Topol

Performers Jackie Mason and Topol talked here this week about leaving Broadway to lend support to Israel. Comedian Mason, who canceled three days of his one-man show, "Jackie Mason: Brand New," to visit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, said: "I found it difficult to be on stage telling jokes. What I was saying and doing was irrelevant." He toured missile damage sites and talked to families whose homes were destroyed.

There's no doubt smartphones have changed the way we interact -- for better and for worse. Despite the advantages, like the quick and easy ability to keep in touch with people throughout the day, chronic text messaging has also driven us apart and bred an impersonal culture. When we're not ignoring the person we're with because we're getting texts, tweets, emails and updates from someone else, we're fooling ourselves into thinking that smartphones can give us carte blanche to weasel out of our commitments or treat people like they're as disposable as avatars.

"I don't know how they succeeded to twist my arm into doing it," kidded Topol about his reprise of Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof," opening Wednesday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (and moving to Orange County Performing Arts Center Aug. 8). It marks the third stage go-round in the role for the Israeli-born actor, who put in "probably 400 performances" in 1967 and another 200 in 1983, not including his Academy Award-nominated work in the 1971 film.

Two biotechnology firms said Tuesday that they would soon offer machines capable of sequencing a human genome in about a day, at a cost of less than $1,000. Illumina Inc. and Life Technologies Corp. both announced that their new sequencers would come to market in the second half of this year. Researchers have been waiting for the cost of sequencing a genome, an individual's entire DNA blueprint, to fall to $1,000 for some time. The conventional wisdom has been that once the price drops to that point, it might become affordable for doctors to deliver "personalized medicine" -- to study patients' genomes to make diagnoses and perfect medical care.     Cheaper access to genomes would also help researchers who are trying to figure out what genes cause particular traits, and why. One indication that achieving the $1,000 price tag would be a milestone: The Archon Genomics X Prize will challenge teams to sequence 100 full genomes for less than $1,000 apiece during a one-month period next year.

There is theater, and there is history. The twain meets at the Pantages Theatre, where "Fiddler on the Roof," starring Topol, commences a 2 1/2 -week run as part of Topol's farewell tour. It's an undeniably historical occasion, an opportunity to see a living legend, now 73, reprise the role that he has played for more than 2,500 performances. First produced on Broadway in 1964, "Fiddler" features Jerry Bock's music, Sheldon Harnick's lyrics and Joseph Stein's book, based on the humorous folk stories of Sholem Aleichem.

Two biotechnology firms said Tuesday that they would soon offer machines capable of sequencing a human genome in about a day, at a cost of less than $1,000. Illumina Inc. and Life Technologies Corp. both announced that their new sequencers would come to market in the second half of this year. Researchers have been waiting for the cost of sequencing a genome, an individual's entire DNA blueprint, to fall to $1,000 for some time. The conventional wisdom has been that once the price drops to that point, it might become affordable for doctors to deliver "personalized medicine" -- to study patients' genomes to make diagnoses and perfect medical care.     Cheaper access to genomes would also help researchers who are trying to figure out what genes cause particular traits, and why. One indication that achieving the $1,000 price tag would be a milestone: The Archon Genomics X Prize will challenge teams to sequence 100 full genomes for less than $1,000 apiece during a one-month period next year.

There's no doubt smartphones have changed the way we interact -- for better and for worse. Despite the advantages, like the quick and easy ability to keep in touch with people throughout the day, chronic text messaging has also driven us apart and bred an impersonal culture. When we're not ignoring the person we're with because we're getting texts, tweets, emails and updates from someone else, we're fooling ourselves into thinking that smartphones can give us carte blanche to weasel out of our commitments or treat people like they're as disposable as avatars.

W rong for th e part. The phrase comes up a lot when performances are being discussed. I used it myself the other day in regard to Topol's portrayal of Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof." What does it mean, to be "wrong for the part"? What does it mean to be right for the part? And in whose opinion?

The digital doctor will see you now. Just pull out your smartphone. Want to track your blood pressure? Make checking your pulse as easy as saying "cheese"? Figure out your eyeglasses prescription or diagnose an ear infection? "The smartphone is effectively becoming a scientific instrument," says Frank Moss of the MIT Media Lab. With modern high-resolution screens and powerful computing ability, the smartphone can perform tests that previously required a doctor's visit. And more cheaply.

During his ongoing tour of "Fiddler on the Roof" -- which launched in February in Wilmington, Del., closed Sunday at the Pantages, and opened Tuesday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center -- star Chaim Topol, 73, has missed only six of 175 performances in his signature role of Tevye the dairyman. It's being billed as Topol's "Farewell Tour" in the part he has portrayed since age 30. Unfortunately, five of those missed performances were in Los Angeles, causing much consternation among local theater patrons who expected not just to see another production of "Fiddler" but also their idol Topol -- whose name was prominently billed above the title (that is, Topol in "Fiddler on the Roof")

There is theater, and there is history. The twain meets at the Pantages Theatre, where "Fiddler on the Roof," starring Topol, commences a 2 1/2 -week run as part of Topol's farewell tour. It's an undeniably historical occasion, an opportunity to see a living legend, now 73, reprise the role that he has played for more than 2,500 performances. First produced on Broadway in 1964, "Fiddler" features Jerry Bock's music, Sheldon Harnick's lyrics and Joseph Stein's book, based on the humorous folk stories of Sholem Aleichem.

Chaim Topol was so young when he starred as Tevye in the 1971 movie version of the musical "Fiddler on the Roof" that he had to spend more than two hours in the makeup chair every day to transform himself into a middle-aged milkman. The makeup artist would even pluck gray whiskers from the beard of director Norman Jewison and glue them into Topol's eyebrows.

The Russian military successfully test-fired a mobile version of its top-of-the line Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile. The missile was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch pad in the northern region of Arkhangelsk and hit a designated target on a testing range on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, military officials said. The launch is expected to be the last of four test-firings of the Topol-M's mobile version before its deployment, which is expected next year.

Russia has deployed several of its top-of-the-line strategic nuclear missiles after a break caused by a funding shortage, and military officials presented ambitious plans Monday for building more potent weapons. "This is the most advanced, state-of-the-art missile in the world," Defense Minister Sergei B. Ivanov said in remarks broadcast on Russian television.

A third set of new intercontinental nuclear missiles was deployed in southwest Russia--part of the government's effort to make the hard-to-detect weapon the backbone of its nuclear forces. A regiment at the Tatishchevo base in the Saratov region was equipped with the Topol-M single-warhead missiles, a spokesman said. He did not say how many were deployed. The U.S. said it supported the deployment as part of an effort to replace missiles banned by the START II arms control treaty.

The Russian military successfully test-fired a mobile version of its top-of-the line Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile. The missile was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch pad in the northern region of Arkhangelsk and hit a designated target on a testing range on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula, military officials said. The launch is expected to be the last of four test-firings of the Topol-M's mobile version before its deployment, which is expected next year.

A third set of new intercontinental nuclear missiles was deployed in southwest Russia--part of the government's effort to make the hard-to-detect weapon the backbone of its nuclear forces. A regiment at the Tatishchevo base in the Saratov region was equipped with the Topol-M single-warhead missiles, a spokesman said. He did not say how many were deployed. The U.S. said it supported the deployment as part of an effort to replace missiles banned by the START II arms control treaty.

Performers Jackie Mason and Topol talked here this week about leaving Broadway to lend support to Israel. Comedian Mason, who canceled three days of his one-man show, "Jackie Mason: Brand New," to visit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, said: "I found it difficult to be on stage telling jokes. What I was saying and doing was irrelevant." He toured missile damage sites and talked to families whose homes were destroyed.

After more than 1,000 performances as Tevye in the musical "Fiddler on the Roof," Israeli actor Chaim Topol searches for new ways to charm his audience as the Russian Jewish dairyman. Most of them already have seen the play or the film. They know the plot. They know the lyrics. They know when they will laugh and when they will cry.