Whether you saw “Fiddler on the Roof” when it first appeared on Broadway in 1964, or whether you have watched every film version of the show, and even if you already have your favorite Tevye, you haven’t experienced the magic of the story until you see the Yiddish version produced by the 100-plus-year-old National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene (NYTF). Lucky for us all that due to public acclaim, the Yiddish production will be returning to New York City for a limited run from November 13 through January 1. The production will be housed at the off-Broadway New World Stages in midtown Manhattan.
Directed by the legendary and celebrated Broadway star Joel Grey, the returning production will present the same actors as in the previous two New York productions. That would be a cast of young actors who learned to convey the passionate universal message of the story in a language whose nuances were totally unfamiliar to them and yet are so crucial to the understanding and appreciation of the play. The New York cast learned their lines in less than a month for their first run and came across as veteran speakers of “geshmak” (tasty) Yiddish. In the words of the Folksbiene’s artistic director, Teaneck resident Zalmen Mlotek, “There is an indescribable authenticity that we have managed to produce with these 25, American-born, non-Yiddish speaking, incredibly talented actors, who studied and practiced and rehearsed, over and over again, to get the right inflection, the right accent, so the sound was as authentic as possible.”
Once again heading the returning cast is the multi-talented Steven Skybell, whose Yiddish is definitely not his native “mama loshen” despite his having grown up in a Jewish home. “When I was first working on the Yiddish version, years ago, I realized that in some ways I prefer the Yiddish,” he said. “When Tevye cites the Torah, it is so much more meaningful than the ‘Good Book’ that he talks about in the English version. Does any Jew in the world say the ‘Good Book?’ As I prepare for my English performances of the play, I feel the depth of the Yiddish coming back into the English for me. I am able to retain some of the quality of the Yiddish, even in the English dialogue.”
For Skydell, who grew up as one of very few Jews in Lubbock, Texas, the show clearly triggered an impulse to connect with his heritage and history. Even when the first Yiddish production was forced to close down due to COVID, he continued his pursuit of the native Jewish language. He sought out Mlotek, who was only too happy to serve as his guide in the discovery of old Yiddish musical treasures. Mlotek, being the son of two famous Yiddish performers, was well equipped for the project. Together, Mlotek and Skydell developed a repertoire of over 100 Yiddish songs, which for Skydell were not only an artistic achievement but served to intensify his Jewish pride at a time when antisemitism was viciously challenging it.
For Mlotek, this third resurrection of the Yiddish “Fiddler” will serve as an educational tool in the face of growing antisemitic sentiment and incidents in our country and around the world.
“More than simply staging the beloved musical once again for audiences to enjoy, we will use this unique opportunity of an additional seven-week run to bring together Jewish and non-Jewish students, from middle school through college, to facilitate conversations around the themes embedded in the musical,” he said. “With a focus on community and family, and as the residents of Anatevka live in an atmosphere of antisemitism, the themes in ‘Fiddler’ are as current as today’s headlines. Even in the very last scene, as the residents are forced to leave their homes, the theme of refugees comes to the fore, which is an issue our country is grappling with daily.”
In preparation for this educational project surrounding the new production, the Folksbiene, under the direction of Associate Artistic Director Motl Didner, will be preparing a series of resources that will be distributed to classroom teachers before they attend the performance. Student groups will either attend live productions or watch tailored live productions on Zoom, which will be followed by Q&A sessions. Topics to be discussed include “What is Yiddish in the context of the history of the Jews of Eastern Europe? What forms did antisemitism take then and now? Who was Sholom Aleichem and what is the history of his iconic story?”
The upcoming production will be held at the New World Stages, which accommodates 500 seats, as the official home theater of the NYTF at the Museum of Jewish Heritage will be undergoing renovations and will not be available at the time of the run.
To learn more about the new production of “Fiddler on the Roof” in Yiddish with English supertitles at the New World Stages, located at 340 West 50th Street, go to www.nytf.org. To order tickets go to nytf.org/fiddler or call Telecharge at 212-239-6200. For group sales call 212-889-4300. To arrange for a student group to attend in person or on Zoom, contact Jordan Hirsch at [email protected].
By Pearl Markovitz
