Yiddish Fiddler Will Move Off-Broadway In February
TRADITION: Steven Skybell and Ensemble. Image by Victor Nechay / ProperPix
By PJ Grisar November 15, 2018
It’s next year in Midtown for the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbeine’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Playbill reports that the all-Yiddish production of the musical, directed by the legendary performer Joel Grey and translated into Yiddish by Shraga Friedman, will transfer from lower Manhattan’s Museum of Jewish Heritage to Off-Broadway’s Stage 42 where it will begin performances February 11, 2019, prior to a February 21 opening. This news follows a sold-out run, four extensions and near-universal acclaim for the downtown staging, which opened July 15 and is scheduled for its final curtain on December 30.
Steven Skybell, who plays the the lead role of Tevye the dairyman and Jackie Hoffman who plays matchmaker Yente will reprise their roles. Additional casting for the transfer is forthcoming.
The new run, which will be a commercial one, brings its Yiddishkeit tradition to a larger audience courtesy of English and Russian supertitles. Of course, it helps that the 1964 musical, written in English by Joseph Stein with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, is known to many Americans already. But if the crowd comes out singing “Ven Ikh Bin a Rotshild” instead of “If I Was a Rich Man” we’ll call it a victory.
PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture intern. He can be reached at Grisar@Forward.com.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
