Topol will be among the participants in National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene gala tribute to Sheldon Harnick and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
The Town Hall
123 West 43rd St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Monday, June 9, $75-$500, 7:30
www.thetownhall.org
www.nationalyiddishtheatre.org
In the summer of 1964, a little show about a Jewish community struggling to survive in a Russian shtetl played in Detroit, of all places, and Washington, DC, before moving to Broadway in September, where it went on to make history, running for 3,242 performances, with numerous revivals in the decades since and another version expected next year. As part of the National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene’s centennial celebration, the longest continuously running Yiddish theater company in the world will pay tribute to the fiftieth anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof with a gala June 9 at the Town Hall. The evening will also honor the ninetieth birthday of lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who wrote the words to Jerry Bock’s music; the book was written by Joseph Stein, based on the writings of Sholom Aleichem, and the show was directed by Jerome Robbins. The gala will bring together the largest reunion ever of Fiddler on the Roof alumni, nearly four dozen men and women, including Topol, who played Tevye on Broadway and in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film and just performed the role at the Detroit Opera House, as well as Adrienne Barbeau, Fyvush Finkel, Liz Larsen, Rosalind Harris, Michèle Marsh, Neva Small, Andrea Martin, Austin Pendleton, Pia Zadora, Jerry Zaks, Karen Ziemba, and Louis Zorich. There will also be appearances by Ambassador Ido Aharoni, Bel Kaufman, Jewison, Jeffrey Lyons, Jackie Hoffman, Frank London’s Klezmer All Stars, Joshua Bell, Alisa Solomon, and a thirty-six-children choir. The event’s honorary cochairs are Frank Rich, Harold Prince, who produced the original Fiddler, and Harvey Fierstein, who played Tevye in the 2004 Broadway revival.