Fiddler in the News

The national tour of Fiddler in the Roof makes its way to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts this week, and gets quite a lot of coverage in the local media.

First up, Mary Damiano of MiamiArtzine.com interviews Miamian and New World School of the Arts graduate Erik Liberman, who plays Motel the Tailor.

By the time Erik Liberman was 6 years old, he knew he wanted to be an actor, so sat down at his Fisher Price typewriter and wrote a letter to the producer of a South Florida TV show called the “Sunday Funnies.” The letter was simple, Liberman recalls, something along the lines of “My name is Erik Liberman. Can I come and be on the show?”
Once producers confirmed that Liberman wrote the letter himself, he became a regular, reading the comics to kids.

When Mary told me that she had a story up about a South Florida Native in Fiddler, I first thought of a different actor; Sean Patrick Doyle, a 2001 graduate of New World School of the Arts, who is also on the tour. Steve Rothaus interviews Sean for the Miami Herald.

"I'm a soprano, and I'm also a jokester," Doyle said. "The music director said, `How about if we ask him to sing as Fruma Sarah?' ''

You might have seen Sean in productions at Actors' Playhouse, most recently as Chantal the Songbird in La Cage Aux Folles.

Oh, and Christine Dolen interviewed Topol for the Miami Herald. He's played Tevye a bunch of times.

...his eclectic resumé includes everything from Othello to the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only, his signature role is a character dreamed up by Sholom Aleichem decades before Topol was born: Tevye, the Russian-Jewish dairyman who became the central character in the 1964 Broadway musical smash Fiddler on the Roof.

Topol, who was London's first Tevye in 1967 (at the grand old age of 31), not only went on to star in the 1971 Fiddler movie musical but today is also edging toward his 3,000th performance in the part.

You can read about the production history, and get a complete rundown of the cast at BroadwayWorld.com. There's a suprising number of major Broadway A-listers in this tour.

So where's the Sun-Sentinel story about a show featuring major Broadway talents and some local boys done good happening mere blocks from their offices? Buried. I guess this Fort Lauderdale story is only for the Miami papers.

Be sure to drop these guys a note, letting them know that you read all about everywhere else;
Howard Greenberg, Publisher, hgreenberg@sun-sentinel.com
Earl Maucker, Editor-in-Chief, emaucker@sun-sentinel.com

I'm sure they'll appreciate it!