Review: Fiddler on the Roof (Light Opera Works)

  
  
Fiddler on the Roof

By Jerry Bock (music), Sheldon Harnick (music)
   and Joseph Stein (book)
Directed by Rudy Hogenmiller 
at Cahn Auditorium, Evanston (map)
thru Aug 24  |  tickets: $34-$94   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets 
  
  
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Funny, tuneful and touching as ever

Light Opera Works presents

Fiddler on the Roof

Review by John Olson

Currently the 16th longest-running Broadway show of all time, and arguably the last great musical of the “golden age,” Fiddler on the Roof will be 50 years old next month. One of those classics which has never really left us, its hits “Sunrise, Sunset,” Matchmaker, Matchmaker” and “If I Were a Rich Man” are recognizable to most people over the age of 40 or 50, but surely there’s much more to its appeal than the Bock and Harnick score. In adapting Sholem Aleichem’s stories of Tevye, the poor dairyman and father of six girls (just five in the musical) in a provincial town in Tsarist Russia, Joseph Stein created characters with problems resonant to audiences of any era. His characters are decent, likable people just trying get by in times of economic hardship,

keeping a family together, seeking comfort and guidance through faith and coping with vast societal changes. Stein skillfully and wisely kept the focus on these universal themes even as he set them against a very specific set of historical circumstances. Aleichem was a native of a small town in Ukraine, where – as part of the Russian Federation in the late 19th Century – the Russians forbade Jews from living in communities of less than 10,000 population. The village Anatevka of this musical is just such a town, and its villagers experience prejudice, persecution and ultimately expulsion from their homes, many of them leaving to seek refuge in America. Though the musical spends most of its storytelling on Tevye and his wife Golde’s reactions to their maturing daughters’ insistence on choosing their own husbands rather than the mates selected by their father, the historic and political context is clearly present. It’s also relevant in a way the authors and even Director/Choreographer Rudy Hogenmiller could not have foreseen in placing the musical on Light Opera Works’ 2014 season. Conflict between ethnic Russians and Ukrainians? Refugees flocking to America to escape untenable conditions at home? This 50-year-old musical seems as “torn from the headlines” as if it had been written yesterday. As always with Light Opera Works, this production delivers on the music, but the cast’s very solid acting of Stein’s script communicates the story’s themes and generate empathy with the characters just as effectively.

Fiddler – like the other Broadway blockbusters Hello, Dolly and Funny Girl which also opened in 1964 – was a vehicle for a star – and Light Opera Works has a very strong Tevye in Alex Honzen. He doesn’t push for big laughs in the mold of Zero Mostel, who originated the role, but rather projects a low-key, wry demeanor that lets Aleichem and Stein’s gentle humor shine through. This is Hogenmiller’s smart approach to the whole show, really. But if Honzen is no Mostel (and wisely doesn’t try to be), he sings the heck out of the role and, with his operatic voice, gives about as fine and powerful a reading of Tevye’s songs as one could imagine. His Golde is the ever-versatile Jenny Lamb, who lands the funny lines of the long-suffering wife with a dry sense of humor in a character very different from her Sally Bowles of Light Opera’s Cabaret last year. Other standouts are Neil Stratman as the meek but lovable tailor who weds Tevye’s oldest daughter Tzeitel and Rick Rapp as the rich but rotund butcher Lazar Wolf, who also has design on the much younger Tzeitel.

   

The 29-person cast and 23-piece orchestra sound wonderful under the musical direction of Roger L. Bingaman, and if the entire ensemble isn’t completely polished in the dancing department, there’s a corps of men that do some most impressive hoofing in “To Life” and the “Wedding Dance.” It’s all played against a colorful set by Adam Veness that’s more impressionistic than realistic – and lighting by Andrew H. Meyers that helps set the feeling of the musical’s rural/small town setting. The handsome costumes for the peasants and Cossacks alike are by Jesus Perez and Jane DeBondt.

Long runs on Broadway are no guarantee of artistic merit. Lots of the longest-running hits have sold tickets based more on crowd-appeal than artistry, but Fiddler has enough emotional heft along with its charm to be called both popular and art. Light Opera Works can always be counted on to deliver respectful productions of these classics. If anything, this one is just a bit too respectful. I’m no fan of self-indulgent directorial concepts, but if there’s one criticism to be made of this production or Light Opera’s approach, it’s that they’re too cautious – almost as if they’re afraid of breaking the piece by trying anything new in their interpretation. If we’re going to revisit these classics, many of us look for something different or individualistic in their interpretation to justify or at least remember the return visit to the piece. In the case, current events outside the artists’ control gives this Fiddler an extra reason for being seen, and in this case that’s reason enough.

Rating: ★★★½

Fiddler on the Roof continues through August 24th at Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson, Evanston (map), with performances Wednesdays at 2pm, Fridays and Saturdays 8pm, Sundays 2pm.  Tickets are $34-$94, and are available by phone (847-920-5360) or online through their website (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at LightOperaWorks.org.  (Running time: 3 hours, includes an intermission)

Photos by Mona Luan

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artists

cast

Alex Honzen (Tevye), Jenny Lamb (Golde), Yael Wartens (Tzeitel), Katelin Spencer (Hodel), Meredith Kochan (Chava), Audrey Heiserman (Shprintze, ensemble), Peyton Shaffer (Bielke, ensemble), Marian Kaderbeck (Yente), Neil Stratman (Motel), Tim Rebers (Perchik), Rick Rapp (Lazar Wolf), Brad Senffner (Mordcha, ensemble), Jerry M. Miller (Rabbi, ensemble), Brian Zane (Mendel, ensemble), Aram Monisoff (Avram, ensemble), Dan Gold (Machum, ensemble), Amanda Horvath (Grandma Tzeitel, ensemble), Sara Stern (Fruma Sarah,. ensemble), Russell Alan Rowe (Constable), Billy Dawson (Fyedka), Michelle McKenzie-Voight (Shaindel, ensemble), Ryan Naimy (The Fiddler, ensemble), John Cardone, Chris Jackson, Claire Kaiser, Phil Kaiser, Francisco Lopez, Jr.; Evan Lerner, Trent Noor (ensemble)

behind the scenes

Rudy Hogenmiller (director, choreographer), Roger L. Bingaman (music director, conductor), Adam Veness (scenic design), Jesus Perez and Jane DeBondt (costume design), Sienna Kusek (hair and make-up), Andrew H. Meyers (lighting design), Mike Ross (sound design), Casey Schillo (props design), Tom Campbell (stage manager), Katie Beeks (production manager), Mona Luan (photos)

  

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