Fiddler on the Roof

is coming to Jacksonville. With Topol. TOPOL PEOPLE! TOPOL! Topol made the movie for me. He made Tevye real.

I've seen Fiddler on stage before. But it wasn't the same. Tevye was flat. Actually, most of the characters were flat. Micah and I sat next to each other through it, quoting lines to each other. Annoyed that it wasn't right, they didn't say it right. They skipped lines. They skipped scenes. They didn't understand the culture they were supposed to be portraying. They didn't understand the depth of the story. They didn't understand that this was a true story in so many ways. They didn't understand that they were not only telling the story of a few girls and their relationship with their father, that they were not only telling the story of a Jewish community before the Russian revolution, but that they were telling the story of anyone that got in the way of the revolutionaries in Russia, they were telling a story of faith and growth, they were telling the story of change, they were telling a story of family, they were telling a story that spoke to my soul. I can identify with so many of the characters. But I couldn't watching it that time. Micah and I had to go find the movie and watch it afterwards. We had to in order to heal our wounds at hearing our Fiddler so tortuously portrayed. They were dead. They made the story feel dead.

But with Topol .... with Topol it should be different. He knows the story. He lives the story. It was as if he was born to play the role of Tevye. I can't even describe what a difference Topol makes when playing in this story. I suppose it IS possible that I just saw a bad cast, but something tells me that Topol playing Tevye would make or break the stage performance for me.

For semi-decent seats, it would cost Chris and I $56.20 to go see it. That's not all that terrible, right? It's not like I'm asking him to spend $100+ on the performance (and that's just for the next level up seats). And I'm not asking him to take me to several showings of it. I'm not asking to go to the theatre ever weekend (but wouldn't that be FUN?). I'm only asking that for one Thursday night, we get someone to watch the kids and we go see Fiddler, we go see Topol in Fiddler.

After all. It's TOPOL. And it's his farewell tour. And it's TOPOL.

Besides, he owes me. He didn't take me to Midland. And I may never have the chance to say goodbye to my grandads because of it. So he owes me. Topol is NOT too much to ask to help make up for it.



UPDATE: 3-4-09
Chris said yes! We're going!