Sunrise, Sunset

October 14, 2011 5:41 PM

Sheldon Harnick, lyricist for many hit musicals including Fiddler On The Roof, has written new lyrics for Sunrise, Sunset to make it appropriate for use at same-sex weddings [NYT].
posted by hippybear (16 comments total)

Relevant.
posted by griphus at 6:01 PM on October 14, 2011

Remember that Seinfeld with a home movie of George's childhood birthday party with Frank bellowing "Blow out the damned candles!" and Estelle screeching, "Stop it, Frank! You're killing him!" ? Remember that look on the kid's face?

That's how I felt when "Sunrise, Sunset" was played during my childhood.

I didn't just hate that song. I feared it.

(Nothing against the project. Fine cause. Best of luck with it.)
posted by Trurl at 6:19 PM on October 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

That's awesome. I love Filddler on the Roof, and that's a beautiful song.

It seems like it would be a bit of a downer for a wedding, though. Appropriate for a wedding of two melancholy depressives, maybe.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 6:20 PM on October 14, 2011

Agreed that it's a downer song. It's a delivery vehicle for Jewish guilt. "How dare you disappoint your father and me by growing up! You pick this, the day of your wedding, to make us feel old? Very nice."

But, yay for rewriting it for gay weddings. Next do the Fruma Sarah song.
posted by PlusDistance at 6:30 PM on October 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

This is my new favorite thing. Fiddler happens to be my very favorite musical, in part [warning: spoilers!] because with very few adjustments to the libretto, Chava is disowned by Tevye for marrying a woman rather than for marrying a Gentile. The Chava-Fyedka romance is so easily a lesbian romance, and I'd love to see it performed like that once. Even as it is, it hits home for me quite a bit.

At any rate, I'm thrilled about this.
posted by grrarrgh00 at 6:41 PM on October 14, 2011

I am not sure if changing a pronoun really counts as "Writing new lyrics".
posted by briank at 6:42 PM on October 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

briank, I think you forgot to add "For this I sent you to college? This is your career now, changing a pronoun?"
posted by No-sword at 7:12 PM on October 14, 2011 [6 favorites]

New law in the neighborhood
Out of the closet and it's understood.
You're there just to take good care of me,
Now you're one of the family.

Charles in Charge!
Of our days and our nights
Or, in case we're lesbians
Carla in Charge
Of our wrongs and our rights

And I sing, I want,
I want you in charge in me.

(Note to myself: the joke is not funny since you are laughing while writing it.)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:23 PM on October 14, 2011

Now, somebody just needs to write to Paul Stookey, and--

--actually, BRB.
posted by gracedissolved at 7:27 PM on October 14, 2011

Next do the Fruma Sarah song

In that one, Fruma Sarah is just kind of confused that a young man is living in her house and wearing her clothes and pearls.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 7:53 PM on October 14, 2011

It seems like it would be a bit of a downer for a wedding, though.

It's pretty popular at Jewish weddings, at least--in fact, my parents had it played at their own wedding in the 60s. Remembrance of sorrow is built right into the ceremony, after all, when the groom breaks a glass.
posted by thomas j wise at 9:29 PM on October 14, 2011

I don't want to seem like I'm hating on it, but I can't remember. Is there actually any difference besides changing a "she" to a "he"? It's been a while since I've last worked on a production of Fiddler and just reading it I didn't even notice a difference at first.
posted by Deflagro at 10:26 PM on October 14, 2011

For those questioning the importance, I think you're focusing on the wrong part of the story. You're right: nobody wrote a whole new set of lyrics specifically highlighting same-sex couples. On the other hand, someone did step forward to show public support for gay and lesbian couples by saying, "Please, sing my song at your wedding; these modifications would make it appropriate for your ceremony!" Let's spend less time nitpicking over how many words got changed and more time celebrating the broader message of acceptance being conveyed.
posted by Help, I can't stop talking! at 12:31 AM on October 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

So much for tradition, I guess.
posted by valkyryn at 2:21 AM on October 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

So much for tradition, I guess.—valkyryn

I know you're mostly just being (successfully) clever, but the show is about the tension between tradition and progress and certainly does not unequivocally affirm the primacy of tradition. Rather, I think it can be argued it does the opposite, affirming the rightness of progress but acknowledging that progress can be unpleasant and indulging a certain amount of nostalgia for what is lost.

As someone upthread suggested, the show would work quite well (excepting the anachronism) with Chava marrying a Fedora rather than a Fyodor. Like some fathers today, Tevye would disown Chava for a change beyond his ability to accept, but still love her and wish her well.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 6:25 AM on October 15, 2011

I think Metafilter has made it abundantly clear in the past that it proudly holds an anti-fedorist marriage position.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 5:59 PM on October 15, 2011