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DAVID "DUDU" FISHER:
Misery-free in "Les Mis"
For this Israeli Star, Broadway is
Paved with good fortune.
by Stewart Ain
The name plate on the star's dressing room door at Broadway's Imperial Theatre reads, "David 'Dudu' Fisher." Beneath it is another plaque reading, "J.C. Sheets." Under it are the words, "Shabbos Goy." It's not a joke. Sheets, Fisher's understudy, slips into his role as Jean Valjean in Les Miserab1es every Friday night and Saturday afternoon because Fisher, who until a few years ago was a full-time Orthodox
cantor, does not work on Shabbat. He's believed to be the first Broadway star to miss the key weekend performances for religious reasons. Although Fisher says he never really believed the show's producers would ever agree to the arrangement ("I am so grateful to these people"), he never doubted that he would one day play the role of Jean Valjean. It was, he is convinced, bashert (ordained by G-d). That's
because it was a miracle. Until he landed the part in the Israeli production of Les Miserables in 1987, he had never performed on a stage and had never had an acting lesson. "This show is like a rock opera," he says. "It's all singing. Unlike an opera, though, in which there is not much need to act, you have to act. But the music is so great, the acting comes with it." Fisher says there is little difference between the Broadway and Israeli productions of the show, except that the Imperial Theatre makes use of a revolving stage that is cleverly used for quick set changes and to denote travel by the characters. A man with a ready smile, Fisher made fast friends with his fellow performers. His Thursday night good-byes of "Shabbat Shalom" to the cast and crew have been picked up by other performers, who now say it to each other. Les Miserables, which was adapted from the Victor Hugo novel, is a physically demanding musical. Just ask Robert Cuccioli, who plays Javert. After one exhausting (Fisher as the aging Jean Valjean) week in the role, he wanted Fisher to tell him how to convert to
Judaism. There are several other Jews in the cast and during Chanukah, a menorah was lit backstage each night. On the first night, many cast members gathered round during intermission as 12-year-old Michael Shulman (he plays Gavroche) lit the candles and Fisher led the Jewish cast and crew in singing the blessings.
Among the other Jewish cast members are Evalyn Baron (she plays Madame Thenardier) and Kenny Morris (he plays the bishop of Digne). Fisher recalls with a chuckle that Morris found it amusing when he, as the bishop, had to bless Fisher, as Jean Valjean, at the beginning of the show.
"Here we are, two Jewish guys, and I have to cross you," Morris said. Fisher made his Broadway debut as Jean Vaijean on his 42nd birthday on November 2, 1993. He says he was captivated by the music of Les Miserables the moment he heard It in early 1986, in London, where he was staying with a cousin. "I kept hearing this music everywhere I went and my cousin told me it was from a new musical," he recalls. "She said, 'I saw it and I saw you in the show.' So I went to see it and I was completely taken. I was like a butterfly coming out of my cocoon. I thought Chassidic music and cantorial music was all there was, and suddenly I heard this." As he recalls that memorable theatrical experience, Fisher excitedly leans forward on the publicist's couch. "I remember sitting there with swollen eyes and crying my eyes out. The show ended five or ten minutes earlier and the Janitor came over and said. 'Excuse me, sir, the show is over.' I looked at him and, I don't know why I said it, but I said, 'No, sir, the show's not over, the show is just beginning.'" Fisher postponed his departure from London and returned to the theater to see Les Miserables on the following three consecutive evenings. He also bought everything he could about the show and by the time he flew back to Israel, he knew the music "almost by heart." He rushed to see his agent, Nachum Beitel,
who was set to tell him of some tentative concert engagements. "I said, 'I'm not interested in anything but this show. Call London and see
if I can audition,' "Fisher says. When Beitel checked, he learned the show was about to open in Israel. Fisher says he then insisted that Beitel get him an audition for the part of Jean Valjean. "He didn't understand it," Fisher recalls. "I had never been on stage before. He told me I was crazy, that they already had a famous singer cast in the part of Jean Valjean. He handed me the play's brochure and said the singer's picture was already in it. I took the brochure and said, 'my picture will be here. Nobody else in Israel will do this show, only me.'" At Fisher's insistence, Beitel called the producers and arranged for him to join others who were auditioning for parts in the choir and other roles "Nobody knew the show. After all, it had only opened in London three months before. The others auditioning were singing such things as 'Hava Nagila,' and 'Adon Olam.' I brought along my own pianist and I sang 'Bring Him Home' and 'Who Am I?"' Both songs are showstoppers in Les Miserables and they had the desired effect on the producer, musical director and translator-the only ones
in the theater-were left speechless. Hearing nothing, Fisher scooped up his music and hurried out, saying "Don't ca1l~ me, I'll call you."
As Fisher walked with Beitel back to his office, Fisher says he remembers Beitel saying the producer would probably contact him in three or four days. But no sooner had they entered the office-barely five minutes after the audition- the secretary said there was a phone call
from the theater. Beitel took the phone, listened and smiled. "They said you'll have one of the three leading parts," he told Fisher excitedly.
"I said, 'No, tell them there is only one part for me' He handed me the phone and said, 'you tell them.'" The show's director, Stephen Pimlot, later flew in from London and listened to both Fisher and the singer previously chosen. He selected Fisher and from 1987 to 1990
Fisher was Jean Valjean in 699 performances of the Israeli production of Les Miserables. He was also selected in 1987 from among the
leads of about a dozen worldwide productions of Les Miserables to perform songs from the show for Queen Elizabeth of England at a Royal Variety Command Performance. It was a first for an Israeli performer. "I knew in my mind that I was going to get it," Fisher says. He
firmly believes it was G-d's doing. Fisher recalls that when he returned from London in 1986 with all the material he had bought about Les Miserables, his then 3-year-old daughter, Shirlee picked up one of the books from the show and pointed to a picture of Colim Wilkinson, the performer who played Jean Valjean in the London production? "That's you when you're old," she said. "I said, 'It will be Abba in the picture,'" Fisher recalls with a twinkle in his eye. Actually, he says, all the actors who have performed Jean Valjean look alike. Wilkinson sports a beard, as does the six-foot Fisher, who grew his after completing his service in the Israel Defense Forces.
Born in Petach Tikvah. a suburb of Tel Aviv, Fisher credits his grandfather, Shmuel Rosenkovich, with instilling in him the love of cantonal music