Adam Grupper as Tevye in Fiddler

[jtoddharris]

Posted: 12/27/15 at 10:57pm

I had never seen Fiddler on the Roof live - only heard it about 1000 times visiting my grandparents on weekends in the 1960s and knew nearly every lyric. I was so excited to see friend Danny Burstein assay Tevye, but was a little concerned when he said on Saturday he might not be able to say hello after the matinee on Sunday as he was fighting a cold. When I saw the email from him at 12:30 today, I suspected the worst. He was calling out for the show.

I was disappointed but knew in my mind that some great theatre can happen when an understudy goes on - and we're only here for three days in New York, so off we went. Adam Grupper took over the role for the first time before a paying audience. After starting a with a bit of reserve, he seemed to blossom over the course of the show, and by the curtain call, I'd long ago stopped thinking about seeing an understudy and was lost in the show and Bartlett Sher's wonderful staging.

When you've listened to the album featuring Zero Mostel as often as I have (with Bea Arthur playing Yente!), you tend to have an ingrained expectation for the boisterousness of those versions of the songs, so it took getting used to a less "in your face" quality that the original Fiddler recording (really most any good B'way cast record) has. Gradually, I gave in to nearly every performance, including the incredibly versatile and talented Jessica Hecht as Golde. The three main daughters were all terrific performances in their torturing of their put upon father. And it was hard to see stagings of songs like Sunrise-Sunset (a staple of nearly every Jewish wedding ever) and not get a little teary-eyed.

I had forgotten how melancholy the story gets and how much it's really about parenting and families more than anything else. With each daughter's romance, a little bit of Tevye leaves him forever - and you realize you can only have so much say in your children's lives after a certain point; letting go is the only answer, hard as it may be. Of course, young Jews should be moved by the composite story of their grandparents and great grandparents fleeing the old country for their lives. Truly still the story of immigrants everywhere who are escaping oppression and war, even as we sing 50 year old songs about it on Broadway.

At the curtain call, when Adam appeared, the audience rose to its feet and the cast presented him with a bouquet for his first performance. In the final bows, you could see Adam crying on stage. Tears of joy. When the curtain went down someone who looked a lot like him was crying in the row in front of me. Adam's brother, who had no doubt gotten the last minute word and rushed with his family to see his brother's debut in this classic role. Tears and Mazel all around.

 

- jth

 

PS - my first time with wife Amy Powers back in the Broadway since Zhivago closed.  Not easy sitting in the same space listening to Russian inflected score and seeing Russian inspired dance.  Showbiz a cruel mistress.

Updated On: 12/27/15 at 10:57 PM

[bunnie3]

Posted: 12/28/15 at 12:17am

What a wonderful post!