Lewis Center to host program about musical drama
By Keith Loria, Special Writer
A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But in our little village of Anatevka, every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy. You may ask, why do we stay here if it’s so dangerous? We stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: Tradition!”
Considered one of the most famous openings of any musical in the past century, the dialogue uttered by Tevye is just one of the many memorably moments from “Fiddler on the Roof,” a 1964 Broadway sensation that turned into a popular film in 1971.
To mark the musical’s golden anniversary, Princeton’s Lewis Center for the Arts will host “Fiddler at 50,” a symposium comprised of lectures, discussions and special guests, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday, Nov. 15 at James M. Stewart ‘32 Theater, Lewis Center for the Arts, 185 Nassau St. There also will be a screening of the film at 7 p.m., Nov. 14.
The symposium is being organized by Jill Dolan, Princeton professor in theater, the Annan Professor in English and director of the program in gender and sexuality studies; and Stacy Wolf, Princeton professor in theater and director of the Princeton Atelier.
”Sheldon Harnick’s lyrics and Jerry Bock’s music represent some of the best of the canon of American musical theater. The songs are haunting and beloved, and the experience the story relates is universal,” Ms. Wolf says. “Most cultures can relate to a vexed relationship between fathers and daughters; many cultures have immigrant experiences one way or another that Fiddler’s story recalls. Although the musical centers on a particularly Jewish historical experience, cultures around the world have adopted the story for how it resonates with their own.”
The symposium will include special guests such as Fiddler lyricist Mr. Harnick, director John Doyle, and actress Joanna Merlin, Broadway’s original Tzeitel.
”John Doyle is teaching at Princeton this semester, in his first year of a very special three-year professorship, during which he is teaching a course on ‘actor-musicianship,’ which is the performance style that he created, as well as another seminar on re-inventing classics,” Ms. Dolan says. “Harnick and Merlin were invited to speak and said ‘yes!’ They’re coming specifically for this symposium, although I’m sure they’d all agree that an ‘anniversary tour’ would be lovely. We find that artists are delighted to speak at Princeton because (New York City) is close and easy and they get an enthusiastic audience of students, faculty, staff, and community people here.”
Scholars Alisa Solomon, Jeremy Dauber and Jenna Weissman Joselit also will join in on the discussions.
Ms. Solomon will speak from her freshly published book, “Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof” and address out-lying productions of the musical that shore up its universal status. Mr. Dauber has recently published a book on Sholem Aleichem, whose story about Tevye the milkman inspired the musical; and Ms. Weissman Joselit will talk about the religious rituals represented in the musical, and how audiences in the 1960 — when “Fiddler” was first produced — would have understood those moments (Sabbath prayer, the wedding, etc.).
”The ‘Fiddler’ vets will each be interviewed by Princeton students, and then their sessions will be opened for Q&A from the audience,” Ms. Wolf says. “They’ll speak informally about their experiences with the show, Harnick as lyricist, Merlin as the original Tzeitl, and Doyle as the director of a production at the Watermill Theatre in the U.K.” That production was one of the first staging of “Fiddler” to feature actor-musicians, a style area audiences might know from Mr. Doyle’s Rodgers and Hart show, “Ten Cents a Dance,” which was performed at McCarter in September, 2011.
Students also will be putting together clips of various productions across time and place to share with the audience, especially at the beginning of the day and before some of the artists’ interviews.
According to Ms. Dolan, the “Fiddler” story continues to resonate, as does the tension between tradition and innovation in families and in cultures around the world.
”The musical also represents the ‘golden age’ of American musical theater; too many students these days think that musical theater started with ‘Rent.’ The musical is also a fascinating representation of cultural struggles of the 1960s — it’s about tradition versus change, fathers and daughters, the meaning of love, marriage, and relationships,” he says. “As a cultural artifact, as Alisa Solomon’s book demonstrates, ‘Fiddler’ has been remarkably tenacious and useful to societies all over the world. Knowing how and why will add to our common store of knowledge about the global importance of American musical theater.”
Additionally, Ms. Wolf is teaching an American Studies seminar on performance and politics of the 1960s and the pair are co-teaching a class on Jewish American Theatre, so this musical fits beautifully with both of these classes.
”Most exciting to us is the dialogue we plan to perform between scholars and artists and between students, the public audience, and professionals who have created productions of ‘Fiddler’ or who have thought deeply about what it means historically and culturally,” Ms. Dolan says. “The leisure to delve into this artifact of the 1960s, and to trace its persistence through American and global cultures, is the real gift of this event. We look forward to calling forth people’s individual and collective memories about the musical, and to thinking, together, about what it means.”
”It will also be great for the students to hear the artists talk about their work. It’s important that they understand the labor, the collaboration, and the history of musical theater in the U.S.,” Ms. Wolf adds. “Since Doyle is absolutely the most inventive and important musical theater director today, it will be enormously interesting to hear him talk about this older, foundational production.”
For more information, visit www.princeton.edu/arts.