Playlist For Sunday, September 27, 2020: I'll take a Rothschild, with everything!

If I Were A Rothschild? Yup, that's one Yiddish translation for "If I Were A Rich Man". Perfect! Especially when you spiral into the Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick cannon of musicals, and see that they ALSO WROTE...wait for it... The Rothschilds. Of course, Fiddler On The Roof fared far better on Broadway (a long run, revivals up the yang, awards, a movie, yadayadayada), but both shows were about beleaguered Jewish folk who rose (financially or spiritually or both or neither) and got on with life (or in Tevye's case "To Life!").

Zero Mostel...Tevye, The Original

                   Tevye 2? Topol, who performed in the movie and on stage.

 

 

Even Leonard Nimoy played him...

 

 

Harvey Fierstein, Danny Burstein, and Alfred Molina

took Broadway turns.

Steven Skybell, the "Yiddish Tevye" in the newest production.

Jerry and Sheldon are, if you haven't caught on yet, our focus this Sunday, or as I like to call them B&H (like the bagel "kings"...I can actually smell bagels when I type that!). They seemed to be the kings of komposition in the 1960s, with She Loves Me, Fiorello!, Fiddler, The Apple Tree, and Tenderloin. One from Chicago kid, the other a Flushing lad, who joined forces to write The Body Beautiful, their first musical collaboration back in 1958. It tanked big time, but dontcha know that "bagel" would lead to ANOTHER attempt, and a Pulitzer Prize, and "the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

 

 So along with Fiorello!, and all of the above (and more, cuz More is More on Broadway), we'll sample the pretty-new production of Fiddler performed in Yiddish. It did damn well, running first at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, then moving uptown to 42nd St. for another year. Yes, they offered "captions", but don't we all (well, MOST of us, anyway) know the lyrics by heart? We definitely know when to laugh during these song. When to cry. And when to get up and dance with a chair held over our heads, right? Shouldn't be a problem, come Sunday.

 

Traditsye (Steven Skybell, Company, Fiddler On The Roof)

Sounds While Selling (Zachary Levi, Michael McGrath, Gavin Kreel, 

       She Loves Me)

Days Gone By (Ludwig Donath, Daniel Massey, She Loves Me)

Will He Like Me? (Laura Benanti, She Loves Me)

Ilona (Jack Cassidy, Ensemble, She Loves Me)

Little Old New York (Eileen Rodgers, Lee Becker, Company, Tenderloin)

Artificial Flowers (Ron Husmann, Tenderloin)

Reform (Lee Becker, Nancy Emes, Carvel Carter, Tenderloin)

The Picture Of Happiness (Ron Husmann, Tenderloin)

Garbage (Sheldon Harnick, Shoestring Revue)

Boston Beguine (Alice Ghostly, Shoestring Revue)

Cold Clear World (Fritz Weaver, Baker Street)

The Very Last Dance Hall In L.A. (Laura Pursell)

Our Winter Love (Bill Pursell)

Rothschild And Sons (Hal Linden, Ensemble, The Rothschilds)

Everything (Leila Martin, Hal Linden, The Rothschilds)

In My Own Lifetime (Hal Linden, The Rothschilds)

The Name's La Guardia (Tom Bosley, Fiorello!)

Politics And Poker (Howard DaSilva, Ensemble, Fiorello!)

Gentleman Jimmy (Eileen Rodgers, Fiorello!)

Little Tin Box (Howard DaSilva, Ensemble, Fiorello!)

Ah, But Underneath (Diana Rigg, Follies)

Could I Leave You? (Diana Rigg, Follies)

Who's That Woman? (Mary McCarty, Ensemble, Follies)

Here In Eden (Barbara Harris, The Apple Tree)

The Apple Tree (Forbidden Fruit)(Larry Blyden, The Apple Tree)

It's A Fish(Alan Alda, The Apple Tree)

Forbidden Love (In Gaul)(Alan Alda, Barbara Harris, The Apple Tree)

Ven Ikh Bin A Rotshild (Steven Skybell, Fiddler On The Roof)

What A Life (Richard Kind, Fiddler On The Roof)

Lekhayim! (Steven Skybell, Company, Fiddler On The Roof)