# It's Official: Rosie O'Donnell And Harvey Fierstein In Fiddler **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 8, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194 "2005-08-08T21:55:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/1 "2005-08-08T21:55:49Z")
As per [this](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/08/theater/08rosi.html?8hpib), Rosie O’Donnell and Harvey Fierstein will be appearing together on Broadway in Fiddler On The Roof. Almost makes me want to get tickets and fly there. Sounds like it could be a fun bit of casting - and my guess is, ticket sales oughta pick right up. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/2 "2005-08-08T21:57:49Z")
Darn. I was hoping to see those two as “The Odd Couple.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/3 "2005-08-08T22:02:34Z")
As I mentioned in another thread, I can totally see Rosie breaking the fourth wall to tell the audience “And guess what… you’re going home with a cast recording and with pillows! Goose down pillows! And you’re all taking home five chickens for the next five sabbath dinners courtesy of the good folks at Tyson! And how 'bout this Perchik, is he a cutie-petooty or what!” I wonder if Rosie and Harvey (neither of them exactly posterchildren for world hunger) will keep the “starving together” lines. I also wonder if this is the first case of two openly gay actors playing a straight couple in a major show. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/4 "2005-08-08T23:52:10Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > As per [this](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/08/theater/08rosi.html?8hpib), Rosie O’Donnell and Harvey Fierstein will be appearing together on Broadway in Fiddler On The Roof. > > Almost makes me want to get tickets and fly there. > > Sounds like it could be a fun bit of casting - and my guess is, ticket sales oughta pick right up. Which one plays Golde? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/5 "2005-08-08T23:52:54Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > Which one plays Golde? Which one will play the roof? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/6 "2005-08-08T23:54:46Z")
Which one plays the cow? I’m (not) sorry, but those two are on my list of “People I will never let have a single cent of my money, ever.” I don’t care if they were giving away cars at each performance. I’d still stay on the West Coast. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/7 "2005-08-09T00:00:47Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > Which one plays Golde? They’re going to alternate. Harvey is Tevye on Tu, Th, Sat and one Sunday matinee and Golde the rest of the time. I understand Tom Arnold and Rosanne Barr may be getting back together to replace them. (Actually, a remake of FIDDLER done by the Coen Bros. with John Goodman as Tevye and now set in Mississippi is something I’d pay to see.) ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/8 "2005-08-09T01:30:31Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I also wonder if this is the first case of two openly gay actors playing a straight couple in a major show. According to the reprint of the NYT article in our local paper ([here](http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050808/ENTERTAINMENT01/508080388/1005/ENTERTAINMENT)) you are correct in your ponderings. I would also pay to see the Coen Bros. interpretation you mention in your later post. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/9 "2005-08-09T01:34:14Z")
Gay people in musical theatre? Now I’ve seen everything. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/10 "2005-08-09T01:45:48Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Which one plays the cow? > > I’m (not) sorry, but those two are on my list of “People I will never let have a single cent of my money, ever.” I don’t care if they were giving away cars at each performance. I’d still stay on the West Coast. Amen. As MAD Magazine might say, BLECHHHHH. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/11 "2005-08-09T04:02:53Z")
Yecch, indeed! \*Fiddler \* is one of the very few musicals I like, and that they’re doing it (apparently ) with a camp spin is just so wrong. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/12 "2005-08-09T04:37:53Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#): > > Yecch, indeed! \*Fiddler \* is one of the very few musicals I like, and that they’re doing it (apparently ) with a camp spin is just so wrong. > ☹ Actually, Fierstein has gotten great reviews that say, while he brings a bit of fey humor to the role, he is positively fearsome during the dramatic scenes (the disowning of Chava, the “get.off.of.my.land” scene, etc.). Rosie I just can’t stand. Nothing to do with her lesbianisticalism or anything, she’s just fingernails-on-a-chalkboard personified (and that fake mooning she did over Tom Cruise when everybody but my mother knew she was queerer than a Saudi Arabian rabbi provided the lowpoints in a show for brows that were already at floor level). Now personally if I had to go with a TV casting, I’d probably use Fran Drescher as Golde, Adam Arkin as Tevye, a return of Bea Arthur (who at 104 still has a couple of good years left) to the role of Yente, and Wayne Knight as Lazar Wolf. (Or, keeping with Wayne Knight, a Seinfeld Fiddler might be interested- Jerry as Tevye, Julia Louis Dreyfus as Golde, Jason Alexander as Perchik, Kramer as the constable [“Look, Tev, I’m tellin’ ya, you gotta get off your land…” “WHY do I have to get off my land? If it’s MY land, I can’t get off it, because then it wouldn’t BE my land”) and Jerry Stiller as the Rabbi (“Is there a proper blessing for the Tsar? Of course… F\*CK the Tsar… there’s a blessing for him… any more questions?”) ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/13 "2005-08-09T05:17:19Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Which one plays the cow? > > I’m (not) sorry, but those two are on my list of “People I will never let have a single cent of my money, ever.” I don’t care if they were giving away cars at each performance. I’d still stay on the West Coast. I’m with you, right here on the West Coast, where we have happy cows. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/14 "2005-08-09T05:24:10Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#): > > Yecch, indeed! \*Fiddler \* is one of the very few musicals I like, and that they’re doing it (apparently ) with a camp spin is just so wrong. > ☹ I don’t see that they’re doing a camp spin to it. Fierstein’s not exactly the first gay guy to play a straight guy onstage, even if he’s unusually publicly gay. Doesn’t mean he’s mincing around out there. Apparently he’s doing okay. Her stellar turn as Betty Rubble aside, I don’t know if Rosie O’Donnell can act. The show’s not on my ‘must-see’ list anyway. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/15 "2005-08-09T13:10:16Z")
I like Rosie O’Donnell but she’s a horrible actress. She doesn’t know how to be subtle. I suppose the producers wanted some celebrities to draw people in, but I, like Silenus, wouldn’t pay money to see Rosie O’Donnell overact her way through Fiddler. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-official-rosie-odonnell-and-harvey-fierstein-in-fiddler/316194/16 "2005-08-09T13:31:15Z")
Besides, as I recall, Rosie O’Donnell can’t sing her way out of a paper bag. She loves musicals, but she Just. Can’t. Sing. Or act, but that’s another post. StG