The Miami Herald
 February 15, 1997

Take three huge Broadway talents, add the evocative melodies of a klezmer band and a script crafted from “the Jewish Mark Twain’s” bittersweet Yiddish folk tales. and you've got Greetings...Sholom Aleichem Lives!, a rousing revue with only one drawback.

It ends too soon.

Originally titled Greetings from Tevye—the main character in Sholom Aleichem’s best-known work, Fiddler on the Roof—the show opened Wednesday night at Parker Playhouse and runs through Fcb. 27.

The first act, set in the mythical Eastern European shtetl of Kasrilevke, “the town of famous little people.” casts stars Theodore Bikel. Bruce Adler and Judy Kaye as various characters from Alceichem's stories: the town gossip, the revered rebbe, the amiable drunk and the like.

The second act follows generations of Jewish immigrants to the roiling tenements and lively Yiddish theater of New York’s Lower East Side.

“You can take the Jew out of the shtetl” says Bikel, “but you can't take the shtetl out of the Jew.”

Bikel thunders as Jacob P. Adler, the larger-than-life Yiddish actor with a matching ego, kvetches as a penniless misfit, and dances with arms thrown wide. His Yiddish versions of American folk songs had the audience howling.

At 72, Bikel remains barrel-chested and robust, his voice still rich and strong. A veteran of 1,600 Fiddler performances, he has 20 record albums, 35 films, an Emmy, and an Academy Award nomination to his credit.

Adler is especially delightful as the nerdy Yiddish comic, Menashe Skulnik. Adler, scion of a well-known Yiddish Theater fancily, recently earned Tony and Drama Desk nominations for his work in the musical Crazy for You .

Kaye, who won a Tony in 1988 for her role as Carlotta in Phantom of the Opera, is hilarious as the proprietress of a failing restaurant that only serves bread and as the bejewelled diva “Madame Lipson. the Jewish Nightingale.” a role that unleashes her formidable soprano.

Musical director Zalmen Mlotek, and his All Star Klezmer Band deserve kudos for their clever meldings of traditional music and pop tunes.