Bruce Sabath: Searching for Tevye: A Musical Journey from Brighton to Broadway

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Bruce Sabath

Searching for Tevye: A Musical Journey from Brighton to Broadway

Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, December 6, 2022

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Bruce Sabath has a compelling story to tell, and he told it with great passion in his cabaret show, Searching for Tevye: A Musical Journey from Brighton to Broadway. Under the expert guidance of Tanya Moberly, the possessed and charming performer shared his life journey from doing what was expected of him to pursuing his lifelong dream. As a successful but discontented Harvard-educated Wall Street wheeler dealer, with the support of his wife he switched careers and became an actor. Success on the stage in high school, at summer camp, and in college led to a taste of fame and performance, but he put that aside when adulthood called.

During the evening, he recreated some of those early triumphs, such as Fagan (“I’m Reviewing the Situation” from Oliver!) and Mr. Applegate (“Those Were the Good Old Days” from Damn Yankees). These cameos were gems; with ease he portrayed these characters in great detail. At age 17 he had his first chance to play his dream role of Tevye, but the dairyman would reenter his life several times in the future. As a member of a Harvard a cappella group, he was also introduced to the Great American Songbook. This account led to a lovely medley that included “The Way You Look Tonight,” “Isn’t It Romantic,” and “Night and Day.” Sabath showed a masterly grasp of this genre and delivered the romantic music and lyrics flawlessly to set the mood.

Recalling a Sondheim-focused phase of his life post Wall Street, he gave a fine reading of the very personal “The Road You Didn’t Take” that seemed somewhat autobiographical. Sondheim became even more important in his life when Sabath was cast in a production of Company in Cincinnati to be directed by John Doyle. The fact that he had played clarinet in high school came in handy given the “actors as musicians” approach the director took with this production. (Sabath also played the guitar with flair). Within his cabaret show, he recreated such numbers from the score as “The Little Things You Do Together,” “Have I Got a Girl for You,” and “Sorry-Grateful.” It was this production that travelled to New York City and marked Sabath’s Broadway debut. He received lovely notices and was soon receiving a flood of theatrical offers from both Broadway and regional theaters.

Finally he had the chance to audition for the Yiddish version of Fiddle on the Roof. He was hired to play Lazar Wolf, but in time he was also asked to understudy his dream role of Tevye. This was a daunting challenge, but within his show he celebrated this triumph with a brilliant performance of “If I Were a Rich Man,” in both Yiddish and English, as well as a crowd-pleasing finale of “To Life (L’Chayim).
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” This sent the audience out on a high from Sabath’s reliving of that rarest of things: a dream fulfilled.
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Bart Greenberg

Bart Greenberg first discovered cabaret a few weeks after arriving in New York City by seeing Julie Wilson and William Roy performing Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter outdoors at Rockefeller Center. It was instant love for both Ms. Wilson and the art form. Some years later, he was given the opportunity to create his own series of cabaret shows while working at Tower Records. "Any Wednesday" was born, a weekly half-hour performance by a singer promoting a new CD release. Ann Hampton Callaway launched the series. When Tower shut down, Bart was lucky to move the program across the street to Barnes & Nobel, where it thrived under the generous support of the company. The series received both The MAC Board of Directors Award and The Bistro Award. Some of the performers who took part in "Any Wednesday" include Barbara Fasano and Eric Comstock, Tony Desare, Andrea Marcovicci, Carole Bufford, the Karens, Akers, Mason and Oberlin, and Julie Wilson. Privately, Greenberg is happily married to writer/photographer Mark Wallis, who as a performance artist in his native England gathered a major following as "I Am Cereal Killer."