Joel Grey On Directing A Groundbreaking Fiddler On The Roof

Several years ago Joel Grey received a phone call from Zalmen Mlotek, artistic director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. Mlotek said that he planned do a production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish. Yes, the beloved musical, set in a Czarist Russian shtetl in a town called Anatevka during 1905, would be performed completely in Yiddish with English supertitles.

And would Grey like to play Tevye or direct it?

“I said, ‘I don't speak Yiddish,’” says Grey whose father was a great klezmer clarinetist and comedian. “I heard Yiddish, but it was never spoken in my house because my mother wanted to be modern.” Undeterred Mlotek called back the next morning. “I slept on it and said ‘I don't understand or speak Yiddish. But I know this play very well and I love it. I want to do it.’”

Fiddler On The Roof has long held a very special place in Grey’s heart.“I saw the show's very first preview in Washington and was immediately devastated by the end of it,” he says of the musical that spotlights the life of Tevye, a poor milkman, his wife Golde and five daughters who are trying to navigate and move forward in their ever-changing world while clinging to tradition. “It showed the reality of where I came from and the deep sorrow connected with that,” shares Grey. “I loved and never missed a production over all these years.”

Grey was committed to doing a simpler, more paired down production focusing on characters and relationships. “My other great passion is Checkhov,” says the Oscar and Tony-winning actor, director, photographer and author. His latest photography book is The Flower Whisperer. “I thought of it as a Chekhovian play and that is how I directed it. In my sleeping, almost sleeping and waking hours, I could see it.”

Fiddler on the Roof In Yiddish was so successful at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, it transferred to the off Broadway theater, Stage 42, where it is currently playing. The show has received critical acclaim, winning several awards including the 2019 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical Revival. The musical has been seen by Hugh Jackman, Bette Midler, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jerry Seinfeld, Harvey Fierstein, Carol Burnett and Mikhail Baryshnikov. A national tour is planned.

The late Hal Prince, who was original producer of the show's 1965 Broadway version said, “If you have seen Fiddler before, you must see this production because it will make you feel you are seeing Fiddler for the first time.” For Grey, working on this ground breaking production was completely life affirming. “Everything you do artistically adds or subtracts from your life,” he shares. “This was a big addition.”

Can you talk about the very first Broadway show you were in?

It was the play Come Blow Your Horn by Neil Simon. I was an actor who was trying to get to Broadway and having a lot of difficultly. I was doing a lot of television and guest parts. But I got a call to do this Neil Simon play and was in that for a year and a half. The next thing I knew I was auditioning for Stop the World I Want to Get Off by Anthony Newley. And then then I toured for a couple of years and played in the show on Broadway. Cabaret came along pretty much after that.

Do you remember when learned that you were cast as the Emcee in Cabaret?

Hal Prince, my great friend, saw me perform and had an idea about me in that part. There was no turning back.

What do you miss most about Hal Prince? (Hal Prince, the great theater director and producer who won a record 21 Tony awards, passed away in July.)

He believed in himself like nobody else. He had great taste and a real passion for the theater. He was a man that we all watched become a giant. Nobody has ever been that prolific.

From left Raquel Nobile, Rosie Jo Neddy, Rachel Zatcoff, Stephanie Lynne Mason and Samantha Hahn (Matthew Murphy)