Oh, I wish I had seen this thread before now!
I saw a stage production at ACT in S.F. about 20 years ago (ie about 10 years after the movie) and it was indeed wonderful!
Jespah wrote, in part: "And don't forget to look for Paul Michael Glazer (TV's Starsky from Starsky & Hutch), who plays Perchek, who is sent to Siberia." Jespah, I fell head over heels for him, then credited as simply Michael Glazer and for the part he played; so in love with his idealism, really; ok, also with his good looks! Boomerang, pls let me know if you got a giggle out of him due to the subsequent Starsky role . . . just impossible for me to accept, however, I did see it so long ago and far away . . .
Fiddler on the Roof
Good Point!
well i think that it could also have another meaning as i was discussing with a close friend. Did you ever notice that he showed up mostly when there were times when they needed spirtual guidance too. When the fiddler came on he really wasnt there. He was in Tevya's mind and when Tevya was needing assistance he always had a vision of the Fiddler maybe to help him get through the moment. For instanc in the Chava Ballea, when Fyedka comes to take Chava's hand, the Fiddler appears trying to bring her back to balance. I believe that the Fiddler is actually representing God. Like maybe he thought that God had forsaken him and so the Fiddler was there too remind him that everything was going to be okay!
In terms of the history of musical theater, Fiddler on the Roof has also been interpreted as the closing--the "swan song," if you will--of the "traditional" musical. It was first performed in 1964, right in the middle of a very fertile and transitional era of musical theater. West Side Story had opened just a few years earlier and really raised the bar in terms of what a musical could aspire toward, since West Side Story is equal parts ballet, symphony, and theater. (Both musicals were choreographed by Jerome Robbins.) Fiddler also comes right on the eve of Sondheim's pathbreaking works, which similarly changed everything. (Hal Prince, who took over the producer duties of Fiddler after Fred Coe left the project, would go on to direct several Sondheim shows, beginning with Company. Also, Fiddler's star, Zero Mostel, would soon star in Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.) So the opening number of Fiddler really is symbolic in many ways: it represents not just the changing traditions of Jewish peasants in Tsarist Russia, but it also represents the changing traditions of musical theater itself.
@Phoenix32890,
I was struck by how precarious the fiddler was and how silly it was for him to be playing a fiddle while balancing himself on a tiny tin rooftop where he could easily fall and break his neck - but I found myself just accepting such an oddity in much the same way that we all tend to accept tradition, no matter how precarious, pointless and silly. As the play progressed, Tevye began questioning many traditions and when forced to choose between the happiness of his daughters and tradition, abandoned tradition in favor of his daughters.
