Actress Birdie Newman Katz has been doing “Fiddler on the Roof” for a long time. How long? In her first production, she landed the role of Tevye’s teenage daughter Chava. Now, she’s playing Yente the Matchmaker.
Katz joins the cast of the touring production of “Fiddler,” which lands at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts for a five-day run beginning Tuesday, March 15. It is the same production (albeit with different actors) that began life as a Tony Award–winning 2004 Broadway revival and visited San Francisco early last year.
Over the course of six productions and countless performances, Katz says she never gets tired of the classic Broadway musical.
“On the days I have a night off, I really miss it,” Katz says. “It’s a ritual. Like the person who says prayers every night, doing this show is like putting on fuzzy pajamas. It’s the spirit of the show. You have all these people holding hands, connecting as a village.”
Yente is one of the most memorable characters. As the quick-witted matchmaker of Anatevka, she provides the shtetl with an essential service. The age-old system breaks down as, one by one, Tevye’s daughters choose their own husbands.
“What I really like about [Yente] is that it’s not just a caricature,” Katz says. “She gets angry during the wedding scene because her fee goes down the tubes. Later, when she’s told she has to leave [Anatevka] in three days, she gets a kicked-in-the-gut feeling. There’s a lot more pathos to her.”
The Maryland native didn’t have to search hard for inspiration. Her paternal grandparents were Jewish shtetl-dwellers in Ukraine who later worked in New York sweatshops.
She remembers taking her grandmother many years ago to see “Fiddler,” with the late opera singer Jan Peerce playing Tevye. “She kept saying, ‘It wasn’t like that. They weren’t singing and dancing like that.’ I said, ‘Grandma, it’s a play!’ ”
Katz was 18 when she was cast in her first “Fiddler” production in 1974. Her second, two years later, proved auspicious, as she met her husband-to-be backstage after the show one night. After marrying, the couple moved to Augusta, Maine, where Katz’s husband launched a law practice. She maintained her acting career, but strictly locally in the Pine Tree state.
While she appeared in musicals such as “Peter Pan” and “Les Misérables” at the Maine State Music Theater, her husband went on to become mayor. That made Katz the first lady of Augusta. He is now a state senator.
With the kids grown up, Katz has put more focus on her acting career.
“I never toured until the spring of 2009. I went to see my [actress] daughter, who was in a show in Florida, and she said, Mom, they’re doing ‘Fiddler’ in the fall,” Katz says. “I was hired on the spot to play Golda and spent three months away from home.”
That experience led her to her current production, which is directed by Sammy Dallas Bayes, a veteran of the original 1964 Broadway cast. It also stars John Preece as Tevye, a role he has played for more than 1,500 performances.
Katz says she hopes she’ll branch out into other plays and musicals, but if she ends up doing “Fiddler on the Roof” for the rest of her acting life, that wouldn’t be so bad.
“It makes me so proud of my heritage,” Katz says. “When I get on stage and play these scenes, I cry a bit in every performance. I’ve got all that history right there in that moment. It’s a beautiful opportunity to be in touch daily with my Jewish identity.”
Broadway San Jose presents “Fiddler on the Roof” March 15 to 20 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 255 Almaden Blvd., San Jose. $20-$79. Information: (408) 792-4111 or www.broadwaysanjose.com.