Quick Fiddler reaction; more later when I have time

In a word: magnificent. Topol is one heckuva spry seventy-three-year-old, and that astonishing speaking voice of his, with its timber and range and expressiveness, has lost nothing over the years -- a Stradivarius of an instrument played by a master.

Also, as much as I love Fiddler, it is very difficult for me to watch, and I hadn't actually sat down and watched it in several years. And I was completely and disastrously taken off guard by something I didn't suspect: it is much harder on me to watch the show now that I have daughters who call me "Papa" than it was when my only two daughters both called me "Daddy." You wouldn't think it would make that much difference but it did. And if it makes that much difference in my empathy and identification with Tevye just to hear Tzeitl and Hodel and Chava addressing him the way Anya and Natasha and Kinya address me, I can only imagine what it must be like if you're actually a Russian Jewish papa...I myself could hardly bear to watch the train station scene (and in fact didn't see the last minute or so of it last night because I had unaccountably gone blind), and I'm not sure if I were Russian and Jewish that I'd be able to make it all the way through to the end at all.

More thoughts later; have to work at the moment. Just wanted to say it was a great show and a delightful night.