Post by mikef6 on Jun 11, 2017 3:38:06 GMT
I also love the original Broadway show, but the movie successfully "opened up" the stage production.
There had been some questions as to why Zero Mostel wasn't asked to re-create his role of Tevye, but I think he was one of those larger-than-life performers who would have blown everyone else off the screen.
Same with Ethel Merman when she was passed over as Mama Rose in the film version of GYPSY.
I think Topol was excellent, especially considering the fact that he was only 35-years old when he made the movie!
But I think the greatest reason I love this movie is that my maternal grandparents and older ancestors came from Czarist Russia.
Therefore, it is historically significant to me.
Even though “Fiddler” premiered on Broadway in 1964 and the movie came out in 1971, I somehow avoided seeing anything of it or listening to the music until about 1993 when I saw it on stage acted by a community theater group that I had been connected with. At the intermission, I asked My Lovely Wife where I had been all my life that I hadn’t found this wonderful show until that day. I quickly made my acquaintance with the film and loved it as well. It is now one of my favorite musicals. I used to do a mean “If I Was A Rich Man” just to make my teenagers yell at me to Stop Singing That Song! It’s Embarrassing! But I don’t think I remember all the words now.