TEVYE TURNS THE TIDE

TEVYE TURNS THE TIDE
In 1964 Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick determined to write a musical based upon Sholom Aleichem’s “Tevye and his Daughters”. Much to their surprise it became the longest running musical of history between 1964 and 1979 when the record of 3,242 performances was broken. Jerome Robbins directed the production, which opened out of New York in Washington D.C. Slightly before the opening, he registered concern that, though the string of interesting stories about Tevye and his daughters was nice, it had no cohesive theme. He asked Sheldon and Jerry if they could come up with a song that would tell the through-line of the work, a theme that was universal to Tevye and his people of Anatevka in 1905. “Could you state it in a song or a sentence” said Robbins, causing the spark of genius to spring forth in Harnick’s mind who responded with “That, I can tell you in one world...tradition! Fiddler on the Roof not only altered the course of Broadway history, but it has changed the way in which the world has viewed Judaism and the plight of persecution. It has caused us all to stand in the shoes of Tevye and love him, and love his family, his traditions and his people. As we witness the pogroms of Russia take place against Tevye’s people, we are assaulted ourselves. We laugh with him, we cry with him, we ache with his decisions, and we understand him, because we see ourselves in him. These qualities are the salient features that distinguish genius and master work. Along with the remarkable diary of a 13 year old girl in Amersterdam named Anne Frank, Fiddler on the Roof, has done more to turn back the tide of anti-Semitism than any forces of the last part of the 20th Century. If you think Fiddler on the Roof is a mere entertainment, or that music and drama serves only to amuse and divert, look again! Art and Political Correctness, 21st Century Concerns In 1949, during the post-war euphoria of the rebuilding of the American Dream, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, ventured forth with a bold new Musical Theatre work, South Pacific. They worked in collaboration with brilliant minds and unique talents to create a work which would examine the war, but which war? The based their plot upon stories from James A. Michener’s (1907-) reminiscence of World War II entitled Tales of the South Pacific. They solicited the directional genius of Joshua Logan and the remarkable performance talents of Mary Martin as Nelly Forbush, the little girl from Little Rock, and Ezio Pinza, maturing matinee idol of the Metropolitan Opera as the French plantation owner, Emile de Becque to create the award winning performance. As Rodgers and Hammerstein were presenting the work to some angels, people willing to invest in a show, they were soundly challenged by the group for one of the songs...a song that lasts only 58 seconds, but elicits profound comment. The song is called You’ve Got to be Taught. It deals with the idea, that prejudice, bigotry, racism and tolerance and any of it’s ugly relatives, are a product of learning, not birth. Children do not hate natively because of difference, it is a learned trait. The angels, felt the piece was to affrontive, causing polarity of audience members. They postulated that the theatre was a place where people went to get away from their troubles, not to be reminded of them. People come to be entertained, they proposed, not to be enlightened. That was a turning point for Rodgers and Hammerstein, because they felt quite the contrary. They believed strongly that though the war had officially ended in August of 1945, it continues to rage in our hearts to this day. The war they were referring to is the war of intolerance and prejudice. South Pacific, is not so much about the war in the South Pacific as it is the war in the hearts of the characters, Lieutenant Cable and Nellie Forbush. The battle between the heart, which knows that love crosses the boundaries of race, creed, or nationality, and the mind which clings to the teachings of our surroundings. Rodgers and Hammerstein determined that they would produce the show themselves and risk the consequences. The show was a success, but they had the same challenge when South Pacific was made into a motion picture in 1958. They held their ground and the song is included. Note the lyrics: You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear, You’ve got to be taught from year to year. It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear, You’ve got to be carefully taught. You’ve got to be taught to be afraid of people Whose eyes are oddly made, And people whose skin is a different shade You’ve got to be carefully taught. You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late Before you are six or seven or eight, To hate all the people your relatives hate You’ve got to be carefully taught. Being married to a child psychologist, which has been good for our marriage, since she understands my behavior, I am informed that this is a true principle. Children are who they will be essentially by the time they are five years of age. The personality traits which may magnify or even calcify over time are planted and established at a very early age. Children are “color blind” when it comes to prejudice. They are natively open and loving, it is society which teaches them to notice differences and be threatened by it. I hope to live to the day when this ignoble trait of man will be eliminated. It is possible, and this song from South Pacific is a start. In contrast to the general public support that was enjoyed for the war effort of World War II, their was quite a different public perceptions two decades later during the Vietnam conflict which lasted from the mid-1960s until it was in full escalation in 1968 until 1970. There was a great deal of mixed opinion on the matter of involvement in Vietnam. In 1966 a musical entitled Hair appeared on Broadway, crystalizing the discontent and rebellion of the time. It was the epigram of the Hippie movement, bearing with it all the disillusion and rancor of the time. The catchphrase of “Make love not war” was exposed onto the stage in boldness never before seen in the American Theatre. At the conclusion of Act I, cast members began to disrobe as an expression of their own personal freedom. Whether that was indeed the case, or whether it was a vulgar attempt to gain public “exposure” remains to be seen. What is important is the effect it had in polarizing the American Society. It caused the so-called establishment to bristle and take offense from the vulgarity, obscenity and general boorishness of the production (the desired effect from the producers), and the new, hip, generation reveled in the shock value and raised it up to celebrity stature. The fact that Hair died a very quick death after 1970 is proof that it was popular culture at it’s utmost, intending to be consumed, and then discarded. The so-called Age of Aquarius took on universal understanding, and the era of media affrontal began. Hair launched an era which has refined itself to an art in these last days of the 20th century...namely vulgarity and crassness at the nadir point to catch attention. The pendulum of public decency began it’s meteoric swing to the left, and appears at this point to have left the fulcrum and gone into orbit.