Final Jeopardy: Musical Theatre Inspirations (9-23-19)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (9/23/2019) in the category “Musical Theatre Inspirations” was:

The title of this musical that opened on Broadway in 1964 was inspired by a Marc Chagall painting

16x champ Jason Zuffranieri, a math teacher from Albuquerque, NM, has now won $437,096. In Game 17, he takes on these two players: Jacky McGoldrick, a university administrator from Maynard, MA; and Trey Caliva, a director of technology from Wolfforth, TX.

Round 1 Categories: Their Name is Legion – Health & Medicine – Word + Word = New Word – From the No. 1 Album – Coup Coup – Clocks

Jason found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Clocks” under the $1,000 clue on the 18th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $5,800, $5,600 more than Jacky in second place. He bet $2,800 and he was RIGHT.

Athens’ ancient Tower of the Winds measured time with a water clock when these weren’t working– say, at night. show

WHAT IS A SUNDIAL?

Jason finished in the lead with $11,400. Jacky was second with $1,200 and Trey was last, at negative $600.

Round 2 Categories: Fruitful Book Titles – Recent Events Quiz – Geographic Trios – Celebrity Family Tree – Boats & Ships – God Save the “U”, “K”

Jason found the first Daily Double in “Geographic Trios” under the $1,600 clue on the 5th pick. He was in the lead with $15,400 now, $14,200 more than Jacky in second place. He bet $5,000 and he was RIGHT.

2 of the last 3 state capitals alphabetically; they all begin with “T” show

WHAT ARE TRENTON & TALLAHASSEE (or TOPEKA)?

3 clues later, Trey landed on the last Daily Double in “Boats & Ships” under the $800 clue. In third place with $1,000, he had $19,400 less than Jason’s lead. He bet the $2,000 allowance and took a shot with the H.M.S. Bounty. That was WRONG.

In 1851 this schooner won the Hundred Guinea Cup, the prize for a yacht race around the Isle of Wight. show

WHAT IS THE AMERICA?

Jason finished in the lead with a runaway $31,200. Jacky was next with $5,600 and Jason was in third place with $200.

Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHAT IS “FIDDLER ON THE ROOF”?

According to No. 3 of Mental Floss’s “12 Things You Might Not Know About Fiddler on the Roof”, during the writing stage, “Where Papa Came From” and “The Old Country” were a couple of titles considered for the musical. The musical was based on the Tevye the Dairyman stories, written in Yiddish by Sholem Aleichem and first published in 1894. They were obviously looking at Russian Jewish influences and Marc Chagall was a Russian Jew who emigrated to France. His painting “The Fiddler” (1912-13) is credited by consensus as the inspiration for the musical’s title. Some sources give the credit to a similar Chagall work, “Green Violinist” (1924).

“Fiddler on the Roof” opened on Broadway on 9/22/1964, starring Zero Mostel as Tevye, and was a huge success. It was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won nine. The play ran for over 3,000 performances and was awarded a special Tony in 1972 for longest-running musical in Broadway history. More at Playbill.

Trey wrote down “a Red Raider,” a reference to Texas Tech sports teams (I think). He lost his $125 bet and finished with $75.

Jacky tried “The Phantom of the Opera” (opened in 1986). She lost $4,600, leaving her $1,000.

Jason got it right. He bet $3,800 and won the game with an even $35,000. His 17-day total is $472,096. A great way to start the week for Jason!

A triple stumper from each round:

THEIR NAME IS LEGION ($800) On April 26, 1937 the Condor Legion, a unit of the Luftwaffe, devastated this Basque city

FRUITFUL BOOK TITLES ($1000) British author Jeanette Winterson won a Whitbread Award for her first novel, called these “Are Not the Only Fruit”

2 years ago: BOTH of the players left in FJ got this one in “British Poets”

The statue of a sailor seen here in Watchet, England is based on a famous poem by this man. show

WHO IS SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE?

Click here to leave well wishes and prayers for Alex Trebek for continuing success in his battle against cancer. There’s also a link to where you can make a donation to pancreatic cancer research in his honor.