If He Were
A Rich Man
After more than 1,300 performances as Tevye, it's "Sunrise, Sunset"
again for Theodore Bikel at the Fisher Theatre.
REED JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
H
ow can you be present at a
Passover service when you're
several thousand miles away?
Even the most devout Jew
might blanch at that ontological teaser.
Not Theodore Bikel.
Bikel found himself in precisely that
spot a couple of years ago, during his
umpteenth road tour of Fiddler On the
Roof. The company was spending Passover
in Portland, Ore., leaving Bikel faced with
the prospect of missing seder at home for
the first time in his life.
No problem. Bikel simply had his sons
rig up a loudspeaker in the family dining
room, and he performed the ceremony via
telephone. Contingencies like this, he says
uncomplainingly, are part of an actor's ex-
istence.
"You take it, because that's what my life
is," observes Bikel, who'll return with Fid-
dler to the Fisher Theatre for six perfor-
mances April 23-28. "If I wanted a
sedentaryclife, I would've been a bank
clerk."
Cl)
LU
LU
•-)
CD
CC
LU
LU
1--
8
2
As things turned out, Chase Manhat- Tevye, the unconquerable
tan's loss was the entertainment world's Russian milkman, in Fid-
gain. Ever since he joined the Habimah dler.
It's a role that neatly
Theatre in Tel Aviv at age 19, Bikel sel-
dom has been away for long from stage merges Bikel the actor with
lights, cameras or TV monitors. Ap- Bikel the activist.
"There's no doubt that
proaching his 72nd birthday, he can look
back at an enviably active career, among anything that succeeds in
Bikel appeared in The African Queen in 1952, and went on
whose high points are a Best Supporting the general arena that has a Theodore
to be featured in more than 25 films.
Actor Oscar nomination for The Defiant Jewish theme bolsters self-
esteem," he says, "and that gives a shot of ofFiddler, Bikel has irrevocably stamped
Ones and an Emmy Award in 1988.
As if to assert the inseparability of art adrenalin to a sometime-flagging notion his own personality on the show. He's com-
mitted to the tour at least through this
and politics, Bikel has been equally visi- of Jewish pride."
Wherever he happens to be at the mo- summer, after which it may go on to Japan.
ble in the Actors Equity Association (he
"Oh, I'm sure I will stay with it," he says,
was vice president from 1973 to 1982) and ment, Bikel is always several places at
in the Democratic Party. He spent five once. Those who watched him play Tevye "I have never contemplated natural re-
years as a Carter administration appointee in Detroit 18 months ago couldn't help but tirement any more than George Burns."
Witty and affable — if a tad reserved —
to the National Council for the Arts, and be impressed by his stamina and craft.
has served on the board of the human- Though Zero Mostel created the role on in person, Bikel turns sober whenever re-
rights organization Amnesty Internation- Broadway, and the Israeli actor Chaim ligion or politics is discussed. Raised in a
Topol starred in the 1971 screen version passionately socialist-Zionist household,
al.
he has strong feelings about organized la-
Yet perhaps his most prominent
bor and workers' rights.
achievement can be summed up in two Born May 2, 1924, in Vienna, Theodore Bikel made
Though his prominence makes him pop-
words: thirteen hundred. That's roughly his stage debut at age 19 as Tevye at the Habimah
ular as a speaker, he declines to tailor his
the number of times that Bikel has played Theater in Tel Aviv.
remarks to fit others' ideological agendas.
When asked to speak before a Jewish
group following the 1982 massacres in
Lebanon, he accepted only on the condi-
tion that he be allowed to state his own
views freely.
"I think the better Jew is the one who's
willing to look the truth in the eye. I'm not
a spin doctor for the Jewish community."
Not surprisingly, his outspokenness oc-
casionally has made him a target, partic-
ularly of the Jewish right wing.
"I had a concert of mine interrupted at
the Hollywood Bowl by the JDL (Jewish
Defense League), who ran down the aisle
shouting 'Traitor!' right as I was singing a
Jewish song. They were evicted. And I told
the audience that I hoped that by singing
my Jewish music, my Israel song, that I
demonstrated more loyalty, more convic-
tion and more fealty to the Jewish people
than all the shouting of hooligans."
❑
Theodore Bikel plays Tevye in the 30th-
`23 Theodore Bikel plays Tevye in the
30th-anniversary production of Fiddler
on the Roof, April 23-28 at the Fisher
Theatre. Performances-are at 8 p.m.
Tuesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and
Sunday-, and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets
are $22.50-$50. Call (313) 872-1000.