All About Jewish Theatre - Tevye’s Family Adjusts to Life in America

Lifelong movie buff Jan Lisa Huttner is the managing editor of FILMS FOR TWO: The Online Guide for Busy Couples (www.films42.com), a website devoted to promoting films of interest to both male and female audience members. Jan is a passionate voice for women, the author of numerous interviews with Jewish-American filmmakers She is currently working on a book about Fiddler on the Roof focusing on the female characters. Her working title is: Did You Think You’d Get a Prince? Tevye’s Daughters Face Tough Questions Jan is the film critic for the World Jewish Digest, and also writes a regular film column for the bimonthly newspaper Chicago Woman. Her film-related articles have been published in the Forward and the JUF News, and posted on various websites including Critic Doctor, DVDWolf, Picklebird, Really Good Films, Reel Chicago and Women's eNews.
Born at Newark’s Beth Israel Hospital in the heart of “Philip Roth country,” Jan received her B.A. from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland (the "Great Books” school), and Masters degrees in Psychology from Harvard University and the University of Chicago. Jan is a member of various organizations including the Chicago YIVO Society, the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, and Hadassah’s AGAM chapter. Email Address: Films42@msn.com Website: www.films42.com

Tevye

Music by Thomas Adams,

Lyrics by J.M. Eisenman,

Book by J.M Eisenman and Thomas Adams

Additional Lyrics by Thomas Adams

"What a great concept,” enthused LA-based commercial producer Steven Ullman. "Why didn't anyone think of it before?”

This seemed to be the universal view when people heard a sequel to Fiddler on the Roof was scheduled to premiere in Chicago on August 13th as part of STAGES 2005. “The show that interests me the most is Tevye, a piece that explores the post-Anatevka life of the beloved dairyman and his daughters from Fiddler on the Roof,” wrote Chris Jones, the Chicago Tribune’s theater critic, in his August 5th STAGES 2005 preview column.

STAGES 2005 BACKGROUND

The Theatre Building Chicago (TBC) takes its motto from Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece Sunday in the Park with George: “Putting it together, bit by bit.”

TBC collaborates with theatre companies and artists throughout the country to develop new musicals, through concert readings and educational outreach performances as well as fully staged studio presentations. For theatre aficionado’s, the annual STAGES program is one of the highlights of Chicago’s theatrical year. According to the TBC press release: “At STAGES, audiences are given the opportunity to partner with the writers in a creative atmosphere that encourages honest sharing and invaluable feedback.” The program boasts several successful alumni, the most prominent of whom is Mark Hollmann, winner of the Tony award for Best Original Musical Score for Urinetown in 2002.

Tevye was one of eight new shows on this year’s STAGES 2005 schedule. Each musical was presented twice. Tevye had one of the best times (7:30 PM on Saturday night) and one of the worse times (9 AM on Sunday morning). Furthermore, both shows fell on Tisha B’av (one of the most somber days on the Jewish calendar). Sensing this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, people came anyway. The Saturday performance was packed, and the Sunday crowd was much bigger than expected (filling over 2/3rds of the available seats.)

Like all STAGES productions, Tevye was clearly “a work in progress.” Cast members carried big notebooks which they propped on music stands. There were no sets or costumes. Nevertheless, the results were uniformly positive, and no one in either audience tried to escape during intermission.

AUDIENCE RESPONSE

Sara Susmano, a fan of Yiddish theatre since her childhood days in Argentina, says she particularly liked “the way the authors developed the theme of assimilation to life in the United States.” Rich Miller, who traveled to Manhattan last year to see the latest Broadway Fiddler, agrees: “it’s intriguing to see how the characters from Fiddler respond to modern life once they’re taken from their nostalgic setting in Anatevka.”

Gerald Rizzer, the Artistic Director of the Chicago Ensemble (a chamber music group) adds: “I don’t especially like some of the music in Fiddler; I thought Tevye’s music was more successful. And I liked the seriousness of Tevye’s issues, for example, Jewish exclusivity [in Tevye’s relationships with two new characters, his grandson Nicholas and Shayna the actress], and making money versus preserving a more devout life [in Tevye’s relationship with another new character, Bielke’s husband Charles].”

Chicago attorney Blooma Stark, who attended the Sunday AM performance, gets right to the point: “My husband and I really enjoyed it.”

CAST PERSPECTIVE

Cast members, asked to comment on their characters, provided further insights into the continuities and discontinuities between Fiddler and Tevye.

Cyrilla Baer played Shayna, a Yiddish Theatre actress who falls in love with Tevye (now a widower). “I’ve never done Fiddler, but it’s one of my favorite shows,” she says. “The only reference I had to bring from Fiddler was my understanding of Tevye's background. So I had to create a backstory for myself to justify why Shayna would allow herself to fall for a man who was so obviously deeply traditional, when she was always striving to move forward into change and acceptance for all.”

Carrie Wickert, who was a big hit as “Roxie Hart” in a recent Detroit production of Chicago, also welcomed this opportunity. “I choreographed a Fiddler production once, and I’ve always wanted to play Tzeitel. She’s the rebel, the first to break with tradition. She paves the way and starts the change. I like her strength in Fiddler and I like her spunk.” But in Tevye, Tzeitel (who has Americanized her name to Sadie) has to care for her widowed father. “I needed to show the Golde in Sadie,” says Wickert. “Sometimes Teyve needs to be brought down to earth. Sadie’s not disrespectful to her father, but she does give him a good healthy debate. She’s bolstered by the Suffragette movement, and she uses it to support herself and her independent spirit through many changes.”

David Girolmo, Tevye’s Lazar Wolf, has been in numerous Fiddler productions, beginning with a high school turn as Perchik the revolutionary. “Tevye is such a beloved character in American Musical Theater,” says Girolmo. But as actors “we do a lot of chestnuts, so it’s fun to do something totally new.” Girolmo, an Equity actor, got twenty hours to work on Tevye, and he considers those hours “very well spent!”

CRITICAL ASSESSMENT

In her August 15th review, Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss admits: “I was mightily skeptical as I took my seat for Tevye … Yet this sequel, which follows the story of Tevye and his family 13 years after they've fled Russia and settled in New York, turns out to be a remarkably fine piece of work. Not only does it play fully on the powerful frame of reference created in Fiddler, it moves the story forward in intelligent and believable ways, stepping gracefully and confidently into those giant footprints while building on the blend of humor, bitterness and debate that animated the original. There is a decidedly ‘Americanized’ attack to the material that is right on target.”

NEXT STEPS FOR TEVYE

John Sparks, TBC’s Artistic Director, says: "The purpose of STAGES is to show the authors exactly what they've written, and get a feel for audience reaction (in this case, so positive), and also to show the authors where work must be done before their next go.” Henry Foote, Tevye’s director, agrees that the next step is “moving forward with some kind of workshop or skeletal production in order to tackle the issues we have all agreed upon."

Headliner Avi Hoffman kvells: “I had no idea what to expect, and I was very pleased with the audience response to the reading. I was pleasantly surprised at all the laughs, many of which I didn't expect... Although I think the authors need to reexamine the script and make some changes, both in length and in content, I would like to see a nice, medium size production within the next 6-9 months, preferably in a friendly environment like Florida. And I already have at least one theater salivating for it.”

According to Sparks, “Tevye definitely has commercial potential." Ullman agrees: “I am definitely interested in taking the next step.”

LAST WORDS

And how do Tevye’s authors feel, after seven years of often lonely work?

Lyricist J.M. (Jim) Eisenman’s response is thoughtful: “From the very beginning, working on Tevye has been a reaffirmation of my love and affection for my late father, Jerry, and my late grandfather, Herman (Chaim), and of a profound respect for the great author, Sholom Aleichem (born Solomon Rabinowitz).

As the audience applauded and laughed at the songs, I felt proud that my grandfather, a villager from Murawa, Ukraine, had passed down to his son and to his grandson enough of his humor and heritage, that I could draw from that and from Sholom Aleichem's wonderful characters, something that an audience of strangers could enjoy.

No matter what happens further with our show, I know that there were two more members of the audience at that first performance who were there with me that night who had a great time. By the way, I think I heard one of them whispering in my ear that a full production would make him even happier.”

Eisenman’s partner, composer Thomas (Tom) Adams, on the other hand, is simply bursting now with pure exuberance: “What a wonderful experience this has been. Just getting accepted into the Festival was a shock for me, then finding out that Avi was going to be our Tevye, then seeing the show for the first time… I flew home without needing the plane!”