The Fisher king
By: MICHAEL AJZENSTADT

Since achieving fame on Broadway as Jean Valjean in the musical Les Miserables, singer Dudu Fisher had been searching for the next big role in his musical career. Finally he decided to create the role himself. His current one-man show in the US, Never on Friday, solves Fisher's increasingly complex problem of maintaining a theatrical career while observing Shabbat. "Not only abroad but also here it becomes quite difficult for me to play in a musical and observe Shabbat. Abroad the producers are not keen on the fact that I do not play on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, which are very popular shows. Even here in all the musicals, they tend to do four performances on a Saturday, which immediately rules me out. Which is why I came up with my own show and its very specific title. It wasn't easy to begin with, but I convinced them to open on Sunday and Monday and keep Friday and Saturday closed." Never on Friday began in a small off-Broadway theater but quickly developed into something bigger. "The program comprises a variety of everything I do: musicals, cantorial, hassidic music, opera and all kinds of other things as well as many personal stories. It was very successful and got great reviews so I began doing it on a larger scale as well with full symphony orchestras." Never on Friday, and never in Israel, it seems. "I have been talking with the Philharmonic but I want to do it with Marvin Hamlisch conducting, but either he was busy with Barbra Streisand or busy with other things, or suddenly the situation here got very tense and he didn't want to come. So we are still waiting for the right opportunity to do Israel too. In the meantime, local Fisher fans will be able to enjoy some excerpts from his vast and varied repertoire tonight in a concert with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Direct from the concert hall. Fisher will return to New York for the last rehearsals for a three-week Broadway run of a new program titled Borscht off Broadway. "I perform there with Bruce Adler and Mal V. Laurence. We have all done things on Broadway. We are all somehow related to the Catskills. We'll each do an individual half an hour and then do some things together." And what about doing a show here in Israel? "Who will want to put up a lot of money and invest in musical theater on a grand scale in Israel? You have to be sick or crazy to do that. I really miss performing and singing here. After all, this is my home. This is where my family is and these days when I have two boys in the army it is even more difficult." Local Fisher fans will get a little bit more of his very special charm in the Yiddish Theater production of The Rothschilds come December. "Every few years I do something in Yiddish. I do it for the soul and for the language. This is not for the money. but for myself." There are also talks of a program of Italian songs with the Ra'anana Symphonette Orchestra for later this season. Tonight Fisher sings a selection from his cantorial, hassidic and opera repertoire (8.30 at the Henry Crown Symphony Hall in Jerusalem) in the opening concert of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra's Heritage series conducted by Elli Jaffe and with the participation of cantors Avi Albrecht and Shimon Farkash

The Jerusalem Post-October-2000