Fiddler on the Roof, Broadway

Fiddler on the Roof was a moving yet highly entertaining musical about a Jewish family living in Russia during the early 20th century. This book musical allows the audience to embark with Tevye, the father, and the rest of his family on the journey that is life. In addition to the many life-situations that the characters find themselves in, there are numerous singing scenes in which the audience can hear classic after classic. Some of the themes tackled by Fiddler include racism, love, forgiveness, and the unknowns in life as well as coping with situations while remaining positive. We grow up with the family as they experience new things in life, like whom to marry, etc. We also see the effects of geo-political factors, like the expulsion of the Jews in and around Europe, and how this affected your typical family in the early 1900’s. Relationships, preconceptions, as well as misconceptions make up a large part of the message that the playwright intended on exploring, and this was definitely accomplished in this production of Fiddler on the Roof.

The audience seemed to be a decent mixture of ages, sex, and interest level. It appeared that many of the audience members were familiar with the musical, as many of them sang along to the songs as if they had been to a few of these productions. I sat around the middle of the theatre, which gave me a good overall point of view for observing the audience performer relationship. People were very involved with the play, and the performers had a good connection with the audience, especially with regard in their musical performances. There was a definite exchange of energy between the performers and the audience. One thing that encouraged this connection was the aesthetic distance, which was extremely small. Also, throughout the play, characters engaged in several soliloquies. Some of them appeared to be talking to God, and some appeared to be in distant thought. Either way, it was like the audience had direct access to the feelings, inner turmoil, and wonder that the characters were experiencing. This insight was further accomplished by a few of the main characters performing solo numbers which expressed their dominant feelings. This closeness helped create an intimate setting, one in which the audience member is ‘allowed’ into the minds of the character.

The physicality of the acting was impressive, as the music scenes required well choreographed dance numbers. Many actors and actresses moving around the stage very quickly would describe a typical music routine from this production. As in the scene where Tevye and all the other men are celebrating in the pub, I actually witnessed real ethnic dances, as the Russians preformed their famous folk melodies. These types of dance numbers were seen throughout the play, and made me wonder how much time was spent learning them. One other aspect of the acting that stuck out to me was how versatile the performers were with regards to playing different ages, ethnicities, etc. The roles were all fairly convincing, and to combine these fundamental acting elements with the musical talent was very impressive to me. The casting of this production stood out as excellent, as the personalities of the characters seemed not so different off the stage as they were in the play. For instance, Tevye, the comically exasperated father, was portrayed by a large man whom used his stature to further the joke, probably something this man has done his entire life for a laugh out of people. The musical talent of the cast was good, and no one seemed like they were shy of singing. The volume of the singing and music was acceptable, as all of the singers had discreetly placed microphones in their ears. At one point, one of the performers was dancing, and had her microphone nearly fall out of her hear. The Russian accents were convincing for some of the performers, but some of them fell short and seemed like they needed either a coach or more practice. The interactions between the characters appeared genuine and dramatic, and were not so slow that one lost interest. Whenever the acting seemed to veer in the direction of boring or repetitive, a music number would bring you back. Also helping to keep one’s interest was the consistent jokes that ranged from irony to physical comedy. The metaphorical fiddler, who was seen throughout the play, was almost like a modern version of a chorus, and would bring the audience back to ground when a dramatic sequence of events would take place. Overall, the acting in the play combined