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FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Sholom Aleichem's story of a Russian village in 1905 becomes a lively musical with Luther Adler as Tevye, a dairyman who has wit, compassion, and five daughters.
Off Broadway
A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE. Arthur Miller's near tragedy tells of a Brooklyn longshoreman who destroys himself and his family by feeding on his incestuous desires and jealousies.
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ENTIRE WORLD AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF COLE PORTER owes little to Gibbon and much to Cole, whose lesser-known songs add life to a highly camp revue.
RECORDS
Popular Instrumentalists
WHIPPED CREAM AND OTHER DELIGHTS (A & M) are confected with two mellow trumpets and a trombone by Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass. Trumpeter Alpert started out in Mexico three years ago to capture the sound of the corrida (in The Lonely Bull), but his blend of Dixieland and mariachi is now receiving oles north of the border on the Sunset Strip. His musical menu includes, besides Whipped Cream, A Taste of Honey, Ladyfingers, Peanuts, Tangerine, Lemon Tree and Love Potion No. 9.
SUMMER WIND (Kapp). This is a Roger Williams album, but he could slip away unnoticed, what with two orchestras, a massed chorus and chimes. Indeed, the record jacket shows a grand piano abandoned on a windy beach at sunset. Williams apparently remained staunchly at his post during the recording session, however, for every so often (in A Walk in the Black Forest, Cumana, You'll Never Walk Alone) a freshet of trills and runs floods forth.
THE MAGIC MUSIC OF FAR AWAY PLACES (Decca) is evoked in Moon over Naples, Hava Nagila, Midnight in Moscow and Star Dust (the U.S. entry). The pieces are all translated into the international language of fox trot by the German bandleader Bert Kaempfert, whose dancy, brassy swing style keeps trumpeting LPs up the bestseller lists, where they tend to stay put for months.
ONLY THE BEST (United Artists) means the pieces everyone is recording, like Red Roses for a Blue Lady, Chim Chim Cheree and Downtown. The middle-aged instrumentalists are Arthur Ferrante and Louis Teicher, who perform their expectable, rather staid two-piano exercises to the expectable, rather staid accompaniment of a large orchestra.
AN EVENING AT THE "POPS" (RCA Victor). If one is going to hear an orchestra play TV themes (The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Munsters) and songs from Fiddler on the Roof, it might as well be the Boston Pops with its own ineffable fiddlers. And Arthur Fiedler's Hard Day's Night, though not up to the Beatles, is pretty fab, all things considered.
SOMETHING TO REMEMBER YOU BY (RCA Victor), along with Dancing in the Dark and I See Your Face Before Me, are three of a dozen songs by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz that are dressed in silk and satin by the strings and orchestra of the late George Melachrino.
AL HIRT: LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL (RCA Victor). The big trumpeter, who left jazz for more popular razzle-dazzle on the wings of Java, shows some of the old spark in pieces like Kansas City and Going to Chicago Blues.
CINEMA