Were Critics Warm to Rosie O'Donnell in Fiddler on the Roof?

Harvey Fierstein's Tevye has a new Golde and its none other than television personality Rosie O'Donnell, who joined the cast of Fiddler on the Roof last month. The revival is closing on January 8, but before it does, critics went back to see O'Donnell in the beloved tuner. Did they love her?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

Rob Kendt in his Broadway.com Review: "This much-dismissed revival merits a serious reevaluation and a wider audience. If it was originally deplored for lacking warmth and humor, it has them now in O'Donnell and Fierstein, respectively. More importantly, though, the tensile strength of Leveaux's conception remains as clear and taut as a violin string... O'Donnell is admirably restrained, even tight-lipped. It's a performance defined and determined more by physicality than personality, mostly to its benefit."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "As is usual with her stage performances, she suggests a jill-of-all-trades who thought she might as well try her hand at acting, too. The overall impression brings to mind what might happen if the lead in a high school production fell ill and the director turned to the most popular and reliable girl in the senior class who is already the captain of the field hockey team, the debating society and the pep club to fill in. It would be nice to report that Ms. O'Donnell's cheerleading persona brings new energy to this production. But the show's effectiveness relies so much on full emotional conviction by its cast and audience that a kibitzing performance like this one creates only distance."

Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "O'Donnell turns out to be a very good Golde. She cuts an impressively impassive figure, sensibly underplaying rather than overplaying, striking all those ham-on-wry notes and inflections and generally giving us a Golde right out of the book."

Howard Kissel of The New York Daily News: "The toughness that is her trademark works well for a woman raising five daughters in an impoverished Russian shtetl. She might have offset this stridency if her singing were a little softer, but her voice is not warm. Nor is it always on pitch. Moreover, her impulses as a comedian win out over any tendency to make Golde plaintive or poignant."

David Rooney of Variety: "O'Donnell's round Irish face is hardly a natural fit for the shtetl she looks downright scary in her hard-hat wig for Motel and Tzeitel's wedding, and her barely serviceable singing voice poses no threat to Patti LuPone. But Golde is the anchor of the family, and O'Donnell makes her a solid, good-naturedly stern proponent of no-frills pragmatism."

Michael Kuchwara of The Associated Press: "Her presence is anything but a star turn. In fact, it's pretty low-wattage. The performer delivers a quiet, almost self-effacing performance as Golde, the tart-tongued wife of Tevye, the show's put-upon Jewish milkman. O'Donnell is, well, motherly, which comfortably fits the show. But she's also a bit tentative and her accent seems to circumnavigate the globe--as does her singing. But her confidence should grow once she plays the role a while longer."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "The remenschification of Rosie O'Donnell is in progress at the Minskoff Theatre, where the former alleged Queen of Nice is giving an altogether honorable, surprisingly self-effacing portrayal of Golde, Tevye's wife, in Fiddler on the Roof... O'Donnell--who made her Broadway debut as Rizzo in Grease in 1994 and was Cat in the Hat in 2001's short-lived Seussical--is singing all the notes and hitting the emotional keys in this supporting but important role. At times, she seems to be working too hard at being conscientious, and she happens to be the only character who talks with a Yiddish accent. But she and Fierstein appear to be having have great fun in bed during Tevye's dream sequence."