Wonder of Wonders (Part One)

I first read about Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof on Facebook. One of my Facebook friends knows the author personally and he congratulated her on winning an important award for this book.

I took an immediate interest for three reasons: first, I love musical theatre and I've loved Fiddler on the Roof many times; second, I've always made a connection between the fictional characters in Fiddler and the patients at Maimonides that I wrote about yesterday; third, the author is Alisa Solomon.

Alisa was a theatre critic and general reporter for the Village Voice from 1983 to 2004. I remember her work well. We used to subscribe to the Village Voice and there was a time when the stack of Voices in our house was almost as tall as I am. When I began to read her book, I felt as if we were getting reacquainted.

Years ago, I had read the short stories of Sholem-Aleichem, including some about Tevye the Milkman. I don't really remember them as stories — more as images. It's fascinating to look back at them though and consider the journey that Tevye has made — not just from Anatevka to America but to the Broadway stage and from there, around the world.

The first long chapter of Wonder of Wonders is the history of Sholem-Aleichem and his stories and his struggle simply to make a living as a writer of Yiddish stories. This chapter took me longer to read than the whole rest of the book. I might have decided to skim over it except for this: I was so impressed by the depth of the research that had gone into it, I simply was incapable of showing that kind of disrespect to the writer. A review in The New York Times said:

In my family, we have a ritual. (Tradition!) After a particularly wonderful Shabbat or holiday dinner, we channel my great-grandmother Pearl Gottler and chant in unison, “Ach, I’m stoffed. I’m bloated. I couldn’t eat another bite.”

That’s what reading “Wonder of Wonders” is like. It is as rich and dense as a chocolate babka. Delicious, yes, but so crammed with tasty layers you have to pace yourself. You appreciate the gazillion buttery striations while wondering if there had to be quite so many of them.

In the end, I'm glad I persevered because the strength of that foundation was what raised the content of the book to such an impressive height.

The book is about the making of the musical — the writing of the book, lyrics and music (Joseph Stein, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, the direction by the legendary Jerome Robbins and the production by Hal Prince. Before I read this book, I couldn't have imagined the process and in fact, I'm pretty sure it's different with every production. But if you've ever wondered how a song like Tradition! or If I Were a Rich Man comes about, here's where you'll find out.

I've worked in some pretty bizarre situations over the years but I can't even imagine what it must be like to work with temperamental ego-driven artists like Robbins and Zero Mostel and others in the production team. The world of show business is rarely glamourous; it's eccentric at best, soul-destroying at worst.

Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway in 1964 with Zero Mostel as Tevye. It ran for 3242 performances, then the longest-running show on Broadway.

Since then, there have been four Broadway revivals, most recently in 2004 with Alfred Molina and then Harvey Fierstein playing Tevye. The 1971 film directed by Norman Jewison, was also a huge success.

Alisa Solomon's book doesn't end with Broadway. There are a couple more stories I want to tell you about Fiddler on the Roof and that will be a story for another day. Tomorrow, I hope.

Part two is right here.