Comments (1)Topol Brings ‘Fiddler’ To Baltimore
Topol brings Tevye and ‘Fiddler’ to the Hippodrome stage.
October 23, 2009Phil Jacobs
Executive Editor
“Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as ... as a FIDDLER ON THE ROOF,” announces Tevye, a humble milkman from the Russian village of Anatevka. So begins a tale of love and laughter, devotion and defiance, and changing traditions.
So, we’re taught in journalism school to avoid getting too personal when it comes to a story interview.
But sometimes, it’s OK to bring up that connecting event or fact.
For me, it happened in 1971. My first date with a girl named Lisa Cohen would be to see the movie of the rock concert, “Woodstock.”
Our second movie was “Fiddler on the Roof,” starring Topol.
So I didn’t know if it was appropriate to tell Topol, who was gracious enough to grant a 30-minute interview over the phone last week, about the date. The young woman I took to the movie will again be my date when we go to see Topol, this time live at the Hippodrome.
I told him anyway.
Topol pretty much had the same story.
He, too, took a date to see “Fiddler on the Roof” starring himself. and he ended up marrying his date.
Topol and “Fiddler on the Roof” were both nominated for the Academy Award in their respective categories. While enlisted in the Israeli army, Topol won the 1972 Golden Globe for his performance in “Fiddler on the Roof.” He is now joining this tour on the heels of a successful production in the South Pacific. In 1983,Topol reprised the role of Tevye in a London revival, and in 1990 he again played the part in a Broadway revival, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.
A perennial hit since it first opened in 1964, “Fiddler on the Roof” has enjoyed critical acclaim for bringing to the stage a poignant story about the enduring bonds of the family. Now, the national touring production of this timeless musical brings the wit and wisdom of Tevye and his family to audiences throughout the United States with the reproduction of Jerome Robbins’ famous masterpiece.
In 1965, Robbins won matching Tony Awards for his direction and choreography of “Fiddler on the Roof.” In this national tour, both are re-created by director Sammy Dallas Bayes, choreographer of the Broadway revival.
Tevye’s wrestling with the new customs of a younger generation is punctuated by an unforgettable score that weaves the haunting strains of “Sunrise, Sunset” and the rousing “If I Were A Rich Man” with the exuberant “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” and triumphant “Tradition.” When his daughters choose suitors who defy his idea of a proper match, Tevye comes to realize, through a series of incidents that are at once comic and bittersweet, that his children will begin traditions of their own. At the story’s close, the villagers of Anatevka are forced to leave their homes. Even the sturdy mores that have guided everyday life begin to crumble. Paradoxically, it is the enforced loss of the rigid traditions and home life that Tevye has tried so tenaciously to preserve that leads the family to reconcile and draw closer still.
“I think it can be any family,” said Nancy Goldberg, executive director of the Gordon Center for Performing Arts. “With ‘Fiddler,’ it doesn’t matter if you’re Jewish or not, or if you are from an Orthodox, Conservative or Reform family. What comes from ‘Fiddler’ might have happened to you in your own family.
“We all know the music,” she added. “It hits the core in us. It’s intermarriage or whatever, that’s the core that it hits. Its classic, it’s timeless. And on top of it, it’s humorous and sad, it’s poignant and it’s musical. That’s why it hits me. I know people who are taking their grandchildren. It’s the catchiness of everything on that stage. It’s seeing live theater; it’s hearing and seeing a story that resounds in all of us. It’s continuity and connectiveness.
“It’s something else you can take a child or a grandchild to. There’s not a lot of live theater you can do that with. Not only a good choice, you hear the story and you learn a lesson. It’s old tradition vs. new tradition, and that hasn’t changed.”
“‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is simply storytelling at its best,” said Jeff Daniel, vice president of the Hippodrome. “It is so much more than a story of a Jewish family. The themes are universal. What parent doesn’t wrestle with the younger generation? Who doesn’t love a story of family, love of country and the struggle of maintaining faith in an ever-changing world? I’m not Jewish and I love this musical.”
“A universally appealing story of maintaining one’s beliefs in spite of persecution and poverty, told by likeable characters who lives are explained through fantastic songs,” commented Judge Dana Levitz, an avid theater enthusiast. “What other Broadway show do you know that has songs like, ‘Tradition,’ ‘Sunrise, Sunset,’ ‘If I Were A Rich Man,’ ‘To Life To Life, L’Chaim,’ ‘Matchmaker, Matchmaker,’ ‘Do You Love Me,’ etc., all in one show? How could anyone not love this show?”
“Fiddler was actually the very first musical I saw in New York when I was a kid,” said Lisa Ferentz, who is active in local theater and choreographs productions for Beth Tfiloh’s high school musical theater. “I’ve seen it many times since. I think part of its power and appeal is that it resonates for so many people because of the universality of its themes. Using humor, pathos, beautiful music and choreography, it captures so many of the relationship dynamics, conflicts and milestones that families experience, the capacity for human beings to be resilient, the need that we all have for an enduring identity and the primal desire to be anchored to ritual, family and a place we can call home. When you see a good production of it, it’s hard not to be moved to tears.”
In an interview with the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES, Topol said that acting the role of Tevye is something he does with his father, grandfather, great-grandfather and past generations in mind.
“It’s their story,” he said. “There are lines I say that, when I hear myself say them, I think that this is what my father would have said if we were in the shtetl together. For me personally, apart from being a wonderful role in theater, it’s absolutely commemorating every night my ancestors.
“Over the years, what I have to imagine is how a young man or a young person might think or feel, giving a daughter away to a certain person, or how does a father feel under the chuppah. Especially if the daughter is the love of his life, going to live with her husband. And all I can do as a father is pray that they are good to each other, healthy, special and smart. I had to imagine what it was like. Every line you say in the play is loaded with feelings and experiences. I believe what I do now is closer to the real character than when I was younger doing the character.”
Topol said that Tevye is like all the older generations that he saw growing up.
“I was a child when the State of Israel was created, and experiencing the wisdom of the older generations was a natural thing. My father was a member of the Haganah [the Jewish paramilitary organization during the state’s formative years] for 16 years,” he said. “For all of us, Israel was a dream that was materializing. I was a [Vladimir] Jabotinsky follower. My father believed like Jabotinsky that if the Diaspora wouldn’t end the Jewish people, the Jewish people would end the Diaspora.”
His family came to Israel in the late 19th century.
“They didn’t think it was a miracle to come to Israel, they thought it was something Jews needed to do, and thank God it materialized, though it was difficult. And you can look at Tevye and see that he is the Jew who will adapt to new facts and new styles. He grew up with the tradition of the matchmaker, but then understands through the love for his children that permission from parents is more important than the matchmaker. Tevye has his principles and limits, and he adapts like all of us.”
Topol said that he doesn’t really “speak” to Tevye when he delivers his lines. Instead, he speaks to his father.
“I say, ‘Abba, this could be your line.’ There’s one line where Tevye, in leaving Anatevka, says that someone should have set a match to this place long ago. That’s exactly what my father thought he should have done years ago when he left Warsaw.”
If he could label Tevye’s Jewish denomination, Topol thinks for a moment and says, “Maybe he would be a Chabadnik [Lubavitcher].
“He doesn’t always find facts,” said Topol, “Tevye finds Jewish principles.”
So the question remains for Topol: Is Tevye indeed a “rich man”?
Topol is quick to say yes, but his reason has little to do with money.
“The lyrics I sing are clever,” he said. “It’s the last line, though, that I cherish. If I were rich, I’d have the time that I lack to sit in the synagogue and pray, and maybe have a seat by the Eastern wall, and I’d discuss the learned books with the holy men seven hours every day — that would be the sweetest thing of all ...”
“I think Tevye is very Jewish,” said Topol. “The appreciation and knowledge of wanting your children to learn and be knowledgeable, and to be able to appreciate knowledge and learning, is what Tevye is saying. I believe in the will of our parents to work with their children to make sure that their children can learn and grow up with knowledge. And that is what Tevye is saying. And that’s what being rich is all about. I appreciate and respect that I have knowledge.”
Besides Tevye, Topol also is active in work behind the Jordan River Village (jordanrivervillage.org ). It is a place in Israel that describes itself as a “place where seriously ill children can still be kids.”
“It’s an amazing thing,” said Topol. “I’m working very hard on it. It’s a big village with a sports center, a theater and a dining room and comfortable dwellings. It’s for children who suffer from incurable diseases. And these children are Arab, they are Jewish and they are Christian. They come to relieve the parents from the heavy burden they have of just taking care of them.
“You asked me if Tevye was a rich man? Well, after meeting the unbelievable people, wonderful people, who support this and seeing the work that is done, the answer is yes, I am a very gratified man and richer for the experience I’ve had with these children and our supporters.”
Topol Facts:
• First played the role of Tevye the Milkman in “Fiddler on the Roof” in Tel Aviv in 1966 when he was 30. He is now 74.
• Now, 44 years later, he is playing the role for more than his 2,700th performance.
• Opened Oct. 20 and will perform at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center Hippodrome Theatre through Nov. 1.
• Chaim Topol was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1935. He started his acting career while doing his military service in the Israeli army.
• After 3 1/2 years of service, he returned to his kibbutz and established a traveling satirical theatrical group — The Spring Onions. In 1960, he founded the Haifa Municipal Theatre, where he played, among other parts, Petrucchio in “Taming of the Shrew,” Azdak in “Caucasian Chalk Circle” and Jean in “Rhinoceros.” He also produced and took part in more than 10 Israeli films.
• Among those films, in 1964, was “Sallah,” where Topol played the lead depicting the hardships of a Jewish immigrant family in Israel in the early 1950s. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and earned Topol the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. In 1966, Topol made his first English-language screen appearance in “Cast A Giant Shadow.” His appearance in “Sallah” led to an invitation to open “Fiddler on the Roof” in London’s West End in 1967. This performance paved the way for him to star in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film adaptation. He won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.
• Topol has appeared in close to 30 films, including “A Talent for Loving,” “Before Winter Comes,” “The Public Eye,” “Galileo,” “The House on Garibaldi Street,” “Flash Gordon,” “For Your Eyes Only,” and “Left Luggage.” His TV films and series include “Winds of War,” “War and Remembrance,” “Queenie” and his own weekly shows on the BBC: “It’s Topol” and “Topol’s Israel.”
• In between films and television shows, Topol appeared onstage in England as Othello (“Othello”), Azdak (“Caucasion Chalk Circle”), Eddie Carbone (“View From the Bridge”) and Ziegfeld (“Ziegfeld”), among other roles. In the summer of 2008, he played with the Shakespeare Company in London’s Regents Park in Gigi as Honoré.
• In 1991, he was nominated for the Tony Award after his appearance on Broadway. Topol has been voted Best Actor and has been awarded the Golden Gate Award, twice presented with the Golden Globe Award, and he has received the David Donatello Award (the Italian Oscar), among other recognitions.
• Topol is married to Galia, and they have three children. He has written two books and illustrated some 25 books. The most important task he is currently involved with is the creation of the Jordon River Village (jordanrivervillage.org ) in the lower Galilee in Israel for children suffering from incurable and life-threatening diseases. His mentor on this project was Paul Newman.
• It was in 1971 that he would star in the film version of “Fiddler on the Roof.” In 1972, he’d win a Golden Globe for his role as Tevye and also received Academy Award nominations for best actor.
• In 1983, he returned to play Tevye onstage in a London revival of “Fiddler.” In 1990, there was yet another revival on Broadway and in 1991, he was nominated for a Tony Award for best performance by a lead actor in a musical. He has played Tevye since on stages in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Australia.
• The current tour is listed as a “Farewell Tour.”
• He’s acted in many movies. Some include “Flash Gordon” in 1975, “For Your Eyes Only” in 1981, “The Winds of War” (1983 TV mini-series), “War and Remembrance (1988 TV), “Shalom Shabbat” (1998) and others.
Performance Dates: Oct. 20-Nov. 1
Week 1
Tuesday-Saturday Evenings 8 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday Matinee 2 p.m.
Sunday Evening 7:30 p.m.
Week 2
Tuesday-Saturday Evenings 8 p.m.
Thursday Matinee 1 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday Matinee 2 p.m.
Running Time: 3 hours with one intermission
Tickets are available online at
BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com, at the Hippodrome Theatre box office and at 410-547-SEAT. Groups of 20 or more should call 443-703-2401.
“Fiddler on the Roof” is part of the Brothers Services Broadway Across America/Baltimore 2009-2010 season.