Re: Fiddler and The Rothschilds

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

Since my cousin (by marriage) _wrote_ the (best-selling) book from which THE 
ROTHSCHILDS was adapted, I suppose I should have some words of wisdom 
regarding its (only relative) lack of success as a musical.  But I'm not 
sure I have any special insight on the subject.

I do, however, have some reservations about what George has written here.  I 
think his proferred explanation is rather too glib; I respectfully suggest 
that George has wheeled into play a plausible, and always discouraging, 
thesis--to the effect that some American Jews and some American non-Jews are 
more comfortable w/ Jews being depicted as victims than as successful--and 
applied it, I think, not especially ... applicably.

Consider:  Would George's proferred explanation _really_ explain the 
phenomenal, world-wide appeal of FIDDLER (of which I was by no means a 
tremendous fan, btw)?  Did Japanese audiences, say, really shell-out bick 
bucks to see Fiddler cause they cared _that_ much to see Jews depicted as 
victims?  (And, btw, I think Fiddler's depictions of Jews and Judaism, 
however romanticized, are far from so uniformly negative, either.)  Surely 
not.

When I asked Theodore Bikel to comment in my NPR documentary, "One People, 
Many Voices:  American People Comes Of Age," about the astonishing success 
of Fiddler, he opined:  "It is universal because it is understood that what 
this is about is not a narrow, Jewish thing but an experience that can be 
shared:  poverty, oppression, persecution ... and tradition, and children 
who refuse to follow it."

That's a lot closer to the mark, I suspect.  Fiddler was a phenomenal 
success not because it so successfully depicted Jews as victims, but 
precisely because it transcended its subject(s) and context:  It had a 
*universal* appeal, because of its universal themes.

The songs from Fiddler--I don't really remember those from The Rothschilds 
musical, even though I saw it, in its origianl staging, and from front-row 
seats!--brilliantly succeeded in capturing and embodying that universal 
appeal.  Do you really think "Sunrise, Sunset" is, I imagine, played and/or 
sung in weddings all over the world because of how Fiddler did or didn't 
depict Jews?  No--it was a phenomenonally successful song because it 
captured an experience, and emotions, that every parent, every future 
parent, every potential parent, and even every quasi-parent (of nieces and 
nephews, friends' children, etc.)--in other words, everyone--could relate 
to.

(Though, btw, my favorite song from Fiddler is the Sabbath prayer of 
blessings for their girls.)

I'd really caution all of us from too readily invoking dark explanations for 
the greater popularity and success of things we don't like.

Then again, I'm all too ready to sally forth, darkly, on why Irving Berlin's 
infernal music was so popular....

--Robert Cohen



>Khaverim --
>
>Since the subject has come up indirectly, I thought I would pose a
>question to the list regarding Fiddler on the Roof, or more accurately,
>the next Bock-Harnick show, The Rothschilds.
>
>I have to admit that I have never seen The Rothschilds staged. However,
>I am very fond of the original cast album and know large parts of the
>score by heart. I have always wondered why the show was (comparatively)
>a failure; I actually prefer the music and lyrics to those of Fiddler.
>
>I have always suspected that the reasons for its failure were two-fold.
>First, it wasn't Fiddler -- how do you follow a success of that
>magnitude and NOT disappoint people?
>
>Second, and I think more salient, its attitude towards its Jewish
>protagonists and non-Jewish antagonists is very different. Fiddler
>sentimentalizes the shtetl (as we have established earlier this week ;))
>and makes loveable victims of its Jews. The Rothschilds paints a very
>different picture -- it shows Jews who fight back and do so not with
>conventional weapons but with their financial acumen. And it shows the
>Gentiles as overtly hostile, uniformly so, and pretty damned nasty at
>that (In fact, the casting of Keene Curtis as all the bad goyim sort of
>creates a Universal Bad Gentile who transcends history.)
>
>Somehow I think it was easier for the theater-party crowds to handle
>long-suffering noble shtetl Jews than a bunch of take-no-prisoners
>wheeler-dealers who beat the Gentiles at their own game.
>
>Of course, it's also possible that the book was weak and the supporting
>performances disappointing. Hey, I never got to see the show.
>
>At any rate, anyone who has looked into this, I'd welcome comments.
>
>George Robinson
>
>

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