Fiddler on the Roof has become one of the standard American musicals. It’s popular with all kinds of groups, from schools to monster-sized professional theaters like the Muny. The show’s been seen in tiny 50-seat black boxes, school gymnasiums, under canvas. Residents of Anatevka, the village where it’s set, have been portrayed by actors from 5 to 85, of all persuasions. Many theater-goers have seen it multiple times, finding different versions of the village, of the costumes, of the fiddler himself – who is not, if you haven’t seen the show, the main character.
It opened Tuesday night (January 29, 2019) at the Fox. If you’ve seen it before and liked it, or even if you just “liked it okay” – you need to see this. This. Is. A. Broadway. Musical.
It’s not just the size of the stage and of the cast. It starts out big, really big, with “Tradition” almost bringing down the house. The orchestrations are large and joyously brassy. Eye-catching choreography pulls us in. This show is bigger, far bigger than Anatevka.
This revival of Fiddler is from Bartlett Sher, who’s given us some very impressive work in the past, like the revival of The King and I, seen here in November of 2017. (He also directed Oslo, a play that’s upcoming at the Rep.) He obviously likes to work in sweeping strokes when dealing with classics like this, and it’s to the benefit of both the show and the audience. There’s no single right way to stage these shows, and while there’s benefits to intimacy, a venue like the Fox is perfect for them.
Yehezkel Lazarov, our impressive-sounding Tevye, is from Israel, where he also directs and does lots of other theatrical things. His Tevye doesn’t carry the weight of the world quite so heavily on his shoulders as some, giving more of an impression of strength. As Golde, Tevye’s long-suffering wife who’s anything but a silent partner, Maite Uzal is merely extremely impatient and not seemingly permanent enraged, another change of style that benefits things – she’s often portrayed as the next worst thing to the Czar’s government. One of the drawbacks, though, of these huge venues is that it’s difficult to discern the subtleties of how a character is played, and that means that Tevye’s five daughters aren’t shown to full advantage. Mel Weyn, Ruthy Froch, and Natalie Powers, playing the three eldest girls, are charming but subdued, appropriate historically but seldom as vivid as their swains, the taylor, the scholar and the non-Jew.
The secondary, comedic roles are a lot of fun here, Motel the Taylor, played by Jesse Weil manages the physical comedy as well as the dialogue with shaking precision, just as demanded. Carol Beaugard, as Yente the matchmaker, roars through her job wheedling and suggesting and not taking no for an answer, with verve.
Michael Yeargan gives us a seemingly simple set with adaptation and additional work from Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams, and lighting from Donald Holder. The Fox sound system is in fine fettle, using Scott Lehrer and Alexander Neumann’s sound design. That amazing choreography has a long lineage, beginning with Jerome Robbins’ winning a Tony for the original show. This version explains that it’s original choreography by Hofesh Schechter, recreated by Christopher Evans, who’s worked extensively with Schechter. (Yes, the bottle dance is still there.)
It’s delightful that a show of this age can still be so full of excitement.
Fiddler on the Roof
through February 10
Fox Theatre
527 N. Grand