[rating=5] Most people who know me, know that one of my favorite musicals ( other than Sondheim) is “Fiddler on the Roof”! I did this show several times, playing the lead role of Tevye. I loved the character that was created by the short stories of Shalom Aleichem, and yet, even after all these years never truly new the “rest of the story” ( as the late Paul Harvey used to state ). Now thanks to a brilliant documentary film “Fiddler on the Roof, Miracle of Miracles” we learn the entire story of its creation as a stage play musical and how it became a play that is still performed somewhere in this world “every day” and has been for over 50 years.
Still beloved and routinely revived 55 years after its Broadway debut — including a Yiddish-language version now playing in New York — “Fiddler on the Roof” is a popular phenomenon that shows no sign of subsiding. Max Lewkowicz’s “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles” provides an entertaining if hardly exhaustive overview of how the unlikely success came to be. The story it tells might easily have filled an engrossing documentary twice the length of this competent, not particularly inspired-particularly-inspired one.
Someday, doubtless, we’ll get that deeper dive. Meanwhile, “Miracle” opened on multiple screens Aug. 23 in New York and Los Angeles, expanding to more U.S. cities the following week, and with a high likelihood of finding a ready made audience nearly everywhere it goes. Surprisingly, on a Monday night in Lincolnshire, the theater was near empty. I guess even Fiddler cannot compete with Monday Night Football! Guess what ? For us, this beat the sox off of a football game!
Dedicated to recently deceased producer Hal Prince, “Miracle” benefits from the fact that so many of the show’s original prime movers were still alive to be interviewed: not director Jerome Robbins or star Zero Mostel, but composer Jerry Bock, lyricist Sheldon Harnick and book author Joseph Stein, among others. (Stein and Bock both passed away in 2010, but are seen reminiscing in footage shot late enough that it blends seamlessly here.) It was Stein who steered Harnick and Bock towards Tevye the Milkman and his five daughters, when originally other, less musical-friendly Sholem Aleichem writings had been considered for adaptation. They chose perfectly. Tevye is our “Everyman” displaying the emotions that every father should or would under the circumstances surrounding their family.
We learn about the title of the musical ( it will surprise you, for sure) and with this film learn how other cultures can ( and have) accepted the Jewish “Traditions” as their own! Seeing the show done by African-Americans and Asians was strange at first, but hearing their back story, it all made sense. While the original stories are about the Jews in a place where they are unwanted, is this not what others are feeling in other parts of the world? Maybe that is why it is so relatable to all cultures and races, and perhaps that is the reason that it is performed daily , all over the world in many languages to loving audiences.
Films are not my thing ( my best friend Barry tries to see one a day), but this is one that you should try to see, even if you are not a film buff. If you love “Fiddler on the Roof ( and who doesn’t?) you MUST see this special film! I am sure that you can find it I many suburban houses.
I have seen Fiddler about nine times, starting with Zero Mostel. I loved the show and loved it in Yiddish, a language I know so well. Seeing this documentary I was so touched and reminded that it is the story of my parents. It is a lesson for the whole world to remember , because as you showed in the film , unfortunately it is being done to so many others all over the world today. Don’t people ever learn to live and accept others?