Saw the new production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF tonight. It's terrific, full of first-class performances, and seems -- but this may just be me -- to be harder-edged than the first Broadway production, or the movie. (Though at its core it's irreducibly schmaltzy; if you're looking for a picture of those days without schmaltz, try Nancy Richler's YOUR MOUTH IS LOVELY, a book I'm crazy about.) Couldn't help but notice, though, that the audience was almost totally white, and it would be no stretch to guess it was heavily Jewish. Up the block, the new production of A RAISIN IN THE SUN is playing. The crowd waiting to get in there was almost totally black. After FIDDLER ended, I wanted to tell the entire audience it should get up and go down the block and see RAISIN, and their whole audience should come over here. It occurs to me that if the producers of these shows want to improve race relations, they should be offering half price tickets to the other show to anyone who buys tickets to their show. Not that I have any hope anymore for this brotherhood business; after what's come out of Iraq in the last week, I'm throwing in the towel on hope.