"The essential sweetness-cum-pathos of Aleichem’s life and his genius...This Tevye is a small work that elicits chuckles, not guffaws; sniffs, not sobs. The actors work hard and even brings the audience into the act...It’s delightful to see the Tevye characters interpreted from the inside out with minimal costumes...It celebrates what makes us interconnected humans with the attendant joys and sorrows...The show is an appealing combination of sadness and humor."
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"Take one black-box theater, three superb actors, and material that is, in turn, funny, poignant, nostalgic, and powerful, and the result is magic...In the hands of Yelena Shmulenson and Allen Lewis Rickman, and Shane Baker, the material presented has the ring of authenticity...Ms. Shmulenson and Messrs. Rickman and Baker are clearly proficient in Yiddish, but those who don’t speak Mama Loshen have nothing to fear."
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"The majority of the show is funny and plays around with exaggerated Jewish stereotypes...The actors articulated the historic language with what seemed like professional ease...I don’t think you have to be Jewish or even Jewishly inclined to enjoy what this touching and hilarious show has to offer. 'Tevye' has something for everyone, Jewish, Yiddish-speaking or none of the above. Beyond tradition, as a celebration of the things that make us human, 'Tevye' succeeds."
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"For most of us Sholom Aleichem calls to mind the lovable characters of the musical, 'Fiddler on the Roof': Tevye, the milkman, his wife Golde and their three daughters. But, in fact, the Yiddish writer was much more...On a bare stage, these actors bring their characters to life, with little to aid them but their own talent...Seeing 'Tevye Served Raw' brings us back to the real Tevye, the one Sholem Aleichem created before nostalgia and security softened his edges."
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"Three actors-Yelena Shmulenson, Allen Lewis Rickman (Velvel in the Coen Brothers' 'A Serious Man') and Shane Baker ('the best-loved Episcopalian on the Yiddish stage today')-manage the feat of bringing five of Aleichem's stories-adapted and translated by Baker and Rickman-to life under Rickman's incisive and warm direction. Sourcing the original, nitty-gritty shtetl-soaked tales, makes 'Tevye Served Raw,' if possible, more passionate and involving than the musical."
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"When Jews weren’t weeping and lamenting, they laughed about their recognition of truth...Sholem Aleichem recorded their doings in the tricky Yiddish outsider/underdog vernacular, difficult-to-impossible to translate into warm and amusing English. Yet this task was accomplished...Try to see it. This amazing trio, Baker, Rickman and Shmulenson are doing something very honest and special. They deserve everyone’s support."
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"There are few New York actors more capable of bringing true Yiddishkeit to the performance of Yiddish theatre than Allen Lewis Rickman…Tevye doesn't sing, but the role's dramatic power comes across in three…selections…The other selections…provide insightful satirical sketches depicting late 19th-century Russian Jews...Baker and Rickman's translations are ripe and colloquial…Several selections tend to go on too long, but fizzle for lack of sufficiently strong payoffs."
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“Three talented people acting in Yiddish are providing an entertaining delve into stories by the celebrated Yiddish writer Aleichem...A combination of the humorous and the serious in the chosen stories...The cast is extremely versatile...Performances come across as a salute to the preservation of Yiddish, as well as further evidence of how creative Sholem Aleichem was in capturing a way of life with its pleasures and perils.”
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