It's delightful, it's delicious, it's dlevy!

A Fiddler on the Roof in Paris… Sounds crazy, no? But here in our little village of Tumblr, you might say every one of us is a fiddler trying to scratch out our own version of a tune that was clearly meant to be sung in a different language by characters who, in reality, would be speaking yet a third language. Regardless, I love the way this cast makes the song sound like they’re leaving Anatevka because of ennui rather than persecution.

On my trip to France, my brother wouldn’t let me near a big music store lest I repeat my binge from Dress Circle in London, but I did manage to snag a used copy of the cast album from last year’s Cabaret revival, a French-language rendition of the production originated by Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall in London and on Broadway. This track is Fabian Richard, as the Emcee, singing “I Don’t Care Much,” or as it’s called in this production, “Je M’en Fous.”

(The album is great, by the way. It’s recorded live but sounds like it was done in a studio. The whole cast is spot-on. I can’t speak to the quality of the translation, but the show is currently playing a return engagement in Paris so clearly the locals love it too.)

Since I’ve spent the last hour bitching about Rob Marshall on Twitter and my other Tumblr (in light of the announcement that he’s developing a film version of Into the Woods), I thought this would be a nice way to remember that Marshall has done some good things too. Although, from what I understand, despite his billing as co-director, he was really just a choreographer who worked overtime.