Sheldon Harnick: Last News

Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles,” famed director Jerome Robbins kept asking producer Hal Prince, “What is this show about?”“For God’s sake, Jerry,” Prince replied. “It’s about tradition!”Its tryout in Detroit, Mich., where it ran over three and a half hours, was poorly received by critics.Despite those hurdles, “Fiddler,” starring Zero Mostel as Tevye and Beatrice Arthur as the Matchmaker, became a huge hit on Broadway, running eight years (a long time back then) and spawning multiple revivals and the Oscar-nominated 1971 Norman Jewison film starring Topol. Harnick’s lyrics are ingrained in the minds of millions: “Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match, find me a find, catch me a catch;” “If I were a rich man”; “To life! To life! L’Chaim!”  The original production won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and Bock and Harnick won the Tony for Best Composer and Lyricist.One actor who played Tevye the milkman during the 2005 revival of “Fiddler” was Harvey Fierstein, who mourned Harnick in a statement.“As a devotee of theater, as a Jew, as a person who admires brilliance and gentility, I loved Sheldon Harnick and today he left us,” Fierstein said.

Charna Flam Sheldon Harnick, lyricist for “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Fiorello!,” and creative partner to composer Jerry Block, died on Friday morning at his home in Manhattan, The New York Times confirmed. He was 99. Harnick met Bock in the late 1950s, and in 1958 they collaborated on “The Body Beautiful,” a musical set within the world of prizefighting. But quickly thereafter in 1959, they collaborated on “Fiorello!,” a musical painting a portrait of the notorious New York City politician Fiorello La Guardia. “Fiorello!,” written by George Abbott and Jerome Weidman, followed the New York City mayor, who held office from 1934-1945, and drew in theatergoers for nearly 800 performances. The production won a Pulitizer Prize for drama and three Tony Awards, including the prize for Best Musical, which it shared with “The Sound of Music.”

Acclaimed lyricist Sheldon Harnick has sadly died.

Sheldon Harnick, whose lyrics for the acclaimed stage and film musical Fiddler on the Roof are some of the most recognizable and beloved in Broadway history, died today at his home in Manhattan. He was 99.

She Loves Me (★★★★☆) is but one of many pleasures to behold in director Matthew Gardiner’s sprightly, delightful trip to that fabled shop around the corner.Miklós László’s 1937 play Parfumerie first established the venerable love story between contentious Hungarian shop clerks Georg and Amalia, spinning a romantic confection so sweet, it’s been revived, adapted, and reinvented in forms from film to this beloved musical-comedy, originally produced on Broadway in 1963.The snappy book by Joe Masteroff has held up well, and, while the waltzing score, with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, can seem a tad old-fashioned, the songs shine like gems when placed in their most advantageous setting.Gardiner and company have done plenty to create that proper atmosphere, starting with Lee Savage’s set, which opens like a music box to reveal the pristine, pastel-pretty shop floor of Maraczek’s Parfumerie.Reconfiguring like some happy-go-lucky Transformer around a centerstage turntable, the set impresses while offering Gardiner and choreographer Kelly Crandall D’Amboise myriad opportunities to keep the actors and decor moving in amusing directions.Adam Honoré’s lighting design doesn’t always add as helpfully to the scenery, but contributes beautifully to standout numbers like “A Romantic Atmosphere” and “Dear Friend.” It’s the performances, though, that light up every scene.Ali Ewoldt’s demure yet daring Amalia Balash bubbles with charm and nervous energy, unaware she’s engaged in a pen-pal romance with the one man she leasts gets along with in real life, fellow parfumerie clerk Georg Nowack, played a hint too gruffly by Deven Kolluri.The pair sing wonderfully, solo and in tandem, but the show’s most successful duet

A new film version of the classic musical Fiddler on the Roof is in the works with Hamilton director Thomas Kail set to direct!