From the beginning, the current “Fiddler on the Roof” revival has made a habit of provocative casting. Alfred Molina as Tevye, the quintessential Russian Jew? Sally Murphy and Tricia Paoluccio among the actresses playing his daughters? But the thing still essentially worked, despite director David Leveaux’s cluttered, intrusive mise-en-scene. The producers continued to tempt fate – and had an even greater success – by casting Harvey Fierstein as Mr. Molina’s replacement earlier this year.

Now Rosie O’Donnell has stepped into the role of Golde, Tevye’s long-suffering wife, and … well, you can’t win ’em all. Dating back to her Rizzo in 1994’s “Grease,” Ms. O’Donnell has never been much of a stage actress, and she’s unlikely to win too many converts here. Her Golde lands a decent number of the usual laughs and gets through her songs fairly unscathed. But she gives a surprisingly subdued, almost diffident performance – perhaps in deference to her sparring partner.

Mr. Fierstein breathed fresh life into the production at first but has clearly gotten a lot of positive audience feedback since then. His newly protracted approach to Joseph Stein’s book proves that it’s possible to give the audience too much of what they want; the same fate also reportedly befell Zero Mostel, the original Tevye.

And here’s the thing: Ms. O’Donnell has earned the right to be terrible in “Fiddler” – and she’s not terrible, just bland. Not since Ed Sullivan has anyone beat the drum for Broadway like Ms. O’Donnell. She invited musicals onto her talk show constantly – “The Lion King” and “Ragtime,” sure, but also “The Capeman” and “Side Show.”

She goosed the Tony Awards ratings by hosting three times. (I still remember the staged opening number from “Titanic” concluding with her muttering under her breath, “I love that show.”) If a show she liked wasn’t doing well, she’d join the cast, as with “Seussical.” A lot more people know how good Liz McCartney and Euan Morton are because of the millions she sunk into “Taboo.” And she’s currently running a program to introduce hundreds of lower-income New York school kids to musicals. The door connecting Broadway to the rest of the world is open wider because of her.

Whoever’s playing Golde, “Fiddler on the Roof” remains one of the Broadway musical’s defining achievements, with its ironclad concoction of smarts, schmaltz and that ravishing Bock-Harnick score. Tom Pye’s sets and especially Brian MacDevitt’s lighting conjure a haunting, Chekhovian “Anatevka,” fellow replacement Michael Therriault is a treat as the tightly coiled Motel; and Ms. Murphy sounds better than I’ve heard her in a decade.

That said, Mr. Leveaux’s production is as diffuse as ever, with a mute child and a tattered beggar joining that fiddler in his metaphoric roamings. The dream sequence is still a botch, and the newly inserted song, “Topsy-Turvy,” still doesn’t work. “Fiddler” is famous for generating dozens of discarded songs out of town, and composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick chose to add this instead?

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“New York’s the capital of Puerto Rico.”

“I am honorated to represent my peeps.”

“Dominicans are Mexicans who play baseball really well.”

If Bob Hope had been a Latino (and didn’t he imitate Carmen Miranda now and then?), “Latinologues” could have supplied him with a dozen NBC specials’ worth of toothless gags. After touring the country successfully for years, this collection of tired stand-up-style monologues has reached Broadway.

Creator/writer/co-star Rick Najera’s writing credits include “Mad TV” and “In Living Color,” but “Latinologues” is closer in style and ambition to the sketch-comedy redneckapalooza “Blue Collar TV” on the WB network. In both cases, stereotypes are trotted out to obvious display under the guise of comic truth-telling. Of course, “Blue Collar TV” is a hit, so maybe jokes about Elian Gonzalez hitting puberty and “Cholo Cholo Bang Bang” are just what Broadway audiences are looking for.

Either Mr. Najera saved all the good material for himself or he’s just a lot funnier than his co-stars: His monologues are the sharpest and most pointed by a wide margin. Shirley A. Rumierk wrings a few clever moments from a none-too-wide array of hookers, pregnant girls, and beauty pageant winners. Eugenio Derbez and Rene Lavan, both of whom have extensive comedic credits in Spanish-language television and film, are adequate at best and annoying at worst. Mr. Lavan does, however, do well with the play’s lone somber piece, the first specific reference to the September 11 attacks I’ve seen in a Broadway show.

Snippets of Spanish are dropped in throughout and invariably greeted with gales of laughter. My few years of negligible high school Spanish led me to believe that the lines weren’t particularly funny in and of themselves, a hunch that was confirmed by my fluent theater companion. They have more in common with the bits of Yiddish in “Caroline, or Change” or the more arcane gags in, say, “Jumpers”: Laughing is a way of proclaiming yourself as the intended audience. You “get it,” regardless of whether the joke is worth “getting.”

Much like John Cleese across the street in “Spamalot,” director Cheech Marin does a voice-over as God. (“Thou shalt pay for your cable installation.”) Mr. Marin, who has deepened as a comic actor since his “Cheech & Chong” days, interweaves some of the monologues and doubles back on a few earlier speeches, creating a group finale that’s marginally more ambitious than the preceding bits but not any funnier.

As belabored and tiresome as “Latinologues” is, the occasional chuckle can be found if you look hard enough. I was partial to Mr. Najera’s recitation of a doomed prisoner’s devil-may-care last meal (it included french fries smothered with Ebola and ranch dressing). A decent subset of the audience, meanwhile, preferred a heavily made-up Mr. Derbez in an “I Am My Own Wife” dress swilling tequila from a flask and proclaiming himself as a “puta.” Sobre gustos, no hay nada escrito.

“Fiddler on the Roof” through January 6 (200 W. 45th Street, 212-307-4100).

“Latinologues” through December 4 (240 W. 44th Street, 212-239-6200).