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

A Texan-born actor is the unlikely star of an unlikely Toronto stage event — a Yiddish-language production of Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Broadway legend Joel Grey.

Stage veteran Steven Skybell reprises his role this month, from the long-running production in New York City. What began as a planned six-week engagement in New York in 2018 turned into an 18-month sensation, performed more than 500 times.

Set in the fictional shtetl of Anatevka in the early 1900s, Fiddler on the Roof follows Tevye, against the backdrop of the looming threat of Tsarist oppression, while challenged by his daughters who follow their hearts over tradition.

Based on Sholem Aleichem’s 1914 novella Tevye and His Daughters, it became an off-Broadway musical in 1957. The Broadway version launched in 1964 and won nine Tony Awards in 1965, including best musical, score, direction and choreography.

Sixty years later, the story has reverberated through the halls of international theatres in countless productions. Canadian director Norman Jewison directed the film version in 1971, with Israeli actor Chaim Topol playing the lead.

Presented by the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, the newest production with English subtitles, at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre from May 25 to June 7, is directed by Tony and Academy Award winner, Joel Grey. “There is something profoundly moving about hearing Fiddler in Yiddish,” Grey noted in a statement. “The language carries history, humour, sorrow and resilience all at once. Like hearing opera in its original tongue, it deepens every moment. It allows the story to breathe with emotional truth.”

Dave Gordon interviewed Skybell for the National Post.

What was your Yiddish like before the show?

My grandparents would speak it, but so we wouldn’t understand.

So they did us a real disservice, you know, because I heard the Yiddish, but I didn’t know how to speak it from them.

I studied it seriously online through YIVO (the Institute for Jewish Research), over Zoom for three semesters.

I’ve likened playing Tevye in Yiddish to Shakespeare roles that I’ve done.

Shakespeare is not a familiar vernacular, but as an actor, you have to really understand how the language is operating in Shakespeare, and knowing everything you’re saying. When we first did (the stage show), we had three Yiddish coaches at the same time.

And so they would whip us into shape. And with their help, I came to know exactly what I’m saying. And then it was a slow dawning on me as I’m trying to learn the role of Tevye in Yiddish that also I have to know what everyone else is saying to me!

I had to learn the whole script, and we all did. Even this new, incredibly great Canadian cast – on the first day, their Yiddish was already through the roof. Otherwise, it’s not going to be successful to the audience.

What was your research leading up to the role?

I’ve had a lifelong fascination with Fiddler.

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.

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.

How is the Yiddish version different?

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.

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.

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

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.”

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Why do you think Fiddler is so enduring?

It’s great entertainment.

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

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.

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

I think everybody responds to that.

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.

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.

This interview was edited for brevity.

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