Theater Review—

A Sure-Footed ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ At Richter

                By Julie Stern

Musicals at Richter has opened the 2007 season with an energetic and lovingly perfected rendition of Fiddler on the Roof. Based on the Sholom Aleichem stories about Tevye, the philosophical milkman who discusses his problems with God, this Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick delight won nine Tony awards and ran for more than 3,200 performances when it premiered in 1965.

At that time it starred Zero Mostel as Tevye, a poor man burdened with five daughters to find husbands for, a horse with so many complaints that he ends up pulling his cart himself, and, above all, the difficulty of life for Jews in Tsarist Russia. Mostel made the role, and it is important that any production of the show find someone talented enough to get it right.

Happily, Stephen Dirocco gets it perfectly, radiating all the doubt, humor, frustration, wisdom, and ultimately love of his family and his village that make Tevye such a charismatic figure. Under Donald Birely’s direction, he is supported in every way by a cast of talented, well-rehearsed performers, an orchestra that clearly knows what it is doing, and choreography that is by turns charming and exciting.

In the prologue, Tevye explains that for Jews, living in the little village of Anatevka on the eve of the Russian Revolution, life is a bit like a “fiddler on the roof.” You do the best you can and hope you don’t fall off. He tells the audience that his people find meaning in “Tradition.” Everything they do is governed by rules handed down from the past, which enables them to know who they are, and what God expects of them.

Yet his three oldest daughters are each motivated by love to defy tradition — Tzeitel the first, wants to marry her childhood sweetheart, Motel the tailor, rather than accept the match arranged for her with Lazar Wolf the butcher, even if it means a life of poverty

Hodel, the second daughter wants to marry the radical student, Perchik, who believes in women’s rights, coed dancing, and the coming revolution — even if it means a life of exile in Siberia

Chava, his favorite, falls in love with Fyedka, a Russian (non-Jewish) student — which means tradition demands she be treated as having died.

Clearly the world is changing. Both the impact of modern ideas, and the ominous threat of anti-Semitic pogroms are pervading the country and penetrating even tiny backwaters like Anatevka, so that by the end of the play, the villagers, expelled by the Tsar’s decree, begin trundling their worldly goods on the long road that would eventually bring so many Jews to America.

Everyone in the show does a terrific job. Barbara Kessler and Cat Heidel are hilarious as Tevye’s bad tempered wife Golde, and her friend, Yente the matchmaker.

Cesira Farrell, Allegra Devita, and Caitlin Keeler are all lovely and appealing as the three daughters who do not want to be “married off.”

Matt Austin as Motel, Eric Greenfeld as Lazar Wolf, Robert Sniffin as Perchik, and Matthew Farina as Fyedka combine vivid character delineation with fine singing and dancing.

Even more though, to paraphrase the African proverb, it takes a village to bring Fiddler to life properly, and again, Richter pulls this off. The cast is huge, many of them quite young, but they are so well coached, and costumed, and directed, that you feel magically transported, in time and place, to Anatevka.

The songs for Fiddler are wonderful, and they are shown to their best advantage here, both by the individual characters and by the company as a whole. The set is handsome and evocative, and the pacing is such that when the show is finally over, nearly two and a half hours after it starts, you are left wishing for more.

By all means go to Richter and enjoy this production. Bring a picnic early, or come after you’ve had your dinner. My only caveat is that you check the weather, and if it’s going to be chilly, be sure you bring jackets and blankets. We did, and we were very very glad.