Start Fiddling Around
Fiddler on the Roof
A Theater Review
“If I Were a Rich Man,” “Sunrise, Sunset,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker.”
Though I never seen “Fiddler on the Roof” before its current incarnation at Meadville’s Academy Theatre, I was certainly aware of the hummable tunes this musical produced.
Largely, in part because of WKHR, 91.5 Bainbridge, OH, a noncommercial radio station that plays the “standards” (i.e., Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, et al), and occasionally plays songs from “Fiddler.”
Give it a try on your phone or laptop. Because sadly, you won’t get such great music from Erie or Meadville radio stations.
Plugs aside, I was eager to see “Fiddler,” which ranks as the 18th longest-running Broadway show of all time. After all, with so many performances, it has to be good, right?
Written by Joseph Stein, with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, the 1964 musical tells the story of Tevye (Ben Sheedy), a Jewish milkman in a small Russian village, circa 1905.
Married to headstrong wife Golde (Racheal Graybill), his older, headstrong daughters Tzeitel (Olivia Kane), Hodel (Shawna Daisley), and Chava (Grace Worley), wish to do something inconceivable to Tevye: Marry for love, rather than use the local matchmaker, Yente (Roxanne Chapman).
Tzeitel wants to marry poor tailor Motel (Duncan Prather), and Hodel wants to marry Perchick (Eric Ziegler), an intelligent radical who wants to change the world. Chava, however, wants somethings that Tevye absolutely forbids: To marry Fyedka (Robbie Brown), a gentile in a czarist world of anti-Semites.
Though misfortunes befall his Tevye and his family, the simple milkman faces the world with an honest—and oftentimes— humorous outlook.
Speaking to God and the audience, thus breaking the fourth wall, Sheedy’s Tevye is also our narrator, guiding us through this small Jewish ghetto. In the few occasions Tevye thinks for himself, Graybill’s Golde, keeps him on a short leash. Kane’s Tzeitel, Daisley’s Hodel and Worley’s Chava performances express a joyous, naive optimism in a world surrounded by prejudice.
Directed and choreographed by Julia Kemp, “co-choreographers” Skylar Morrell, Emiley Schnauber and Ben Sheedy, did a superb job with the numerous ethnic dances and the fight scene with the multiple performers looking like they were having fun.
Oy, vey! The ticket price! Normally, I purchase my tickets online to ensure that a show won’t be sold out. This time, I took a leap of faith and paid at the box office.
Boy, did I pay.
Cost? $25.00 for a balcony seat! A good musical, but yeesh! For that price, Zero Mostel should’ve been headlining!
Hmm. No wonder I’ve been humming “If I Were a Rich Man…”
Fiddler on the Roof continues through May 5th. For more information, visit wwww.theacademytheatre.org
***Tony B.
End
