To See or Not to See: Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof holds a special place in my heart. I can even measure my childhood in moments with this musical, whether dancing around the house with my sister and a pair of brooms while singing “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” crying over the film as a preteen, or participating in a choral production of it as my swan song to high school. I am not alone in my enthusiasm for this deeply moving musical gem– Fiddler on the Roof has been repeatedly cited as one of the most popular American musicals since its Broadway debut at the Imperial Theatre in 1964.

The musical is a joyful and sorrowful adaptation of a series of Yiddish stories by Sholem Aleichem. It follows Tevye the Milkman and his family in Anatevka, a turn-of-the-century shtetl in the Russian Empire, and his attempts to hold together the fraying threads of his disintegrating cultural and familial worlds. This cultural struggle is told in part through the romantic escapades of three of his five daughters– Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava– who increasingly challenge the “old ways” and embrace new forms of courtship that have been made possible by an encroaching, cosmopolitan modernity. The family deals with the added trauma of facing the threat of pogroms in Anatevka. Though Fiddler rightfully holds a place of honor in many Jewish American households, the show’s tuneful score, lovable characters, and tragic depiction of the unraveling of family life and cultural traditions speaks to all people in an ever-moving world. It was the show’s balance of joy and sorrow, cultural constancy and change that captivated this Iranian-American kid from the Midwest.

It should come as no surprise that I was thrilled to hear that Fiddler on the Roof was getting a revival at the Broadway Theatre. And not just any revival: the great director Bartlett Sher— whose recent revivals of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific and The King & I at Lincoln Center have become signature productions of American classics– has teamed up with Danny Burstein, one of Broadway’s finest actors, to take on this cherished twentieth-century musical.

Has Sher done for Fiddler on the Roof what he did for South Pacific or The King & I? Well, not quite. Sher’s production is solid and enjoyable, to be sure. But, on the other hand– to use Tevye’s favorite phrase– Sher’s production does not breathe new life into the material. Rather, it devoutly and lovingly honors it. Thus, it does what we expect from a production of Fiddler on the Roof. The choreography is exciting. The lighting and sets are evocative. Jessica Hecht‘s Golde, Tevye’s wife, is perfectly burdened, superstitious, and gruffly loving. Adam Kantor‘s Motel the tailor, suitor for Daughter #1, is adorably milquetoast. Yente the Matchmaker is as sharp as she is talkative– even if she inexplicably has a Long Island accent. Tevye charms us and makes us laugh, and our hearts break with his by the end.

At the same time, a reverential production that almost always does what we expect it to do means that we sacrifice surprises and the power that comes with them. I was dismayed that, due to unimaginative staging, some of the show’s most iconic numbers– “Sabbath Prayer” and “Sunrise, Sunset”– fell flat and did not deliver the emotional punch I had hoped they would. In this production, there is very little of Sher’s trademark revisionism that has distinguished his two Rodgers and Hammerstein revivals. (His inclusion of the much-omitted song “Western People Funny” in The King & I, for example, did a lot to complicate our assumptions about the show’s problematic cultural and racial themes.)

The most notable exception is Sher’s new– and controversial— framing device. The show begins with the actor who plays Tevye draped in a decidedly contemporary red parka and holding a book. We assume this is a guidebook for Anatevka that the tourist is referencing as he visits his ancestor’s former shtetl. The actor begins speaking, removes the parka, and becomes Tevye. It’s worth noting that I had completely forgotten about this framing device (so how effective was it?) until the very end of the show, when Tevye dons the red parka again, and joins his exiled community as they are condemned to wander as refugees. Sher’s point was clear– he bids us to walk in another’s shoes and remember that we were once all refugees, to some extent– and this nod to the current Syrian refugee crisis made sense. I appreciated this artistic intervention, but I wish we had more of these moments throughout the entire production.

It’s also worth noting that my show-going experience was a bit clouded by my disappointment that I saw the show with eight– count them, EIGHT– understudies. To be clear: I have nothing against understudies. Their talent is unquestioned, and they are some of the hardest working members of the Broadway community. But, eight understudies in a relatively small cast? In such circumstances, you naturally begin to question the extent to which you are seeing the production as the director intended it to be seen, since so many of the originally-cast actors were absent. I was most disappointed that I did not get to see Danny Burstein in what is sure to be a Tony-nominated performance. That disappointment was tempered by the intelligent and tender performance given by his first-rate understudy Adam Grupper, who truly embodied Tevye. The biggest understudy surprise was from Julie Benko, who had stepped in as Hodel, Tevye’s second daughter. Her melancholy and heartbreaking rendition of “Far from the Home I Love,” my favorite song in the show, was an unexpected treat.

Overall, the production did exactly what it was supposed to– it moved me to tears and laughter. At the end of the day, the production was enough; but, in being “just enough,” it fell short of brilliance. If you’ve never seen Fiddler on the Roof on stage before, then you should see this production. If you have seen it before, though, there is very little here that will give you reason to rethink the show anew. But, maybe that’s okay. For a show so preoccupied with Tradition, Sher’s reverential production of a treasured musical is completely on theme.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus, Jeffrey Richards Associates, Fiddler on the Roof