When Yente met yentes
“MATCHMAKER, matchmaker make me a match, find me a find, catch me a catch … ” It was a case of a matchmaker meeting her match at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre last week when Nicki Wendt, who plays Yente in the brand new production of Fiddler on the Roof, met some real-life yentes from Jewish matchmaking service JJunction.
“MATCHMAKER, matchmaker make me a match, find me a find, catch me a catch … ”
It was a case of a matchmaker meeting her match at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre last week when Nicki Wendt, who plays Yente in the brand new production of Fiddler on the Roof, met some real-life yentes from Jewish matchmaking service JJunction.
“I wasn’t really that aware that being a yente was still so alive and well,” Wendt told The AJN.
The actress, who is not Jewish herself but has a lot of Jewish friends, declared that “everyone’s a yente”.
“I always just thought that that’s what Jewish girls did. They’ve always got someone for someone. I have often heard the expression ‘She’s a real yente’. But I just always took that to mean a particular kind of woman, I didn’t think it was an actual yente.”
Wendt said she was thrilled to get the role and has loved every second of the production.
“It’s so beautiful. We had people in Melbourne come back five or six times [to see it],” she said. “I really hope that Sydney enjoys it as much as Melbourne did.”
Last night (Monday) Wendt came along to a matching session to see how it works firsthand.
EVAN ZLATKIS
Fiddler on the Roof is now playing at the Capitol Theatre until May 8.
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