A tradition worth keeping

Despite having been in Fiddler on the Roof in high school (ensemble), I'm not a huge fan of the piece. I find Tevye annoying. So when Signature Theatre announced it for this season, I was not particularly thrilled at the prospect.

I was wrong. This production is excellent and gave me a whole new appreciation for the piece.

The musical is the story of Jewish dairyman Tevye, raising his five daughters in Anatevka, Russia in the early 20th century. It's the story of his daughters rebelling against the traditions of their upbringing in how they find love for themselves, eschewing village matchmaker Yente. It's the story of how Tevye rolls with the punches...and figures out when he can no longer do so.

To life! (c) Daniel Rader

Director Joe Colarco has set the show in the round; when the audience comes in, they find themselves at a large table around which the town congregates. (And if you're in the front row, you're pretty much at the table. Cast members will brush up against you.) The cast rearrange the table throughout the show, allowing it to serve myriad functions. It was only well into the second act that I realized that parts of the table were disappearing...and what that meant. It's so subtly done that the gut punch came completely unexpectedly.

Douglas Sills's Tevye is a revelation. As I noted, I don't like Tevye. I do like Douglas Sills, whom I first saw in The Scarlet Pimpernel in the late 1990s and whom I actually met at the stage door, and let me tell you, the man was lovely and a delight. And his Tevye got to me. He had a sparkle in his eye and a clearly joyful nature. But his moments of seriousness and anger show the depth of the man. I appreciated Colarco including scenes of the rabbi and Anatevka men studying the scriptures, even if just in the background; it rooted the show in Tevye's desire, as he sings in "If I Were a Rich Man," to sit in the synagogue and pray, to discuss the scriptures. Tevye's Jewishness is always at the heart of the play, of course, but I felt it a lot more in this production. His intelligence shone through in a way I hadn't seen before.

And the bangers in the show hit. "L'Chaim" and the post-wedding celebrations are always going to be ludicrously fun. But here? Magic. And Alex Stone's Fyedka had me from his first note. (All three suitors--Jake Loewenthal's Motel and Ariel Neydavoud's Perchik being the other two--were great. Neydavoud found a great combination of idealistic scholar and reluctant love interest that worked perfectly. Also, the man can dance.) For a show that can be a real bummer, it has many moments of true joy.

And brilliance, in Tevye's dream sequence. The idea for it is fantastic, of course, but the way Colarco staged was the perfect level of terrifying. (Again, particularly when you're watching from the front row.) I don't know how much Tevye actually sees his daughter Tzeitel's marriage to a local butcher as her being shackled, but she sure does. So well done.

Ultimately, I think, this production felt more real to me than other productions I've seen. The characters were more human, the village more vibrant. And unfortunately, the times we live in make it incredibly relevant. 

I'm shocked to be in this position, but I'm actually considering trying to usher this show again. It was that good.