Flipping around the channels, I happened to pass the movie
version of Fiddler on the Roof, where
I momentarily stopped to simultaneously watch and bewail the inexcusable mistake
of casting the ethnically appropriate but congenitally ponderous Israeli actor
Topol as the lead character “Tevye” instead of the show’s onstage original,
Zero Mostel, who exuded electric mischievousness and delight from every pore.
Oh well. There are
more important elements to a comedy than a sublimely hilarious centerpiece.
No, wait, there aren’t.
Oh well again, accompanied by a sigh,
And moving on.
Fiddler on the Roof has
often been dismissed as lightweight, “Borscht Belt” entertainment, elevated by
a brilliant directorial concept – courtesy of director-choreographer Jerome
Robbins – that seamlessly integrates the narrative, the music and the
dancing.
Perhaps. Or “That’s a
matter of taste and opinion”, which is the same thing, only longer.
However…
At the fundamental core of Fiddler on the Roof lies a universal concern, as current as the
cable news show I watched yesterday, which I will talk about shortly and
mention now only to proceed to the following paragraph.
Productions of Fiddler
on the Roof have played successfully around the world, including Africa and
Japan, which are not generally regarded as traditional enclaves for Hadassah
theater parties. Arguing that the show
touches a nerve in disparate cultures.
Why? Because everyone
likes watching talented Jewish girls in aprons dancing around holding brooms?
No.
And “No” to considerably less
frivolous reasons as well.
It is, the writer herein asserts, the show’s definitive
opening number that strikes a compelling international chord.
“Tradition!”
“Because of our traditions…”, the line in the song’s introductory
narration relates, “… everyone of us knows who he is and what God expects him
to do.”
Set aside the part after the “and” for a second, and
concentrate on the first part.
Fiddler on the Roof’s
scenario revolves around Tevye’s challenge to hold true to his traditions when
the wishes his three marriageable daughters, goaded by “outside influences”,
are pressuring him, out of love for those daughters, to relent.
The first daughter picks the husband without the auspices of
a matchmaker. “Unheard of! Absurd!”, complains Tevye in his overheard
internal monologue, the problem being:
“One little time, you pull out a prop – Where does it
stop?”
After weighing the pros and cons of this conundrum, Tevye
reluctantly gives in.
The second daughter eschews even asking her father’s permission, informing him instead of her
decision to marry the husband of her choice.
Well, Tevye has already surrendered once, the consequence of his own
making now being,
“… you pull out a thread – Look where it’s led!”
Once again, Tevye capitulates, making it “True Love – Two;
‘Tradition’ – Zero.”
The third daughter selects a Russian non-Jew for a mate, and
Tevye goes “All Popeye” on the situation:
“Dats all I can stands.
I can’t stands no more.”
A “line in the sand” having been crossed, Teyve puts his
foot down, unequivocally rejecting the out-of-the-faith nuptials. Now ostracized, the daughter is lost to the
family, possibly forever.
Venn Diagram Delineating The Issue:
“Because of our traditions everyone knows who they are.”
“We have abandoned our traditions.”
“Nobody knows who they are.”
Bringing us to the aforementioned cable news broadcast. (Which I rarely watch anymore, though I
occasionally drop by to find out how much trouble we’re in.)
An… I don’t know, “Liaison
Representative” from the Muslim community is relating the story of a young Muslim
woman seeking the religious guidance of an imam
concerning the wearing of blue jeans.
The imam nixes the idea, leaving
the young woman to weigh her fashion preference against behaving proscribedly
“non-Muslim” from the waist down.
What is that story about if not…
“Tradition.”
Specifically: “Can I
still be who I am, wearing denim pantalones.”
I am not at all disparaging that dilemma. I am simply observing that at the heart of such
conflicting concerns, concerns not
just for religious people because everyone identifies themselves with some standard, lies the resonating question…
in Fiddler on the
Roof.
2 comments:
I watched Fiddler for the first time just a few months ago. While I do love music, not so much musicals. While watching, and reading IMDB, I noticed that Leonard Frey was a Best of the West cast member, meaning you probably have a story or two about him. So if you need a post topic sometime, maybe this is it. I also noticed that he tragically passed at the young age of 49.
A few years ago, I chanced to meet Norman Jewison and finally got to ask him the question I'd wanted to ask for nearly 40 years: Why didn't he cast Zero as Tevye?
He replied, "Because I wanted the audience to see Tevye. Zero had stopped playing the character and was simply being himself." I said that I understood, but still felt posterity had deserved Zero. He smiled and said, "You're far from the first."
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