A few months ago, my brother came home from school and demanded that I guess what play his school would be putting on next. When I failed to answer correctly, he clued me in by imitating a stringed instrument with his fingers. “Um… Fiddler on the Roof?” I guessed. I was surprised at the level of enthusiasm this revelation brought him. After all, he had never tried out for a play at school before and had informed me on any number of occasions that he disapproved of musicals. Fiddler, it seemed, was different. “It’s my favorite musical,” he announced. And when we almost jokingly suggested he think about trying out, knowing how such suggestions had been taken in the past, Nathan told us he had every intention of auditioning, not just for a role, but for the role. He wanted to play Tevye even though his theater experience was limited to grade school class plays and church pageants. He would show the world – and, most importantly, the director – what he was capable of.

As a result of his determination, we experienced absorption to the point of feeling as though our living room had transformed into Anatevka. We knew we were really in trouble when he adopted a Russian accent full-time. I started going into nostalgic shock, as this was the final play performed during my tenure at Mercyhurst Prep and the only one, outside of Children’s Theater Ensemble, in which I had been involved. Nathan alternated between watching the video from that production and the Norman Jewison film. He particularly studied Topol’s performance of If I Were a Rich Man, which he intended to use for his audition. We looked everywhere for the sheet music and found it in the most unlikely of places: a book of songs designed for people intending to audition for American Idol. With Simon Cowell’s apparent disdain for show tunes, particularly in a pop music context, I can’t imagine him being impressed with any rendition of that song in an audition. At any rate, Nathan mastered the song as well as Tevye’s opening monologue.

Although Nathan didn’t end up with a part nearly as large as he’d hoped – most of the top roles went to students who had already been in several plays before – he was awarded the part of Yussel the Hatter, which gave him eight solo lines and time onstage for more than half the play. We had trouble recognizing him at first under his beard, but once we found him we were swept up in his exuberant performance. I spent the first show I attended comparing his show with mine – including the orchestra’s keyboard-generated accordionist, which had been my role in 1999 – and had to concede that Collegiate Academy’s version was comparable in quality to Mercyhurst’s. Nathan was just as caught up in the emotion and camaraderie generated by the play as I had been, and when we watched the film yet again during Easter break, we both had an even deeper appreciation of it.

Fiddler on the Roof is a perennially popular play, almost a requirement for every high school to put on at some time or another. Aside from a couple of missing songs, the movie is very similar to the play and centers around the performance of Topol as Tevye. He was such a perfect fit for the role, he occupied it for decades in London. Having grown up with his rendition of Tevye, I found that the character had become intertwined with the actor’s robust frame and booming voice. It was quite an adjustment to make when our school’s director cast the brilliant but lanky Rick LaKari as the philosophical milkman. He pulled it off beautifully, but I still can’t help thinking of Tevye as a younger Santa Claus with a Russian accent. The cast of the film, and of every play version I’ve seen, has an inconsistent array of accents. Tevye and Yente have by far the strongest accents, while the daughters and many other cast members have barely a trace of an accent. Aside from that minor oddity, all the cast members are solid and form a superb ensemble supporting cast.

Yente (Molly Picon) is a major source of comic relief as Anatevka’s long-winded, absent-minded matchmaker. Although she is one of the only key cast members without a significant solo (at least in the film version), she remains one of the strongest presences in the film, and her scenes with Golde (Norma Crane) are a delight. Golde is a no-nonsense woman, a powerful matriarch who leaves poor Tevye feeling a bit hen-pecked. She is also very superstitious, a trait Tevye uses to his advantage in what is probably the film’s most hilarious scene. Of his five daughters, three are highlighted. Tzeitel (Rosiland Harris), the oldest, is obedient and dutiful but resents Yente’s intrusion in her life. Her lifelong playmate-turned-sweetheart, Motel (Leonard Frey), is absolutely adorable, lithe and lanky and jumpy as a jackrabbit, terrified that Tevye will yell at him if he asks for Tzeitel’s hand. Next down the line is Hodel (Michele Marsh), who is more of a free spirit than her older sister. Initially dreaming of marrying Mendel, the rabbi’s son (a self-important villager played by Barry Dennen, who would go on to have a much larger role as Pontius Pilate in Jewison’s version of Jesus Christ Superstar), she instead falls for Perchik (hunky Michael Glaser), a student from Kiev determined to effect radical change in the Russian government. Third youngest is Chava (Neva Small), a gentle bookworm who shatters Tevye with her defiant marriage to Fyedka (Raymond Lovelock), a Christian. Other key players are the constable (Louis Zorich), a basically decent man compelled by duty to carry out cruel orders against the Jewish Anatevkans alongside whom he has lived for years, and Lazar Wolf (Paul Mann), the jovial frosty-haired butcher whose hopes of marrying Tzeitel are eventually thwarted by Tevye’s devotion to his daughter.

As with any musical, the songs add a great deal to the film. Many songs have a Jewish flavor, particularly the various incarnations of Tradition, the movie’s show-stopping opening number which introduces the various groups in the village. The cinematography in this scene is very interesting; household chores such as scraping chickens and beating rugs become part of the instrumentation. The choreography of flashing images shows up again in Superstar, a film which Jewison was granted permission to shoot on location in the Holy Land because of his respectful treatment of Fiddler. Tevye’s signature song, the rousing rumination If I Were a Rich Man, is a surefire audience pleaser, and Matchmaker, Matchmaker gives the girls a chance to shine and also provides a bit of foreshadowing. Sabbath Prayer and Sunrise, Sunset are as solemn as To Life is rowdy, and The Dream is one of the zaniest musical numbers to grace any musical. Miracle of Miracles is a joyous proclamation of Motel’s evolution from meek boy to self-sufficient husband-to-be. Far From the Home I Love is a similarly defining moment for Hodel, but much more bittersweet as it takes place upon her departure from Anatevka and her family. Do You Love Me is a sweet duet between Tevye and Golde in which they discover they have grown to love one another during their years of marriage. The reprises of Tradition exemplify Tevye’s intensifying inner struggles which come to a head during the heartbreaking Chava Sequence. The last song in the movie is Anatevka, which unites the cast in one last expression of community before they must go their separate ways.

Tevye is both a narrator of sorts and the play’s central figure, a poor milkman with five daughters with a keen sense of wit, a fondness for quoting scripture (often incorrectly), and a penchant for conversing with God while going about his daily chores. Striking a balance between tradition and the changing ways of the world becomes increasingly difficult, and while the majority of the first video is light-hearted, the second half is rather dark and dreary. Family and political crises take the play in a more and more minor direction as the play progresses, but the irrepressible spirit of the villagers imbues the finale with a hint of optimism. With a running time of just over three hours (a bit less if you fast forward through the Entr’Acte, which feels very unnecessary on video), it’s a lengthy film, but the stellar cast, witty script, top-notch songs and themes of faith, family, and the conflict between tradition and change make for an exceptional viewing experience.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening