The Digital Bits: What are your thoughts on Topol’s performance, and where do you think the performance ranks among his body of work?
Carson: I was fortunate that Topol was in Los Angeles in 1996. I spent an afternoon with him at a condo in Marina del Rey, California, to record his comments for the LaserDisc release. He talked about playing Tevye in Israel and London where Norman saw him before hiring him for the film. This performance by Topol as Tevye is his best work. I personally feel Tevye is embodied by Topol’s performance, although some will argue they miss Zero Mostel from the original production.
Matessino: Topol delivers his definitive performance in the film and he was perfect for it. Norman Jewison was the first to acknowledge that Zero Mostel created the character on Broadway, but he was right that the persona was not going to work well if you put him in an authentically reconstructed shtetl in Croatia. Topol was Israeli and had a Russian Jewish background, so he brought the real deal to the portrayal, which he had been able to hone first as understudy for the Tel Aviv Hebrew production and then as the lead in the West End in 1967. He was only 35 or so at the time the movie was made, so it’s amazing to see just how convincing he is, not only as a character a decade older than his real age, but really feeling like he is someone from another century. He was always a powerful and distinctive screen presence, but he really embodied Tevye. I was privileged to see him perform the role in the 1989 Broadway production and again on the national tour in 2006-7, where I also got to meet him backstage. He is a very intelligent, accomplished, wonderful person.
Solomon: Jewison always said he wanted Topol because he felt the actor had a close proximity to the shtetl experience of Tevye since Topol’s father had immigrated to Israel from Eastern Europe, but in fact, it was Topol’s tough, assertive, very Israeli “new muscle Jew” persona that most appealed to him—Topol’s Tevye doesn’t shrug at God, he shakes a fist at Him.
The Digital Bits: Can you describe, please, your current/recent Fiddler project (i.e. what did you like about working on the project, any noteworthy discoveries, what can readers/fans expect, etc.)?
Carson: My most recent work/interviews for a Blu-ray release were conducted in 2006. I interviewed Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock (on a phone call—he could not do it in person), Lynn Stalmaster, Tevye’s daughters (Michele Marsh, Neva Small, Rosalind Harris), John Williams, Robert Boyle, Antony Gibbs, and Norman Jewison. What I liked about working on the project was learning about the history of my family and many other Jewish families and how they ended up in America. To share that, along with stories on how the songs came to be from the stories, how the village was authentically replicated for the film, how scenes were filmed and created, makes this one of my favorite projects I have ever worked on.
Matessino: I’m thrilled to have been able to create the new 50th anniversary soundtrack release for Fiddler, which is a 3-CD limited edition from La-La Land Records. It is part of my ongoing work on scores by John Williams, who was the musical director for Fiddler, and this is the project for which he won his first Academy Award. Because of how important Fiddler has always been to me, and how much I love the film, I have always wanted the opportunity to work with the music and give it an updated mix and high-quality restoration. I must have gone through three copies of the 2-LP soundtrack when I was growing up, so I have a lot of attachment to it, but sonically it was done in accordance with the standards of the early 1970s. In 2001 there was a 30th anniversary edition, but I was appalled to discover that just about everything about it was done incorrectly. The performances were wrong in some cases, the balances were way off, and all of the noises and bad edits were left as they were on the master tapes. Later on I also learned how much John Williams disliked it, but it took a long time until it became possible for the project to be done again. I was able to go back to the 1971 8-track master tapes that were prepared for the original album and spend the time doing a restoration at the microscopic level, really cleaning up all of the vocal tracks and analog edits, and then remixing it in a more robust way that would really make Williams’ work on the project shine. The film itself has a phenomenal sound mix. Even to this day when you see it in the cinema, there’s a particular way that the music envelops you that takes me right back to that first screening at the Rivoli. I wanted to capture that impact in presenting the soundtrack now, and have it stand equally beside all of Williams’ finest work. Fiddler was all recorded with the same engineer and on the same stage as Star Wars, Superman and Raiders, and it remains a very important project to John. We also have a second disc of alternate mixes and film versions, some of which feature more of violinist Isaac Stern, and then a third disc that has playback versions of the songs as well as other musical segments from the film itself that I was able to work with until they were in a presentable form for a soundtrack. I wasn’t sure how successfully that would go, but the digital tools we have now are pretty amazing, and Maestro Williams was very pleased with how it all turned out. La-La Land Records was also very generous in letting me write about the creation of the music in a big essay booklet, because a lot of material was uncovered, scoring logs, correspondence, and other information, thanks to the efforts of colleagues around the world. I’d like to give a shout out in particular to Deniz Cordell, Tim Burden, Saul Pincus and Maurizio Caschetto. The project really turned out as good as I could have expected and I hope everyone will enjoy exploring the music. It’s really an amazing recording that is, of course, a huge part of the film’s success.
Raim: The film version of Fiddler on the Roof was introduced to me when I was a child by my grandparents, who survived the Holocaust. Jewison’s film, including Robert Boyle’s visually stunning and scrupulously researched production design, was a window into the world my grandparents came from, which no longer exists…. I started exploring Fiddler by shooting in-depth interviews with the movie’s cast and crew, including the film’s production designer Robert F. Boyle (shot in 2000), the film’s star, Topol (shot in 2009), director Norman Jewison (shot in 2000 and 2016), lyricist Sheldon Harnick (shot in 2017), composer John Williams, film critic Kenneth Turan, and the three actresses who play Tevye’s eldest daughters (all shot in 2021)…. Making Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen has been a true labor of love, years in the making. I wanted to make a documentary that explores Jewison’s artistry, compassion, and humanity as well as his spiritual and creative quest directing Fiddler on the Roof…. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison’s quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic…. Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen puts us in the director’s chair and in Jewison’s heart and mind, drawing on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews. The film explores how the experience of making Fiddler deepens Jewison as an artist and revives his soul.
Solomon: [My book] was an entirely over-determined project for me. My academic field is Theater Studies, so I already had an affinity for the topic generally. In addition, in the late 1990s, I spent several years intensively studying Yiddish and had been blown away to read Sholem Aleichem and find that he was not the cutesy humorist he’s often reductively described as, but a great modernist writer. A few years later, when a new production of Fiddler was announced for Broadway, I had a cynical attitude toward it—I hadn’t seen or thought of the show literally in decades—and I proposed writing about it for the Village Voice, where I was a staff writer and theater critic at the time, figuring I’d produce something snarky. To prepare, I went to a CD store (remember those?) to buy the Fiddler album and when I put it on at home, just a few bars in, I started to cry, and I kept it up through the whole album. I had to check my cynicism and ask myself, honestly, what the emotional power of this work was. That’s where my project really started.
The Digital Bits: What do you think is the legacy of Fiddler on the Roof?
Solomon: Oy. It took me nearly 400 pages to answer that.
Carson: When I interviewed Norman Jewison for the various home entertainment formats, he shared something very inspirational. Although we focused on the Jewish stories and inspiration for those stories, he shared a great anecdote about the reason for the film’s popularity in Japan. The Japanese people have a deep understanding of tradition. And Fiddler is about the breaking down of traditions and allowing love to overcome any idea that there is no other way than the “old way.” That’s Fiddler’s legacy: love, love of family, love conquers all obstacles.
Kennedy: Fiddler keeps going and going; I can’t think of any other musical with such wide appeal. There have been umpteen Broadway and London revivals and touring companies. The film, especially magnificent on the big screen, does Fiddler justice. There’s a terrific 2019 documentary, Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles, all about its great popularity across generations and continents. We see the huge impact Fiddler has had worldwide, from African American high school students performing it to a professional staging in Japan. (I played Motel, the tailor in a high school production that was so special we went on tour, so I’m not entirely objective.) Joel Grey, director of a recent Yiddish language production in New York, asks, "Why does everyone think Fiddler is about them?" In that one rhetorical question, he locates the genius of Fiddler. In bringing to life a Jewish village during the fall of Imperial Russia, the makers of Fiddler tapped into the beating heart of much of humanity.
Raim: I hope Fiddler’s Journey somehow contributes to the legacy of the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof by exploring and humanizing the contributions of the incredibly talented cinema artists, both in front of and behind the camera, making a film born from their hearts and souls.
Matessino: Most importantly, the legacy is to keep the stories of Sholem Aleichem alive. They remain charming and insightful even today, but would be much more obscure if not for Fiddler on the Roof. The musical was, of course, very much embraced by the Jewish community, who, perhaps for the first time, could share part of their history with others and feel good about doing so. It’s ironic that a musical that’s all about cultural division has done so much to bring people together. That illustrates the power of art, and particularly of the musical genre. It’s also very important in the career of Norman Jewison, and of course for John Williams. It’s just a very special movie, adapted from a very special show, and its power has not diminished one bit.
The Digital Bits: Thank you—Alisa, Daniel, Greg, Matthew, and Mike—for sharing your thoughts about Fiddler on the Roof on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.
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IMAGES:
Selected images copyright/courtesy MGM Home Entertainment, The Mirisch Production Company, Robert Morrow, National Film Board of Canada, National Screen Service, The New York Times, Syufy Enterprises, James Titus, United Artists.
SOURCES/REFERENCES:
The primary references for this project were the motion picture Fiddler on the Roof (United Artists, 1971), regional newspaper coverage, trade reports published in Boxoffice, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, and interviews conducted by the author. All figures and data pertain to North America (i.e. United States and Canada) except where stated otherwise.
SPECIAL THANKS:
Jerry Alexander, Laura Baas (Florida State Library), Jim Barg, Don Beelik, Diane Buckley (Virginia Beach Public Library), Ray Caple, Greg Carson, Clara and Lanham (Providence Public Library), Kevin Geisert (Norfolk Public Library), Sheldon Hall, Isaac (Buffalo & Erie County Public Library), William Kallay, Matthew Kennedy, Bill Kretzel, Mark Lensenmayer, Stan Malone, Mike Matessino, W.R. Miller, Robert Morrow, Gabriel Neeb, Jim Perry, Daniel Raim, Alisa Solomon, James Titus, Vince Young.
In case you missed them or desire a refresher read, this column’s other roadshow era musical retrospectives include Camelot 50th, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 50th, Funny Girl 50th, Funny Girl 45th, Hello, Dolly! 50th, Mary Poppins 50th, My Fair Lady 50th, Paint Your Wagon 50th, The Sound of Music 50th, Sweet Charity 45th, and 1776 Blu-ray release.
- Michael Coate
Michael Coate can be reached via e-mail through this link. (You can also follow Michael on social media at these links: Twitter and Facebook)
