FRIDAY MOVIE SEPTEMBER 6, 2019
FIDDLER – A MIRACLE OF MIRACLES
GATEWAY THEATRE
STARTS 7 PM
CLICK HERE FOR PREVIEW
Group can decide where to eat after show. Contact Jramos4000@aol.com
Essential viewing for musical theater nuts.
The worldwide rights to “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles,” Max Lewkowicz’s new documentary, has been co-acquired by Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films.
The documentary tells the story behind Broadway musical Fiddler on The Roof” and its creative roots in early 1960s New York. “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles” includes interviews with the Broadway show’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick, legendary producer Hal Prince, original cast members, such as Austin Pendleton, as well as rare archival footage of choreographer Jerome Robbins.
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW:
A richly detailed survey of the origins and evolution of the 1964 musical classic, and the universal themes that have earned it an enduring place in the pop-culture firmament.
Onscreen text at the end of Max Lewkowicz’s loving tribute to Fiddler on the Roof informs us that the landmark show has been performed somewhere around the world every day since its 1964 Broadway opening. In Fiddler: A Miracles of Miracles, members of the original creative team, cultural historians and the directors and casts of both the 1971 film version and countless subsequent stage revivals contribute to an exhaustive, emotional testament to the musical’s staying power as popular entertainment and its extraordinary thematic reach.
The documentary makes a persuasive case as to why this show — grounded very specifically in the lives of a persecuted Jewish shtetl community in 1905 Imperial Russia — continues to connect deeply with audiences across vast divides of religion, race, generation, personal experience and sexuality. Its layers of meaning to anyone who has ever felt ostracized alone have cemented its eternal relevance.
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One observer, playwright and performer Harvey Fierstein, who played the musical’s protagonist, the dairyman Tevye, on Broadway in 2005, adds the succinct point that Fiddler is a musical that speaks entirely differently to the rebellious child, the anxious parent and the older viewer who has lived through both those stages. That expansive resonance should help the Roadside Attractions/Samuel Goldwyn Films release find a responsive audience, with a long shelf life to follow for musical-theater aficionados.
The film opens and closes with Fiddler lyricist Sheldon Harnick on the rooftop of an Upper West Side Manhattan apartment building, picking out the introduction of opening number “Tradition” on a violin, of course. While both composer Jerry Bock and librettist Joseph Stein died in 2010, all three principal creatives are amply represented thanks to pre-existing interviews.
POZitive Attitudes 
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