Doctor on the Roof

DOCTOR ON THE ROOF by Edward B. Lewin, M.D.

This is a tale of love....for two professions: theater and medicine.

It's a story of a street kid from New York City, in trouble with the law as a youngster, who, with the help of some caring teachers, made his way to high school. There, he was inspired by music and drama educators to perform at a high level. Being interdicted by his father, a Tin Pan Alley songplugger, from pursuing the life of a professional performer, he nevertheless sneaked into the Martin Beck Theater In New York City to see Eli Wallach perform the role of Sakini that Lewin was about to play in "Teahouse of the August Moon". Mesmerized by that performance, and his first Broadway theater experience, he found his way backstage, confronted Wallach with "My name's Eddie Lewin and you're doing the same show I'm doing and I want to ask you a few questions. Please, can I?". Wallach put his arm around him and guided him to his dressing room where he asked him to perform the opening monologue. Wallach smiled and called his wife to hold dinner, that he was talking to a young actor!

That was the beginning of a friendship that has lasted fifty-six years. Through Wallach's mentoring and gentle guidance, Lewin found his way to Princeton where he graduated magna cum laude and went on to medical school at NYU followed by postgraduate training at Yale, Duke and Harvard.

Through it all, Lewin missed his theater life. He found his way to community theater, performing in over 25 shows while pursuing his career as a clinician/teacher/investigator in pediatric infectious diseases. At one of these academic stops, he met the director of the road company for the 30th Anniversary Tour of "Fiddler on the Roof", starring Theodore Bikel, and was asked to audition. Competing with 400 Equity actors in New York City, Lewin was asked to join the company to play Nachum the Beggar. A chairman of pediatrics at the time, he made the decision to follow his dream to become an Equity actor in this, his favorite show. He never looked back!

This book is a memoir of this fantastically enriching experience, filled with the intricacies of relationships behind the scenes, the joy and loneliness of life on the road and the thrill of performing with a superb cast in his favorite show. His personal, intellectual and theatrical friendship with Bikel is described in great detail that instills music in the telling.

At the beginning, Lewin was thought by some of the actors and support staff in the production to be a dilletante and was made to feel unwelcome by them. Within months, however, he won them all over with his hard work, dedication and performance standards....never flagging, always dedicated to the performance level required as a professional and filled with the joy of what he was doing. Although many he encountered along the way in the thirty-six cities in which he performed were in disbelief that he would give up a successful medical career to become an Equity actor, Lewin smiled at this notion because he knew he was the happiest he had ever been in his life!

The commonality that he found between being a physician and an actor suffuses the telling. This heartwarming tale is told with humor, warmth and wit. It will keep you glued to the page!