Glaser cops top role in Fiddler

Bock and Harnick’s - standards like If I Were A Rich Man, Matchmaker Matchmaker, Sunrise Sunset, To Life and Tradition - and Joseph Stein’s adaptation of the short stories by Sholem Aleichem perfectly captured life in a Jewish shtetl or small town in early 20th century Tsarist Russia.

There’s been a few revivals over the years and on Wednesday the latest, starring Paul Michael Glaser, opens for a four-night run at the Wycombe Swan.

It’s a far cry, and a few decades, from his heartthrob role in the TV action-cop series Starsky and Hutch (and yes, I used to be a fan), but we’re set to see a more mature performance without a signature pullover in sight.

Glaser plays the hero of the tale, Tevye, the dairyman, who is much troubled by the need to find suitable husbands for his five daughters.

Glaser, actor, director, poet and now author, has a connection with the show that stretches back to the 1960s.

“The producers got in touch with my agent in England and asked - would I be interested in playing Tevye? I said I’d love to do it. What’s not to like about playing such a part?

“I was a young actor, doing a play in New York with the British actor Donald Pleasence. We were appearing at a venue next to the theatre where Fiddler on the Roof was playing - the two Stage Doors were opposite to each other. I happened to be seeing a girl in the Fiddler company and since my show finished about ten minutes before the end of Fiddler, I’d quickly get changed and meet this young lady and we’d stand in the wings and watch the last five minutes of the performance every night.”

The romance may not have lasted but the connection with Fiddler was maintained when Paul was cast as the tutor and Bolshevik revolutionary Perchik who falls in love with Hodel, Tevye’s second daughter, in the 1971 film version of the musical.

“For years, I’d find myself humming a tune and it would be a song from Fiddler on the Roof,” reveals Paul.

“For one thing, it has an amazing score. For another, it’s a universal story which everyone can understand. It’s about the everyday problems which we all have and how we manage to deal with them, how we achieve a certain sense of well-being. But it also means a great deal to Jewish people in particular.

“Tevye is a gigantic part. It’s also given me an excuse to grow a beard.”

In 1975, Paul landed a leading role opposite David Soul in the seminal police series Starsky and Hutch. It ran for a further four years and it established both men as international stars.

“I think that it finally dawned on me that I was always going to be associated with the series and I have made peace with that fact.

“Starsky was a very interesting character and I was able to play him on so many different levels. I was able to explore a whole range of possibilities with him.”

Paul enjoys directing films but he also seems to have rediscovered his love of the stage. He’s been a frequent visitor to these shores over the years but latterly it’s been for professional reasons, playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan in Bromley and giving his Abanazar in Aladdin in Sunderland. Both characters, dyed-in-the-wool rotters, must have been immense fun to play.

“The stage is the actor’s medium and acting on stage is something I’ve started to wrap my arms around; I’m so fond of it. I loved playing the

role of Captain Hook and having the opportunity to walk to the edge of the stage, stare at the children and growl at them - ‘Excuse me. Did you say something?’”

Fiddler On The Roof runs until Saturday. For tickets call the box office 01494 512000 or visit www.wycombeswan.co.uk