Two things you're bound to hear at Fiddler on the Roof
: gorgeous strings and muffled sobs. The classic Broadway tearjerker is back with a stunning three-hanky revival that you and everyone you know has to see. Since the musical leaves audiences in a puddle of tears, BroadwayBox caught up with the cast to find out what are the musicals or movies that always bring you to tears?Danny Burstein (Tevye)
It’s A Wonderful Life makes me cry. The last scene when they are gathering all the money and Harry Bailey comes back on the plane—that scene kills me every single time. I can almost cry now talking about it. Jimmy Stewart is so beautiful and he has such a beautiful heart that shines out of him throughout the whole movie. That is my movie.
Jessica Hecht (Golde)
This is so crazy but I’m going to say Forrest Gump really makes me cry—the scene with his mom in bed. Everyone says I’m such a woose but it is.
Samantha Massell (Hodel)
Gypsy—it’s my favorite show and that scene at the end is really dramatic. And of course Fiddler. I grew up watching the movie and I would put it on as a one-woman -show, going from part to part to part.
Ben Rappaport (Perchik)
Fiddler on the Roof; this is my favorite musical of all time so it’s an uber-emotional experience for me. I was introduced to it when I was seven or eight years old at a dinner theatre in Delaware. My family actually came from the shtetls of the Ukraine at the same time Fiddler takes place, so it has a very specific resonance for me. It’s my people; it’s where we come from.
Alexandra Silber (Tzeitel)
Ragtime. It’s deeply personal. I was 14, and it was my first trip to New York ever and my first Broadway show—original cast. It was a very special trip with my father, who is sadly no longer with us, and it’s something he did for his daughter who loves Broadway. I loved the show and the album, and whenever I hear that music it’s connected to such a profound family memory.
Adam Kantor (Motel)
This is so cheesy but Titanic. It always moved me in a really silly way.
Melanie Moore (Chava)
Up, every time. In the first five minutes, I’m sobbing like a child. That book with him and his little cartoon wife—I am literally sobbing. I can’t. My husband looks at me like ‘what is wrong with you?’
Nick Rehberger (Fyedka)
South Pacific—I saw Danny in it and the scene at the end of the first act made me very emotional. It’s an honor for me to be working with him; I’ve seen him in three Broadway shows and I saw Danny in South Pacific and said, ‘That's what I want to do.’ I was bawling at South Pacific.
Adam Dannheisser (Lazar Wolf)
I’m going to have to tell you three: Truly Madly Deeply—very sad. The Color Purple always gets me—“nothing but death can keep me from you”…I’m gone. Then Terms of Endearment gets me crying seven or eight times in that.
Alix Korey (Yente)
I’m a big baby. This one for sure, Jerry Bock’s music from minor to major to reflect the joy and tragedy—it breaks my heart. I also cry at Billy Elliot and Ragtime. Oh, and Porgy and Bess; I can’t even go because I cry too much. I am an easy cry when it is deserved and not manipulated.
See this phenomenal gang in Fiddler on the Roof at the Broadway Theatre.
