Never on Friday

Reviewd by Irene Bacalenick
Presented by the Jewish Repertory Theatre at
Playhouse 91, 316 E. 91st St., NYC, April 25-May 16.


David (Dudu) Fisher is the consumate entertainer with an easy stage presence, a superb voice, and a wide-ranging repertoire that moves from opera to cantorial music to Broadway shows to Yiddish lullabies. This Israeli mesmerizes his audience at the Jewish Repertory Theatre. "Never on Friday," directed by JRT's artistic director Ran Avni, is the theme that runs through Fisher's one-man show, which opens with a parody of "Never on Sunday."

Why "Never on Friday"? Fisher, a religious Jew, has made it clear that he does not work on the Sabbath. (When he played the lead in "Les Miserables" on Broadway, another actor performed on Friday evenings and Saturday matinees.) The show traces Fisher's career through song and commentary, following the arc from cantor to Broadway star Fisher tells of his family origins (his father was a Holocaust survivor), his grandfather's influence, his early musical beginnings, and the ambitions others held for him. "My Zaide' (grandfather) wanted me to be a cantor, my voice teacher an opera singer, my mother a dentist- and I myself dreamed of being Elvis Presley."
(At one point he does a creditable imitation of Presley, gyrations and all.) Dressed in black, including a black yarmulke which tops his curly hair, Fisher is an electric presence on stage. He works the microphone like the pro he is (though his powerful voice hardly calls for one), turning from intimate pieces to grand opera, from wit to poignancy, from English to Yiddish to Hebrew, Fisher's humor rescues the show from being overly sentimental. For example, he performs the "Figaro" aria from "The Barber of Seville" in Yiddish, which is hilarious. But there is a serious message as well. In speaking of the grandfather who imbued him with Jewish values, Fisher makes a strong plea for continuity of those values. Fisher never really strays from his show's theme, appropriately ending by taking over Frank Sinatra's signature song "I Did It My Way"

"BACK STAGE" - April 30 - May 6, 1999