Chava". Oops!

I get that the red-parka'ed and bare-headed Burstein at the beginning may be intended to represent a modern descendent, but someone needs to explain his return at the end, to join the exodus march out of Anatevka. Shades of "Back to the Future"?

I couldn't agree more with the NY Times review. This is a spectacular and moving production. Danny Burstein is extraordinary and hopefully will win s long deserved Tony( his performance in Drowsy Chaperone was also terrific). I expected this production to be worthy given Bartlett Scher was directing( I've seen every Kelly O' Hara musical he has directed). I walked away from this production proud to be a Jew.

While the cast deserves praise from top to bottom - I couldn't disagree more with your assessment of the production.

I found the staging to be very heavy handed and overwrought with directorial messaging shoved in my face. Fidder is a true masterwork, and the cast performs the material beautifully. But Fiddler doesn't need such a manipulative and political heavy handed interpretation...the result of which left me feeling as if a big finger had been shoved in my face for 2.5 hours.

Sher should have trusted this wonderful musical, his extremely talented cast, and the intelligence of theatergoers to experience its powerful and emotional journey without feeling the need to further educate us or dictate an emotional response.

The magnificent "Fiddler on the Roof" does not need a politically correct "echo of modernity" to remain timely. It would appear that Jewish tragedy is insufficient: unless it is universalized it presumably won't connect. But that view insults the audience. For years "Fiddler's" message has needed no contrived prop to speak to people of every background. The best pathway to the universal is through the carefully honed particular. This dumbing down is reminiscent of the professor at UC Davis who is seeking to encourage support for Muslim refugee settlement (she is Iranian) by having her students wear yellow stars. The parallel is tendentious and mocks the Holocaust by using it to promote a cause entirely disconnected from it.

If you truly believe that "Far from the Home I love" is the highlight of this musical then you have to listen to the cover of this song by Kesang Marstrand. It is pure delight!

As someone who has played Tevye in five productions for total about 450 performances, I have a deep connection with the greatness of this musical. It is a show that provides a wonderful range of emotion--from the burlesque of "The Dream" to the despair of the Chava sequence. Few roles provide that range of emotion. I sometimes refer to Tevye as the King Lear of musical theater. The role also provides the opportunity to be played in a variety of ways. My favorite was the last production I did, in which I explored the "jolliness" of Tevye. I think anyone who spent time in this character will attest to what I have experienced.

What was the name of this show? Was it "Fiddler on the Roof"? And in the vast list of credits you publish in this review, who is it that actually plays the luscious violin solo you mention? Doesn't that person also deserve a mention?
When I subbed in the original production in 1964, an excellent classical violinist named Herbert Baumel was chosen to set the mood every night with his warm, vibrant musicianship.

So how about actually naming the current concertmaster of this production in your list of credits. Would you maybe run out of ink? Would it kill you, what would Tevya say?

I thought the Echo of Modernity would be a wink toward same sex marriage. Apparently not, and that's ok.

I really enjoyed the production, particularly Danny Burstein and the wonderful choreography/dancers. The most surprising takeaway was my connection to Judaism. I'm a secular Jew, and think about my religion 0% of any given day... it's just not something I've ever particularly connected with. But somehow I found myself sobbing by the end of the show, thinking about the extreme difficulties that the Jewish people have experienced throughout history. It's really remarkable that we have managed to maintain such a strong identity and traditions over the centuries, given how stacked the odds have been against us. The show made me want to be a better Jew, in honor of all of the people who suffered so greatly in order to preserve the culture. L'chaim indeed.

Given the opportunity (not to say "presumptiveness") to edit or add to "Fiddler," why did they waste the chance to fix the second act? C'mon, you know what I'm talking about. It's a drag and a letdown after all the energy in the first act.

After reading many of the comments which reference the issue of refugees, I would like to reiterate my recommendation of Ralph Bakshi's full-length cartoon movie, "American Pop", as a fitting sequel to "Fiddler on the Roof." Among its many other virtues, it disabuses the viewer of the myth that the road of the immigrant is simply a function of his or her own efforts, and that opportunity is linear progress if one wills it. The Americanization process through generations forms the matrix of the story.

Essentially, the movie intertwines the evolution of American popular music with contemporary violence, told through the life of Jewish immigrants fleeing Russian pogroms.

Great sound track, though I missed the Airplane's rendition of "Somebody to Love."

I saw this show 4 times, for the first time as a child when Zero Mostel played Tevya. I have tickets to see it again in January. I can't wait!

Those who love the show or movie should get the book "Miracles of Miracles" which traces the rich history of this show going back to the original stories by Shalom Alechim during the 19th century. This show has been performed by thousands of productions world-wide, including by an all black cast and by a Japanese cast when it played in Japan.

It's interesting to see how the stories evolved. In the original books, Hudel did not end up marrying the "Russian gentile" but was convinced by Tevya to return to the fold. The Amercan playwrights changed it to make it more interesting to Amercan audiences. In a similar vain, there are great stories of fighting between Jerome Robins and Zero Mostel, both of whom were Jewish, but Robins wanted to make the show less Jewish and Mostel wanted more.

Either way, the show is great fun, historically interesting and emotionally compelling.

We saw it on Saturday evening. It seemed very classic, very traditional to me. We totally enjoyed it (of course, we already knew all the songs) and Danny Burstein is wonderful as Tevye.

Tradition! No surprise Fiddler was and is a huge hit in Japan.

I'm all for bracketing the musical with contemporary references. It shouldn't remain a museum piece, but should engage it's modern audiences in new ways. I just wish Mr. Sher had done this with South Pacific and The King and I as well. Both those musicals display the insidiousness of colonialism, and hands the moral high ground to the colonizers. It is Nelly Forbush and Anna Leonowens who are given the privilege of recognizing the immoralities of the "natives," and tasked with making them see their errors.

Perhaps Mr. Sher might also have given us the benefit of hindsight in these two racially charged classic musicals.

Nice reminder of the visceral charm of Fiddler. One could easily look at Ralph Bakshi's "American Pop" as a sequel of equal force and poignancy, though the excellent musical score is, by definition, not original.

Slight correction to the review. The suffering of the Jews under the czar was not, as the author claims, a function of Russian imperialism. However, detailed discussion of that is better left for a more appropriate time.

Decades ago, in a very white, very WASP suburb of Cleveland, Ohio Fiddler was the major spring play in my high school. I was head of the make-up department as a senior student (as I had been for at that time, over 2 years). It was a shocking choice by the drama director. We had an outstanding Tevya, experienced stage hands, good dancing coaches and depth in singers and musicians. I guess I had proven my transformative abilities sufficiently in a prior Alice in Wonderland production. Turning my white skinned, fair haired and fresh faced schoolmates into Russian Jewish peasants and soldiers was both a challenge and a joy. by the time my make-up crew was finished, complete with mustaches, beards, wigs and plenty of skin deepening pancake tones the cast almost didn't recognize themselves--which was exactly my goal. The music and the message was wonderful, our male dancers did get the bottle dance right. We were a sellout. To see this timeless story brought back is wonderful.

Now with the Internet I find myself wondering--can we find a way to have a subscription service for Broadway productions for those of us unable to get to NYC for the entire Broadway experience?

This has been done with theaters and some live events, including opera but what about delivery to our homes and possibly all our screens. I cannot think of a better production to begin this approach than Fiddler, especially in the 20teens as "refugee" seems to be becoming the word of the decade.
L'chaim!

There's a flip side to "thinking of the thousands of families fleeing violence in the Middle East and elsewhere today" as I discovered when I saw a fine production at Krakov's Opera House some years ago. Having seen it on Broadway as a kid, been Motel in junior high school, and been told that my grandmother described Anatevka as similar to the shtetl she and her sisters had come from in Ukraine, for the first time I thought "Thank god for the miserable Tsar for without him motivating my forebears to head to America, they would've been killed by the Nazis as those who stayed behind were." While those escaping today's violence have similar motivations, I wonder if they'll be as welcome in their new homeland as my ancestors were.

Even allowing for differences in individual taste, Isherwood's statement
that the film of FIDDLER is one of the more successful transfers
of a Broadway musical to film will find numerous naysayers. Despite
the guidance of veteran director Norman Jewison, FIDDLER on
film lacked nearly everything the stage version achieved under
the genius of Jerome Robbins. Successful Broadway transfers?
Try MUSIC MAN, OKLAHOMA!, THE KING AND I, PAJAMA GAME -
to name just four -then compare them to the arid film of FIDDLER.

Why is it that so many Jewish experiences have to be "universal?" Sometimes they are indeed unique to Jews and Jewish life.

I realize that it is de rigueur to equate the mass exodus from Syria to the persecution of European Jews in the 20th century. It is not the same, and should not be part of a serious review of "Fiddler".

Bravo to Danny Burstein for a marvelous star turn. On the one hand, it's not an easy role .... on the other hand ... he is one of our great character actors....

mr. harnick was right, the "improvements" are a mistake...the bookending "update" suggests that without mr sher's added wisdom (he who stranded his star behind a massive scene change at the opening of "the king and i") we just wouldn't get it.

"It's impossible to watch the people of Tevye's town, Anatevka, marching toward their unknown destinies...without thinking of the thousands of families fleeing violence in the Middle East and elsewhere today".

The irony is that of those who would have left Anatevka in 1905, the only ones that would have ultimately survived would have been those who went to the US. The chances are that World War I, the Revolution and its aftermath and World War II, would have resulted in the death of what was left of Tevye's family (although obviously Jews did survive).

A further irony is that in 1905 it was still relatively easy for such Russian Jews (like some of my grandparents) to get to the US. Things would become much harder later on and many Russian Jews and others would die on account of that.

Today, there is a good deal of talk in the US about refugees, for and against, but the immigration mechanisms seem to function at their own pace and in accordance with their own realities and don't always seem to do a good job. The refugees to the US in 1905 might have had an easier time getting in.

The play and the movie were accused in the past of painting a too rosy picture of shtetl life. That may still be true, but the present version, as the others, seems to offer good entertainment.

Danny Burstein plays Teyve with a degree of humanity that I've never seen. I doubt it would have worked as well 50 years ago, when the stereotypes were more common and embraced by audiences. The subtle change in balance between slapstick comedy and dramatic continuum makes this production seem fresh and appropriate today.

"The sorry state of the world..."

Oh, just stop it. The themes in Fiddler are universal and timeless, and 2015 is no better or worse than any year.

I disagree about that "first-rate" movie version. It was, as I recall, a prosaic and heavy-handed film, a typical Hollywood by-the-numbers adaptation. The camerawork was lovely but who wants to exit a movie musical humming the scenery?