Dudu Fisher

'Something Old, Something New'

Mazer Theater

197 East Broadway, at Jefferson Street, Lower East Side

The Israeli entertainer Dudu Fisher calls his latest show ''Something Old, Something New,'' but he might just as well have called it ''Something for Everyone.''

Appearing through Dec. 8 at the Mazer Theater on the Lower East Side, Mr. Fisher, with his expressive voice, ranges across the repertory from the cantorial to the operatic, from musical theater to pop. With his actorly skills, he can bring a tear to the eye (his or the audience's), a catch to the throat, a smile to the lips, and call forth laughter.

As usual he invokes his wife and three children, tells how he began as a cantor and was drawn to show business when he saw ''Les Misérables'' in London in 1986 and how he became determined to play Jean Valjean, which he did, from Israel and the West End to Broadway.

So, in an intermissionless evening directed by Richard Jay-Alexander, Mr. Fisher, backed by a piano and bass and singing in English and Hebrew, weaves his liturgical training and his love affair with musicals into a warmhearted, ingratiating entertainment that spans music from a setting of the Kaddish prayer to Gershwin, Jolson, ''Oklahoma!,'' Elvis and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In ''Something,'' Mr. Fisher can overdo the sentiment, and some of his anecdotes could profit from pruning; but he sets out to entertain, and that he surely does. LAWRENCE VAN GELDER - New York Times By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

THEATER REVIEW; A Musical Autobiography With a Range of Styles
By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER
Published: May 04, 1999
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Of the many anecdotes told by the Israeli singer Dudu Fisher in his one-man show at the Jewish Repertory Theater, perhaps the most illuminating is that his grandfather wanted him to be a cantor and his voice teacher an opera singer.

In ''Never on Friday,'' his amiable and ingratiating entertainment playing through May 16 at Playhouse 91, Mr. Fisher manages to satisfy anyone who shares their yearnings and a few more people besides.

These would include Elvis fans and devotees of Broadway musicals like ''Cats,'' ''Les Miserables'' and ''Phantom of the Opera'' as well as traditionalists warmed by Yiddish favorites like ''Raisins and Almonds'' and ''My Yiddishe Mama'' and Italian staples like ''O Sole Mio.''

Mr. Fisher's show, in short, has something for everyone, expressed in a palette of languages and styles. ''Never on Friday'' shows off the wide-ranging voice that has taken Mr. Fisher, a cantor since 1973, to synagogues around the world and also to Broadway and the West End as Jean Valjean in ''Les Miserables,'' to the screen as the voice of Moses in Steven Spielberg's ''Prince of Egypt'' and into concert halls with orchestras like the Israel Philharmonic.

Smoothly directed by Ran Avni, the founder and artistic director of the Jewish Repertory Theater, and backed by a polished five-piece band, Mr. Fisher's intermissionless performance of roughly 90 minutes is at once an autobiography set to song, a display of a vocal talent that resists confinement and an expression of religious faith that is reflected in the show's title.

As written by Larry Amoros, the anecdotal and musical autobiography takes Mr. Fisher from joking about his nickname (he is actually David Fisher), to reflecting on the influence of his grandfather, to his training and the beginning of his love affair with musical theater when a request that he sing ''Memory'' at a bat mitzvah prompted him to attend a performance of ''Cats.''

Along the way, Mr. Fisher has some fun with Rossini, mothers-in-law and opera Yiddish style in a number called ''Shvigaro'' and turns cantorial with a performance of the Yom Kippur prayer ''Kol Nidre.''

''Never on Friday'' is a show calculated to pleasure the ear, tug at the heart and provide an occasional chuckle, and Mr. Fisher possesses the spectrum of talents to make it work.

NEVER ON FRIDAY

Conceived and performed by Dudu Fisher; written by Larry Amoros; directed by Ran Avni; musical director, Gil Nagel; sets by Paul S. Morrill; costumes by Shai Shalom; lighting by Richard Latta; production manager, Jonathan Bradley; stage manager, Peggy R. Samuels. Presented by the Jewish Repertory Theater, Mr. Avni, artistic director; Michael Lichtenstein, managing director, in association with the 92d Street Y and Bidur La'am, Nachum Beitel, president. At Playhouse 91, 316 East 91st Street, Yorkville.


- New York Times By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

With career that spans over 30 years, covers several continents, 60-year-old performer ventures into Missouri.
Dudu Fisher Photo: Israel Bardugo If anything, Israeli singer Dudu Fisher says he wants to cut down his workload. With a career that spans more than 30 years and covers several continents, the 60-year-old performer, who spends three-quarters of his time abroad, wants to spend more time with his family in Israel. And yet he has just ventured into new territory in Branson, Missouri, in the heart of the American Bible Belt, and he couldn’t be more excited about it.

Recently returned from Poland, where he participated in the annual March of the Living, Fisher spent a week in Israel before heading off to Branson to perform his one-man show Jerusalem from May 1 to 20.

For Fisher the March of the Living, Jerusalem and the Christian world are all intertwined. Fisher’s father is a Holocaust survivor who, along with 16 members of his family, was saved by a Christian family in Poland. Later honored as Righteous Gentiles, Alfred and Maria Kwarchak hid the Jewish family in a bunker for 18 months during the war.

This year’s March of the Living was particularly moving, says Fisher, as the group that went to Poland included 15 US Army veterans who had taken part in liberating the concentration camps.

Now in their 90s, the men were dressed in full uniform for the special ceremony held in Krakow. As they took to the stage, they received a standing ovation that lasted for 10 minutes.

And when the band played the American national anthem, the men snapped to attention and saluted. They stood so straight and saluted with such precision that they looked like 19-year-olds again, says Fisher. But the most emotional part was when a man who had been liberated by those very soldiers walked on stage and made a speech that brought the audience to tears.

When the March of the Living group came to Israel for the last leg of the trip, Fisher performed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and in Latrun on Israel’s Independence Day.

To Fisher, who was born in Petah Tikva and makes his home there to this day, Jerusalem is a place of awe.

“For me, it is still a city that exists in the holy texts,” says Fisher, who wears a knitted kippa. “I love to visit whenever I can. We go for a holiday of three or four days and hire a guide to show us some of the special places,” says Fisher, who is married and has three children and three grandchildren.

As the Israeli capital holds such a special place in his heart, the performer created a vehicle in which to sing its praises. Developed three years ago, Jerusalem is a one-man show where Fisher, accompanied by a seven-piece band, sings songs, tells stories and displays videos about the Holy City.

No stranger to the stage, Fisher has been performing since he was in his 20s. A prolific and poly-genre singer, his spectrum ranges from cantorial, Hassidic and operatic music to country, pop, rock and reggae. The lyric tenor, who speaks three languages and sings in 10, has released more than 45 albums.

He is particularly well known for his children’s DVDs, which teach kids about Jewish customs and traditions.

“Unfortunately, in Israel we are raising kids who don’t know anything about the holidays or anything,” says Fisher. “So when a non-observant person tells me that his children love my DVDs, that makes me feel great. I’m not asking them to be religious, but at least they will know about the Four Species, Shabbat, Pessah, mezuzot.”

Fisher starred as Jean Valjean in the musical Les Miserables in 1993-4 and made a name for himself as the first Israeli to perform in a non-Jewish themed play on Broadway and London’s West End. He was also the first and only stage actor to be permitted to not perform on Friday nights and Saturdays due to his religious beliefs. In fact, he created a one-man show Off-Broadway called Never on Friday in which he recounts his experiences as a religious Jew on the Great White Way.

When Fisher created his show Jerusalem, it was originally intended for a Jewish audience, but he and his musical director Shai Bachar have also adapted it for the growing Christian evangelical population that Fisher has been working with.

When he traveled to such places as Stockholm, Singapore and Sao Paolo to give concerts, Fisher says he was amazed to see Christians – children and adults alike – waving Israeli flags, dancing the hora and singing songs like “Mashiach” and “Anu Banu Artza.”

In the US, Fisher began to get closer to the evangelical population through Pastor John Hagee, who founded the national organization Christians United for Israel (CUFI).

“In the United States, there are about 60 to 80 million evangelicals, and the number is growing all over the world,” says Fisher. “People in Israel don’t understand how much support we receive from them.”

Not only do they support Israel financially by donating money for children, soldiers and the needy, but they also lobby for Israel on the political front, he explains.

“You can’t buy that kind of support for money,” says Fisher.

And, contrary to what his rabbinic detractors believe, Fisher asserts that the evangelical Christians do not have a hidden agenda of wanting to convert Jews to Christianity. Rather, they stand by the tenet, derived directly from Genesis, “Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed; whoever curses Israel will be cursed.”

IN NOVEMBER of 2010, Fisher was invited to Montrose, Colorado, to perform half of his Jerusalem show as part of an evening dedicated to honoring Israel. It was held at an evangelical ministry established by Victoria Hearst (granddaughter of media mogul William Randolph Hearst and sister of Patty Hearst). After the show, Hearst introduced Fisher to the woman who was her mentor, Pastor Billye Brim.

“You should come see Branson,” Brim told Fisher. “Who’s Branson?” he said.
“Not who – what,” she replied. “Google ‘Branson.com,’ then call me.”

Duly intrigued, he looked it up and was amazed at what he learned about the place. “I saw something I never saw before,” Fisher recounts.

Established in the early 1900s, Branson, Missouri, is city that has a population of 11,000 and an influx of eight million tourists a year. An entertainment hub of the Midwest, it has some 50 theaters (ranging in capacity from 200 to 6,000) and more theater seats than Broadway. The Las Vegas of the Bible Belt – without the crime and the casinos – the venue has been headlining major entertainers for decades.

More than duly impressed, Fisher went to Branson to check it out, and Brim sent two guides to show him around.

One night he went to see a show at the Hughes Brothers Theater, home of the world’s largest performing family.

“I wanted to see the musicians, the lighting, the acoustics,” he says. “All the theaters there are family-owned,” says Fisher, so the young woman who sold him a ticket at the entrance also danced in the show and manned the snack bar during intermission.

And, as everyone in Branson is also very friendly, Fisher says, she asked him his name and where he was from.

Much to Fisher’s surprise, in the middle of the song and dance show, one of the Hughes Brothers said to the audience, “We have a special guest here tonight from Israel – Dudu Fisher.”

Then the man took a double take at the note in his hand and said, “Really? ‘Dudu’? What kind of name is that?” he asked, even more shocked by the scatalogical-sounding moniker than Fisher was by the unexpected introduction.

Dubious name aside, Fisher received a standing ovation from the crowd because he was an Israeli.

When he was asked what he did in Israel, he said he was a singer. Then he added, “Maybe I’ll bring a show about Jerusalem here.”

True to his word, on September 20 of 2011 Fisher performed one trial show of Jerusalem in Branson. He did a lot of promotional prep work beforehand, giving interviews to the media and handing out tickets to people who dealt with the public, such as hotel concierges and taxi drivers. His efforts more than paid off, as 1,100 people attended the performance.

“It was a big thing for me,” Fisher recounts. “I never had an experience like that in my life,” says the entertainer, referring to the avid enthusiasm of the crowd and their eagerness to see, to hear and to learn about Israel.

“I would teach them a song, and they would sing it,” he says. “And I would teach them things they never knew, such as the fact that the word ‘hallelujah,’ a term they use all the time, is actually a combination of two Hebrew words.”

Not only that, but the show is so rousing, with its mix of Hebrew songs, reggae, soulful ballads and rollicking rock tunes, that audience members get up and dance in the aisles, says Fisher.

The next day, the show was the talk of the town. Thus inspired, Fisher booked the 750-seat Caravelle Theater for his current run of May 1-20, as well as October 1- 21. To date, he is the first Israeli singer to perform in Branson.

Most of his performances will be weekday matinees, he explains, as many of the tourists go to Branson on package tours, which include pre-paid tickets to evening performances. He hopes that when they find out that Jerusalem is on the roster, they will take time in the afternoon to go and see it.

“My gut tells me this is a wonderful opportunity,” says Fisher. “And I think it will be a great thing for the country, for Israel. I hope it will encourage - the Jerusalem Post