• Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles

4/8/22 (Sat)

This disappointing 2019 documentary explores the origins and influence of Fiddler on the Roof, the 1964 work that is one of the crowning achievements of the musical stage. Fiddler, at one point the longest-running show in Broadway history, is nominally about the life of a poor Jewish milkman and his family in a Ukrainian shtetl in the early 20th century, but on a wider level it portrays a community struggling to maintain its identity in a changing world. That universal theme has made the show extraordinarily popular worldwide; it has been a tremendous success for decades here in Japan, which staged one of the first of many foreign (and foreign-language) productions. However, the documentary has other ideas, as suggested in its Wikipedia summary: “Scholars examine the play’s themes of xenophobia, gender equality, civil rights, and religion.” Therein lies the problem.

The documentary offers background on the material through a discussion of Yiddish theater and Sholem Aleichem, author of the source material, and provides nice archival footage of the creators (most of them gone, including producer Harold Prince, who died during the film’s production), their family members, and others like Austin Pendleton (the original Motel) and Stephen Sondheim who had personal recollections of the show’s gestation. Those segments were informative and entertaining. The scenes from the show itself, largely from a recent Broadway revival and the 1971 film version, were well chosen, making me wish there was more footage from other productions. Media appearances like Zero Mostel on the Dick Cavett Show and Topol with Danny Kaye were also good fun.

Unfortunately it mixed those with way too many irrelevant talking heads like Fran Leibowitz (what exactly is she famous for anyway?), who added nothing whatsoever to our knowledge or understanding of the show. And did we really need to see Lin Manuel Miranda performing “To Life” at his wedding party? Is this what they consider an example of the show’s influence? It felt like padding.

Surprisingly, the film doesn’t seem interested in how the musical material veered from Aleichem’s vision. For example, the stage Tevye’s ultimate grudging acceptance of his third daughter, who has married a non-Jew, has been criticized as a stark perversion of Aleichem’s world, where devotion to God is paramount. (It should be noted that this alteration was a feature of adaptations as long ago as the first New York dramatization in 1919.) The smart Americanization of the material brought it into the modern world, for better or worse, and it would have been nice to hear more about that aspect.  The musical itself provides background of its own in the opening number, “Tradition,” which succinctly and brilliantly sets up the story for audiences in cultures like Japan where Jewish life is not necessarily familiar (that probably includes many US states). In contrast, the documentary assumes a knowledge of Fiddler from the start and would not make much sense to the uninitiated.

Most frustratingly, as suggested by the Wikipedia quote, the filmmakers seem intent on twisting the show’s themes into their own 21st-century preoccupations. The women’s lib portion is especially absurd. The filmmakers maintain that the storyline of daughters rejecting arranged marriages and picking their own husbands is somehow related to women’s movements in the mid 1960s. A more neutral observer might have noticed that males had no voice in such arranged marriages either (the sons sing in the opening number: “I hear they’ve picked a bride for me; I hope she’s pretty”), and we can assume the mothers had as much to do with the match as the fathers. The conflict is not about women vs. men, but our duty to tradition and community vs. our responsibility to ourselves, a much more profound subject. The scenes with Gloria Steinem and women’s marches were grating. The filmmakers managed to miss the point entirely in a show that revolves around the very theme of tradition.

Similarly, the filmmakers, discussing the ending where Tevye and family are forced to leave the country, try to tie the show to the trendy theme of refugees. The Jews in Fiddler, however, are not leaving because of war or poverty or opportunity; they are being driven out specifically because they are Jews, precisely because they continue to hold on tightly to their identity. They would rather abandon their entire lives than abandon God. The unspoken question is, what price tradition? The show in a way is a meditation on that subject, highlighted in the final wonderful image where Tevye, despite everything, invites the fiddler, the symbol of tradition, to follow him. The musical performance in the Anatevka theme park, a mock village created in the Ukraine in the spirit of the show, was diverting, but the Ukrainian refugees must have been wondering what was going on given that they’re essentially accused in the show of harassing Jews (the Ukraine being part of Russia at the time).

The film makes a big deal of foreign productions, but few were shown in any detail other than Japan and Thailand. I noticed that the Japanese was mistranslated, with the subtitles just reproducing the original lyrics with no understanding of the distinctive Japanese interpretation. That seems an opportunity missed. The filmmakers may simply have been amused by non-whites portraying Jews, which came up as well in the interview with a black Golde from a school production, but those scenes don’t really offer much other than good visuals. It’s strange that scenes from the fabulous Yiddish production weren’t included; I wonder if that had to do with copyright issues.

There is a good segment on the making of the film version. Topol was praised for taking an angrier tone than other Tevyes as befitting his Israeli roots, though given that Tevye was from Eastern Europe, I’m not sure that a sabra perspective is the right choice. Obviously various interpretations are possible, which is what makes the work great, but I prefer the Yiddish theater approach of Mostel and others. I hear that another Fiddler film is in the works, and I’ll be especially interested in what approach they take with Tevye.

The film is worth watching for the interviews with the creators and occasional insights, but overall this is an irritatingly superficial treatment of material that deserves much better.