What a pleasure to see Fiddler On The Roof performed with a live orchestra. You have one more weekend left to see it, as it runs until February 2nd. Forty people volunteered to bring the show to the stage. This Large Cast made me cry as I recalled the many memories I had performing in this much loved musical.
Fiddler is a classic from the golden age of musicals, with music by Jerry Bock , lyrics by Sheldon Harnick , and book by Joseph Stein , set in Russia in It is based on Tevye the Dairyman and other short stories by Sholem Aleichem. Tevye, a milkman in the Russian village of Anatevka, strives to maintain his Jewish traditions while coping with the pressures from his three strong willed daughters, who are determined to live their lives in an ever changing, modern world.
At that particular time, Jews were living under the shadow of Pogroms. Many immigrated to the United States. This production is especially relevant as it is being performed during the weeks of Holocaust Remembrance Day, January We should never forget this crime against humanity. This is also the perfect show to see given the current political state of the country - ICE raids against immigrants; people being forced to flee their homes because of who they are. Fiddler opened on Broadway in , and was the longest-running Broadway musical for almost 10 years until Grease surpassed it.
Fiddler won nine Tony Awards, including best musical, score, book, direction and choreography, and was adapted to film in It is one of the most popular and produced musicals in community and high school theatre settings. She made great use of large, stark space, and gave us lots of pretty pictures.
Musical Director Elisa Balleau conducted a small community orchestra that had a very homespun, Klezmer feel. The vocal performances were uneven, but for some of the actors, it was their first time performing in public. Jerry Wehry, Drama Teacher at Northeast High School, provided simple choreography which was easily executed by the cast, and gave the flavor of the major dances so identified with this musical, especially the highly anticipated Bottle Dance. Costume Design by Christy Railsback, of Newman University, is perfectly subtle, capturing the warm, homespun and humble clothing of the century, and hewing close to the traditional garments worn by the denizens of a Shtetl.
