53rd Street Becomes 'Harnick & Bock Way'

Oh happy day! Did you know that Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's two greatest works of art are both playing on Broadway? And not only that, we share a street! 53rd Street in New York City to be precise.

Our Fiddler on the Roof cast members joined up with the company of She Loves Me, to celebrate the naming of 53rd street as HARNICK & BOCK WAY (southwest corner of 53rd and Broadway).

It was an event long in the making, and I wish Jerry could have been there. But his family, and Sheldon's beautiful wife Margie and son Matt were all there to cheer on this living legend.

Will wonders never cease? 

Recording "Matchmaker"

©TheaterMania

TheaterMania goes inside the recording booth with Alexandra Silber, Samantha Massell, and Melanie Moore.

Since opening the latest revival of Fiddler on the Roof, Alexandra Silber, Samantha Massell, and Melanie Moore have become Broadway's favorite sisters. As Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava, respectively, their familial chemistry is evident when they sing Sheldon Harnick's signature trio "Matchmaker" on the stage of the Broadway Theatre. However, their bond is even more palpable when the women deliver the number while scratching longingly on the glass walls of a recording booth. Go inside the making of the Broadway cast album — available March 10 exclusively at the Broadway Theatre and in stores March 18 — and see history in the making as these powerful ladies lay down another "Matchmaker" for the books.

"Dear Sweet Sewing Machine"

“Dear Sweet Sewing Machine” was cut from the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof before it opened in 1964 and did not appear in subsequent Broadway revivals. When the current production of Fiddler hit the recording studio for the cast album, they decided to add the Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock tune back into the mix. The song finds Motel and Tzeitel pledging their fealty to a newly purchased (and formerly mistreated) tool that will allow them to make a better life for themselves. In this exclusive music video, Adam Kantor and Alexandra Silber perform as Motel and Tzeitel both in the recording studio and onstage to bring the oft-overlooked tune to life. The video features a special appearance by Harnick and was directed and edited by Ben Gettinger. The song was arranged by Oran Eldor and produced by David Lai for Broadway Records and features Ted Sperling on piano, Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf on cello, Kelly Hall-Tompkins on violin, Joshua Camp on accordion and Jim Hersh on guitar and mandolin.

Recording the Fiddler on the Roof album

From Theater Mania:

Danny Burstein, Alexandra Silber, and more give us a first taste of the show's upcoming cast album. For any Broadway actor, getting to record a cast album is the epitome of a dream coming true.

But when that cast album is Fiddler on the Roof — and Fiddler on the Roof is your dream show — the experience is even more special.

TheaterMania followed Danny Burstein, Alexandra Silber, Samantha Massell, and the emotional cast of the show's latest Broadway revival as they took to the studio to preserve their stirring vocals.

The tradition lives on.

Fiddler on the Roof Broadway Opening Night

©Bruce Glikas

©Broadway Style Guide

©Broadway Style Guide

©Playbill

Video

Meet "The Daughters"

"Alexandra Silber, Samantha Massell, Melanie Moore, Jenny Rose Baker and Hayley Feinstein introduce us to the five daughters of Tevye (played by Danny Burstein) in Fiddler on the Roof."

Fiddler on Broadway Press Preview: "Matchmaker, Matchmaker"

Want a little sneak peak of the new Broadway production's take on "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" -- just two weeks into our rehearsal process?

We are loving this bold re-interpretation, and absolutely adoring one another.

Enjoy! 

"Matchmaker" from Fiddler on the Roof featuring Samantha Massell (Hodel), Melanie Moore (Chava), and Alexandra Silber (Tzeitel)

Caramoor Opening Weekend [à la mode...]

Opening weekend at Caramoor!

Plus, a grand little sneak peek at "Vanilla Ice Cream..."

Enjoy!

She Loves Me at Caramoor

Dear Friend,

Please join us in the beautiful woods of Katonah New York with an INCREDIBLE Broadway cast in what has fast become a full-fledged production directed and conducted by Ted Sperling with the stunning Orchestra of St. Lukes-- hear the original orchestrations in the FULL glory. "Dear Friends" Sheldon and Margie Harnick will be there, so should you. 

The Vanilla Ice Cream is on me. 

 Sincerely Yours, 

Dear Friend.
xo

Meeting Sheldon Harnick... again...

Sunday.

I just returned home from a The Jerry Herman Gala Concert at The Prince Edward Theatre in Soho. Larry Blank was conducting (he did the orchestrations for Fiddler, and my new friend).

I love Jerry Herman's music. I actually cannot think of a song that moves me more than Ribbons Down My Back. In fact, the beauty of Hello, Dolly! rings so true, and I cannot help but see the beauty of a show that for me is about people choosing to live-- some chosing to start living, others starting to live again. A young man and his best friend who are worried life may pass then by before they experience the joys of life and the world. Two vivacious widows, totally gripped by the loss of their remarkable husbands, and how they decide to live again. It's about begining; and beginning again, and the remarkable courage it sometimes takes to simply "join the human race."

I have a personal affinity for Hello, Dolly! but naturally Mack and Mabel and La Cage Aux Folles are triumphant pieces of theatre as well, and arguably some of the most influential of the 20th Century.

It was also a nice way for Damian and I to "join the human race" as well. We get so few opportunities to have civilized nights out. We enjoyed a lovely Japanese meal before heading to the theatre.

That said, the concert was a very disappointing (terribly under rehearsed, with some very disappointing performances from some rather famous tele-visual personalities and west enders), but the orchestra and Larry were astounding, and the after-show party was worth the entire evening.

The room was filled with lovely familiar faces, and low and behold there were Sheldon Harnick and his wife Margie, and they remembered us from the previous Tuesday evening! They came right over and we spent the whole evening chatting with them. What a treat. What a pleasure and honor.

Margie is a brilliant woman. Vivacious, exuberant, curious, endlessly interesting, and endlessly interested in everything. She is one of those people that makes you feel important. Leaves you warm with her wisdom, her stories, and her interest in yours. She asked about everything. Adventures, Glasgow, London, living and working with Damian.

"That's a hard one. It's all about balance and communication. You have to... share things, be passionate about, love, the same things..."

She looked away. At first off in to the distance, and then her thoughts led her to Sheldon's laughter across the room. Her eyes twinkled. He was talking with a group of people, and when he caught her eye he smiled and raised his glass a little. Margie nodded and looked back at me,

"He is my best friend."

* * *

We talked about the Midwest and about creativity. I asked him if he every felt a need to restructure any of his words, ever felt a desire to update them, improve them.
"Yes and No," he replied. "Sometimes I know that a lyric will never be 'just right' and I know I will have to live with it forever, always niggling at me. But other times, a lyric 'LOCKS IN.' I just know that it is the perfect description, the perfect expression. And I know that I was meant to find it, and that I have achieved something, however small."

He was so kind and interesting, and very sentimental. I told him about the importance of She Loves Me, and it's unparalleled significance to my life. And I mentioned the memory I have of my father's face at Interlochen, sitting in the back row of The Harvey Theatre, watching him sway and smile to during Days Gone By. I will never forget the look on his face, the pure childlike joy, and the pleasure I knew all of it was bringing him.

"Is your father no longer with us?" he asked softly.

"No," I said "... a few years ago."

"I find that very moving..." he put both hands on his chest and became very quiet. "You know, my father never got to see Fiddler either... and he never knew his father. He came over from Austria-Hungary when at just fifteen to find his dad, and he never found him..." he trailed off and looked down for a moment. And then,
"How difficult the train station scene must be for you..."

I nodded. I shifted. I really didn't know what to say.

So he touched my shoulder, and nodded back.

...

We walked them back to their hotel.
I hope they travel safely.
I hope they somehow know what this evening meant...

Meeting Sheldon Harnick

Tonight a 8.
No, not really.
Tonight at about 10:45.
Really.

What an incredible blessing to meet a man whose words have come to mean so much. Words that have literally orchestrated my entire life. I don't know how to describe the feeling and do it justice, but it was something like simultaneously thrilling and ...right. Like it was meant to happen. And it was moving and significantly meaningful.

He told us remarkable stories. Imagine being there at the beginning! Imagine. He told us they had no idea they had created such a global phenomenon. He told us when it opened for the very first time (previewing in Detroit at The Fisher Theatre!) It was very long and reviews were very mixed. The night before they were set to move the show to Washington DC he was awakened by a violent crash. Startled, he instantly rose and checked his apartment for intruders. The crash was caused by a picture on the wall that had fallen down and the glass had shattered into a million pieces. The picture was of Sholom Aleichem talking to Tevye. Utterly afraid, he got chills. He phoned a friend in New York:

"I don't know if we should take this is Washington, I think we should abandon this project, this is a very bad omen."
"Are you kidding?" said his friend, "It's a SMASH!"

This man is like a sculptor.
The sculptor can see that somewhere deep within a slab of marble, lies an incredible work of art. The sculptor is the only one who can see it, recognize it, bring it out, reveal it to the rest of us.

For a lyricist like Sheldon Harnick, it is exactly the same. The songs are out there, they need to exist. He discovers how to share them.

"Will wonders never cease...?"

Recording Fiddler

Islington, North London.
Brilliant Studio.
Monday morning. 11 am.
My first cast recording. Pretty thrilling.

Began with Tradition at 11, Henry in the booth, the rest of us outside with the band, singing into four strategically placed microphones. Hardly anyone was awake at the very un-theatrical hour of 11 am, but the excitement and pride soon gave us the necessary boost. After about three-ish takes with a few stops and starts, we all (including the band!) piled in to the sound booth to have a listen, and it was remarkable. What a powerful vocal company we have, and what a brilliant band! The arrangements came to life, the sense of pride and celebration rang from the speakers!


Observing everyone's faces... such a quiet pride, a swelling of the inner oceans, were evident in everyone's eyes. It is a beautiful piece of theatre, a glorious triumph, and we could hear it. My inner ocean swells recalling it.

We returned to the studio to record The Dream and Sabbath Prayer, and the women were released for an early lunch while the men recorded L'Chaim. After lunch we returned to tackle Sunrise, Sunset, and it was soon time to head off to the theatre. What an exhausting and exhilarating day!

* * *
Tuesday morning.
Bright and early.
10 am, in to record the solos. Yikes! (I'm not exactly a prima donna but that is one early hour to record for posterity...)

First Now I Have Everything which Damian licked in two takes. (He really, quite seriously, got it in one take, but they did a second for good measure). Amazing.

Frances and Natasha then arrived for Matchmaker which took a bit of time to adapt for a "radio" audience. We had to play around with the dialogue, the reactions and laughter, tone down the Yiddish accents slightly. It was fairly complicated, but we found it. Incredible the difference having to act for the microphone creates. I suppose the big lesson here is that one cannot act directly with the other actors in the room, the performance rings untrue, sounds too large and falsely theatrical. One has to act with the microphone itself, communicate with it as you would the people you are speaking to, whilst also viewing the microphone as the ear of the listener. It takes practice, especially with the dialogue.

I have to say it. Recording Far From the Home I Love was one of the most harrowing experiences of my professional life. As a perfectionist, I have been plagued for weeks by the idea of "eternity," and picturing students, professionals, and critics in years to come playing this recording on some history of musical theatre radio program; comparing it to the Original Cast Recording, to the Revival Cast Recording, to the Japanese Recording, etc. I had a vision of a younger version of myself sitting on a bunk bed at Interlochen listening to it and dissecting it, forming opinions-- just like I did with the likes of Audra McDonald and Barbara Cook.

It has been pretty intense inside the head of Al Silber.

So Larry Blank (our amazing arranger, and also director of the recording), sensing stress, took me aside before we began, and told me to just do it. "Just do what you do..."

... And so it was done.
Without too much stress.
And I wasn't unhappy with it, though it will never be THAT performance... you know the one... the perfect one inside your head...? That's the one.

Henry embraced me afterwards (in his usual full bear hug...a little misty may I add), and whispered, "you break me every time, girl...Well done." From him, from the man who "topples Topol", and from one perfectionist to another, this moment floored me. I don't know how else to articulate it.

So here it is.
The 2007 Cast Recording of Fiddler on the Roof.
On sale at Dress Circle and from the theatre.
Have a Listen And do let me know what you think.

Fiddler on the Roof West End Press Night

I think it is worth mentioning that the sizzle i felt during the climax of Tradition and the applause at the end of The Wedding Dance, were unlike anything I have ever experienced. Ever.

So.
After much toil, a lovely evening...

The Embassy Club, Mayfair
29 May 2007