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You can't mistake the voice :Harvey Fierstein portraying Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof." By Michael Kuchwara |
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| Somewhere between a rumble and a squawk, it finds its way from the stage into the vast expanse of the Minskoff Theatre and explodes. Harvey Fierstein is back on the boards, and he's not taking the easy way out in the vocal department. In his first Broadway role since playing Baltimore hausfrau Edna Turnblad in "Hairspray," Fierstein has taken on another classic, portraying Tevye the milkman in the current revival of the musical "Fiddler on the Roof." And you know what? He's pretty good, giving a performance that is expansive, affectionate and full of feeling. OK, so he's not the most melodious Tevye on record. Opera star Jan Peerce, one of the many replacements in the original 1964 production, surely must hold that title. A slimmer, trimmer Fierstein, now sporting a salt-and-pepper beard, doesn't so much sing the notes of the Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick score; he bear hugs them _ meaning they occasionally come out a bit strangulated. But then, Tevye is an emotional man, especially considering what is happening in the Russian village of Anatevka in 1905. Cossacks are threatening its Jewish residents, and Tevye's three oldest daughters are turning their father's firmly held beliefs, religious and otherwise, upside down. It's here where Fierstein really shines. The confrontations between Tevye and his recalcitrant offspring form the core of what "Fiddler" is all about. It is the genius of Joseph Stein's book, based on the stories of Sholom Aleichem, that these scenes are emotional yet never less than clear in their dramatic intention. Fierstein's Tevye handles each of these roller-coaster encounters with considerable aplomb. The milkman's oldest daughter disregards her parents' choice and demands to marry a poor tailor; the second runs off to Siberia to be with a student revolutionary; and daughter number three marries outside her religion _ in Tevye's eyes, the most unforgivable sin. Fierstein expertly captures Tevye's perpetual equivocation ("on the one hand ... on the other hand") as he faces these assaults on "Tradition," the show's opening number and its most evocative song. As the three oldest daughters, Sally Murphy, Laura Shoop and Tricia Paoluccio manage to retain their individuality, and they are excellent singers. The music by Bock and lyrics by Harnick remain as robust as ever, and the choral work, particularly in "Tradition" and "Sunrise, Sunset," shows it off to excellent advantage. Fierstein also shines where you would expect him to succeed _ in the play's sunnier moments. In this, he gets fine support from Andrea Martin, now playing Tevye's shrewish wife, Golde. Martin is a natural comic foil. Yet the two of them also manage to find the proper amount of tentativeness in their big number together, "Do You Love Me?" The production, directed by David Leveaux, still looks lovely: a moon-dappled forest of birch trees fills the stage, with the orchestra placed off to one side. Leveaux's staging _ using Jerome Robbins' original choreography _ is impeccable, especially imaginative in the Chagall-inspired dream sequence that gets the eldest daughter (Murphy) to her beloved tailor, still hyperactively played by John Cariani. Much was made when the revival opened last February (with Alfred Molina and Randy Graff in the leading roles) that this "Fiddler" wasn't Jewish enough. Not true. For a musical as multilayered as this one, there are a lot of ways to play Tevye. Molina's portrait was more circumspect, a more introverted Tevye than most theatergoers were used to. Fierstein, gravel voice and all, returns Tevye to more traditional expectations.
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