THEATER REVIEW

A Musical Au tobiography With a Range Of Styles

By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

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 '0 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