SCW Cultural Arts to Present WONDER OF WONDERS: FIDDLER AT 50!

Stephen C. Widom Cultural Arts at Temple Emanuel of Great Neck (150 Hicks Lane) will commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Broadway musical, Fiddler on the Roof, on Sunday, April 26, 2015 at 3:00 p.m., with a unique celebration in story and song, entitled, Wonder of Wonders: Fiddler at 50!

The creative process that led to the legendary hit show is a lively, provocative tale, as told by Alisa Solomon, author of the critically-acclaimed, Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof. Solomon is the program's featured host, and her narrative enjoys the accompaniment of Broadway and Fiddler veterans Bill Nolte, Lori Wilner, Jenny Romaine, and Nick Orfanella, as they reprise the beloved songs of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. Produced by Shirley Romaine in conjunction with SCW Cultural Arts and directed by Gary John La Rosa, there will be a special guest appearance by Robert Aberdeen, who was in the original Broadway cast. Jeremy Robin Lyons is music director.

Fiddler on the Roof premiered at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit in the summer of 1964. In its first incarnation, starring Zero Mostel, it ran almost three and one-half hours long and, according to the critics, was considered very mediocre at best, with few prospects for success," said director/choreographer La Rosa, whose credits include Raising the Roof - the historic and star-studded Broadway gala celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, which he also conceived. "Undaunted, under the determined and paternal direction of Jerome Robbins," Mr. La Rosa continues, "the creative team of Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein worked diligently, reshaping the show through a Washington DC engagement until its New York debut. The morning after the September 22, 1964 opening at Broadway's Imperial Theatre, history was made. The box office line extended around the block. Overnight, the show became the kind of 'super-nova' one only dreams about in the theatre."

Alisa Solomon's book, Wonder of Wonders, called "a soul-stirring joy to read" by playwright Tony Kushner, "exuberant" by The Wall Street Journal, and an "exemplary critical history" by The Washington Post, reveals the profound legacy of a show about tradition that itself became a tradition. It was named an "editor's choice" in the New York Times Book Review and won the Jewish Journal Book Prize and the George Freedley Memorial Award presented annually by the Theatre Library Association. Solomon is a professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where she directs the MA concentration in Arts & Culture. A longtime theater critic and dramaturg, she is the author of Re-Dressing the Canon: Essays on Theater and Gender (winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism).