Yiddish production of Fiddler on the Roof brings ‘history, humour, sorrow and resilience’ to Toronto

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What was your research leading up to the role?

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I’ve had a lifelong fascination with Fiddler.

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I grew up in Texas and there was a community theatre there. And so right when the movie came out, they did a production and I played a chuppah (wedding canopy) boy, when I was 10 years old in 1972. I played Tevye when I was 17 at summer camp; played him again at college when I was 21.

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The role has been in my bones my whole life. So coming to the Yiddish, there were choices as an actor that I couldn’t even tell you why I made them, they were just organic.

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How is the Yiddish version different?

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Shraga Friedman, who was an Israeli actor and director who got permission in ’65 to do the Yiddish version by the creatives, took some liberties with the text. In a really beautiful way, made Tevye a little more knowledgeable about Talmud learning. In the Broadway show, he just refers to the “good book” — which even sounds a little Presbyterian to me.

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But in the Yiddish, he’s talking about (11th century commentator) Rashi. He’s talking about Targum Onklos (2nd century Aramaic translation of the Torah). See, that’s exactly what Tevye would do.

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He may not be absolutely accurate, but he has the knowledge.

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So that to me was very meaningful. Another example of subtle distinctions, is in the song Sabbath Prayer: “May you be like Ruth and like Esther.”

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In the Yiddish, it invokes Sara, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. So that to me, I was able to go down a path that no other English Tevye would ever have gone down.

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I kind of feel like, if it’s in Yiddish, you get that shtetl feel.

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Knowing that these characters would be speaking this language feels so authentic.

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What was life like as a Jew in Lubbock, Texas?

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It had 100 Jewish families. Small, but we knew everybody.

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And having our grandparents there, and elder members of our family, certainly instilled a complete Jewish identity that over time we found more inroads into what the religion and the learning is all about.

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I have said this before and it is the truth: growing up in Lubbock, Texas, in the ’70s, I never in my life personally experienced antisemitism.

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I would take matzah for show and tell to elementary school. It’s only in my adulthood that antisemitism has made such a resurgence, and in a way that I never experienced growing up in a West Texas town.

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Are you surprised that Fiddler is being presented in a city amidst a spike of antisemitism?

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I definitely say: go loud and proud. But, one wants to be mindful of possible security measures. Our Yiddish Fiddler in New York, when we moved uptown to 42nd Street, we had no protests, no sort of anti-Jewish protests. The musical parade, which opened after we were already on playing, had a lot of anti-Jewish protests. But the Harold Green Theatre is taking care to make sure that we’re going to feel protected and safe.

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Steven Skybell, who plays Tevye, in the upcoming Toronto production of the Yiddish version of Fiddler on the Roof, pictured at the New York stage production of the play. Skybell likens performing Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish to Shakespeare roles that he’s done. Photo by Victor Nechay

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Why do you think Fiddler is so enduring?

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It’s great entertainment.

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It’s a perfect musical. It’s not just fluff, and it’s very funny, very light, but also very meaningful.

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I performed it at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, a huge operatic version that came over from Germany in English. The tagline for that production was, “Love is the greatest tradition of all.” The play really is about love.

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It’s about family love, love between suitors, and would-be brides.

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I think everybody responds to that.

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I think that’s what makes it so enduring, is that family is universal. Unfortunately, trouble is also universal in the world. The final scene of the musical, when the Jews of Anatevka are forced to leave their homes is absolutely specific to what was happening to Jews in 1905, Russia and Ukraine.

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But we still see it today throughout the world: displaced, disenfranchised people, immigrants who are being denied access, or have challenges. I think it hits a lot of buttons.

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This interview was edited for brevity.

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