Cast & Creative - Fiddler on the Roof

Joseph Stein

Book

Joseph Stein won the Tony Award and Drama Critics Circle Award for Fiddler on the Roof.

His other musicals include Zorba (Tony nomination, Drama Critics Circle Award); Rags (Tony nomination); The Baker’s Wife (Olivier Award nomination, London); Take Me Along (Tony nomination); Juno; Irene (starring Debbie Reynolds); The King of Hearts; All About Us; and Enter Laughing: The Musical (Lucille Lortel nomination, outstanding revival). He also co-authored, with Alan Jay Lerner, Carmelina; and with Will Glickman, Mr. Wonderful (starring Sammy Davis, Jr.), The Body Beautiful, and Plain and Fancy. His plays are Enter Laughing, Before the Dawn, and Mrs. Gibbons’ Boys.

Stein grew up in the Bronx and first became a social worker while pursuing writing on the side. He began his career in TV and radio, writing for The Sid Caesar Show, Your Show of Shows, Henry Morgan Show and many others, and for personalities including Tallulah Bankhead, Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason and Zero Mostel. On Broadway he made his debut contributing to the theatrical revues Lend an Ear (featuring Carol Channing) and Alive and Kicking. He wrote the screenplays of Enter Laughing and Fiddler on the Roof, for which he won the Screen Writers Guild Award. In 2008, he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Jerry Bock

Music

Jerry Bock was born in New Haven, Connecticut on November 23rd, 1928. That was his first out-of-town try out.

Thirty years later, he and Sheldon Harnick gave birth to The Body Beautiful in Philadelphia. That was his fourth out-of-town try out. In between was Catch a Star, a fleeting revue that, according to critic Walter Kerr, posed the question; “What do you call something between a flop and a smash?” Kerr’s answer? “A flash”. Next, Jule Styne and Tommy Valano midwifed Bock, Larr Holofcener and George Weiss into birthing Mr. Wonderful starring Sammy Davis Jr. The title song and “Too Close For Comfort” are still active off springs.

Bock and Harnick’s celebrated collaboration yielded five scores in seven years. The Body Beautiful, Fiorello! (winner of Broadway’s triple crown: The Tony Award, The New York Critics’ Circle Award and The Pulitzer Prize in drama, the fourth musical to do so). Tenderloin, She Loves Me – (winner of Variety’s poll of critics as best musical, citing Bock and Harnick as best composer and lyricist). Fiddler on the Roof — (nine Tonys, notably the citation for best musical of the year), The Apple Tree and The Rothschilds.

In addition to the 1989 silver anniversary production of Fiddler (from which a major excerpt was featured in Jerome Robbins’ Broadway), a highly esteemed revival of The Rothschilds enjoyed a successful run off-Broadway the following year. Since then, Bock and Harnick were triply honored by being inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame, receiving the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Spirit of American Creativity Award from the Foundation for a Creative America. But the “award” that Bock held near and dear was the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Wisconsin. It was there that he met his wife Patti, and it was there that he decided to be a composer. Mr. Bock was a member of a number of professional guilds and associations, among which the BMI Foundation, Inc. was a membership he relished. As for Patti, his wife, George, their son and Portia, their daughter, Bock confessed they were his longest running hit. Jerry Bock passed away in 2010.

Stuart Burt CDG

Casting Director

Stuart is the recipient of 5 CDG Awards for best casting in theatre.

Credits include: Sunset Boulevard (Broadway/Savoy Theatre. Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival); Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Gillian Lynne Theatre/National Theatre/Sheffield Theatres. Olivier Award for Best New Musical); Romeo and Juliet (Duke of York’s Theatre); Cabaret (Kit Kat Club/Playhouse Theatre. Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival); Sister Act (Dominion Theatre/Eventim Apollo/UK Tour); Little Shop of Horrors (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Muriel’s Wedding (Leicester Curve); Just For One Day (Old Vic/Toronto); Mrs Doubtfire (Shaftesbury Theatre/Manchester Opera House); Sylvia (Old Vic); The Seagull (Harold Pinter Theatre. Nominated for WhatsOnStage Award for Best Casting Direction); Chariots of Fire, White Christmas, Miss Saigon, She Loves Me, Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Crucible); Here You Come Again (Leeds Playhouse/Riverside Studios/UK Tour); The Outrun (Edinburgh International Festival); & Juliet (Shaftesbury Theatre/UK Tour); Cyrano de Bergerac (Playhouse Theatre/Theatre Royal Glasgow/BAM); The Drifters Girl (Garrick Theatre); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (London Palladium/UK Tour/Toronto); East is East (National Theatre/Birmingham Rep); Betrayal (Harold Pinter Theatre/Broadway); Pinter at the Pinter (Harold Pinter Theatre); The Two Character Play (Hampstead Theatre); The Seagull, A Doll’s House (Lyric Hammersmith); The Rocky Horror Show (UK Tour/European Tour); The Madness of George III (Nottingham Playhouse); Doctor Faustus (Duke of York’s); The Maids, The Homecoming, The Hothouse, The Ruling Class, Richard III, Macbeth, The Spoils, Buried Child, The Pride (Trafalgar Studios); The End of Longing, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Playhouse Theatre).

Film & TV credits include: The Ashley Madison Affair (Hulu); Dance 100 (Netflix); Locked Up Abroad (National Geographic); Dr Seuss’ The Grinch Musical! (NBC/Sky); Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Ballroom Dancer Casting. Warp Pictures).