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Decent Quality Since 1847

More Fiddling Around

7/26/2013

5 Comments

 
On our world tour of Fiddler on the Roof and occasionally off-beat performances, we return to the home ground and as down-to-earth a performance as you'll get.

When Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway, it was a particular triumph for Zero Mostel who gave a scene-chewing, embrace the world performance. (I saw him revive the show years later in Los Angeles, and though he was known in to sometimes get bored and sleep-walk through the show, he didn't then, and was wonderful.)  His acclaim was such that it was assumed the show's success was due to him, and would close after he left  It, of course, was still running many years later when the unknown Harry Goz took over the role.

But when Mostel left, the show's long-running success (and subsequent fame) was still a question mark, when his replacement took over.  That was a wonderful actor by the name of Herschel Bernardi.

Herschel Bernardi had a long, admired career, usually as a supporting actor, though he did get to star in a TV series, Arnie.  He's also probably best known for, of all things, just his voice -- he was the voice of Charlie the Tuna in the Star Kist ads.  That voice you still hear isn't Bernardi's who passed away in 1986, but it's a impersonation of him to sound the same.  And he was also the original voice of the Jolly Green Giant.
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Bernardi did a lot of TV and movies, most notably beside the above, in Peter Gunn, which got him a supporting Emmy nomination, and also the great movie, The Front, playing a harassed TV producer during the days of blacklisting.  He was one of the many actors in that film who had been blacklisted.

He also starred on Broadway in the fairly unsuccessful, but terrific musical Zorba, by Kander & Ebb.  Oddly, one of the big (unjustified) complaints about the show was that it had too much in common with Fiddler on the Roof.  It didn't, but the fact that a former Tevye (Bernardi) starred as Zorba, and it also featured Maria Karnilova, who'd been the original Golde in Fiddler on the Roof didn't help the wrong impression.  And Bernardi got lost again with a role when years later the show got revived with Anthony Quinn re-creating his film role as Zorba (with Lila Kedrova re-creating her film role, and the whole production directed by Michael Cacoyanis, who -- yes, you guessed it -- had directed the original film).  As a result, the musical of Zorba is now most remembered for the Anthony Quinn revival (which I also saw in Los Angeles, and loved...), rather than the Herschel Bernardi Broadway original. I listen to both cast albums, and they're both terrific, though for completely different reasons.  Bernardi can sing wonderful, Quinn can't sing a lick -- but boy, howdy, can he play Zorba, and brings a musical sense to his characterization.

And Bernardi s not remembered for Fiddler on the Roof either, of course.  That's rightly Zero Mostel.  Bernardi did release an album of the show's songs, having of course missed out on the original cast recording.

Happily, there's one video of Herschel Bernardi in Fiddler on the Roof.  (Unhappily, there's just one.)  It's him singing "If I Were a Rich Man" and he's...well, he's great.  Just absolutely great.  It may even be my favorite performance of the number.  It's human, outgoing, personal, funny and religious.  When he goes into Tevye's chant, it's an enthralling moment.  The video quality is faded, but everything else is vibrant.  I've spoken to people who saw Hershel Bernardi on stage in the role, and they've said he was every bit as wonderful as he is in this.  My only real complaint with the video is that it cuts off while he's singing the last word, so we don't get to hear the audience cheering.

In lieu of that, I offer my own cheering here.
5 Comments
Shelly Goldstein
7/26/2013 10:28:33 pm

His performance is spectacular. Much more human and filled with humor than most.

Reply
Robert Elisberg
7/27/2013 01:12:25 am

Clearly, we are in agreement. That's what stands out, how personal and human the performance is. I've watched this almost a dozen times, and there are *still* moments so small that are so moving I think, "Wow." Yet as you note, it is also very funny.

Reply
Bob Claster link
7/27/2013 02:51:51 am

In the mid-'70s, because Bernardi was my friends "Uncle Heshy," we went to see him in a play in Beverly Hills, "The Goodbye People." Written by the wonderful Herb Gardner ("A Thousand Clowns"), and co-starring Patty Duke and Peter Bonerz, the play was unforgettable, and Bernardi was amazing. A fine actor indeed.

Reply
Robert Elisberg
7/27/2013 03:36:59 am

I saw that production of "The Goodbye People." It was a rewritten revival of Gardner's play that had flopped on Broadway a decade before. It was great, and its run got extended. It did so well, in fact, with so much acclaim, that they took the show back to Broadway.

I'll always remember the New Yorker magazine's review, one of the most pathetically dismissive I've ever read in a respectable publication. In almost its entirety, the review read (as best I can recall) -- "The Goodbye People was a bad play 10 years ago, and it's a bad play now, and it will be a bad play when Herb Gardner brings it back in 10 years." The full review!

Idiotically thoughtless. It's a terrific play -- I re-read it last year, and it remains terrific -- and even IF the reviewer actually didn't like it, the review deserved better. My sense though was that this was New York bias, that the reviewer was saying, "We in NY closed this play a decade ago, and how dare Los Angeles (!!) tell people it's actually good now that it's been rewritten."

Side note: the title comes from a great speech when the main character explains that when you call people and want something from them, they don't know what to say or how to deal with you, but when they get to the Goodbye they come alive and you'll never hear from them again: "'It was so great talking to you, it's been so long, we have to get together.' They're the Goodbye People."

Happy addendum: There is a movie version that Herb Gardner directed. It's not a great film (it's fine, but talky and a better play), but at least it has a life. And a terrific cast -- Martin Balsam (who won an Oscar in Gardner's "A Thousand Clowns") and Judd Hirsch. Also very good supporting actors, including Ron Silver and Gene Sax, who played Chuckles in "A Thousand Clowns".

Reply
treva silverman
7/28/2013 08:39:19 am

Thanks, Bob, for uncovering this gem of a master class of
musical performing.

For a number of years, until his death, Herschel was one of my closest friends. We met at a place that's no longer there, a weight-loss resort called Bermuda Inn, in Lancaster. In our off-hours, when we were bemoaning our growling stomachs, Herschel and I would sneak off to a corner where there was a (finely-tuned) piano, and I would accompany him while he sang. He had just recovered from a lung operation and could only sing softly, but a softly-singing Herschel was more magnificent than most brilliant singers in full strength.

What you, Bob, and the others saw in his performance here is who Herschel was. Deeply understanding, deeply nuanced, and the humor -- my god, the humor.

I've often felt that Herschel was, in many ways, my mentor in life,
His wisdom often made me gasp. Late in life Herschel was working on a one-man show called "Jew" about what it meant to be a
Jew. I read some of it and it was magnificent. It was also
silly and funny and highly introspective. He felt he needed a co-writer and asked for my advice -- I put him together with Lorenzo Music (oddly enough, also known for his voice). The two worked
together for a while but then, for some reason I don't remember,
the collaboration stopped. Had he finished it and performed it,
what a triumph that would have been.

I miss him so much. His much much too-early death (I hate that word) left a gap in my life, and all the others who loved him through friendship or through his performances. This glorious tape brought it all back to me: the elegance of his mind and heart and his fearlessness in letting the audience see it all.

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    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



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