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Peer Reviews
Fiddler on the Roof Book by Joseph Stein Music by Jerry Bock, Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Directed by Elizabeth and Charles Swarens Musical Direction by Daniel Suddarth Reviewed by Cory Vaughn Entire contents are copyright © 2008 Cory Vaughn. All rights reserved.
Hayswood Theatre's slogan, printed on the front of their playbills, is "Not your average community theatre." Unfortunately, the opening night of their production of Fiddler on the Roof is not the best evidence to support their claim. I love this show, and I have no doubt Elizabeth and Charles Swarens love it also; I must credit them for what is obviously a loving attempt to reconstruct treasured memories of productions they have seen of it into a cohesive production of their own. But in bringing this great musical back to the stage, they have somehow missed the spirit that informed the material in the first place. They are not helped by a relatively young and uneven cast of actors, few of whom seem to fully understand their characters, and a stage that is too small to preserve the show's original choreography, despite the good work of Hayswood veteran Rita Hight. The play, of course, takes place in the fictional village of Anatevka, somewhere in Tsarist Russia. Anatevka's Jews have always lived their lives in strict accordance with the traditions passed down by their ancestors, but as the curtain rises, these traditions are beginning to meet with resistance, both by impressionable youngsters from within the shtetl and by a new anti-Semitic regime encroaching from without. The central conflict is over the issue of marriage. The main character, a poor milkman named Tevye with a proverb for every occasion and a habit of talking aloud to God (usually in the form of a complaint), has five daughters, three of a marrying age. Tevye hopes to find learned and well-off suitors for them, but the daughters have their own ideas. The eldest rejects the match arranged for her in favor of a poor tailor and childhood friend whom (gasp!) she actually loves. But despite a firestorm of gossip, this is nothing compared with the rules broken by daughters #2 (who elopes with a traveling student with inflammatory ideas) and #3 (who becomes more and more drawn to a Gentile who shares her love of reading). In the midst of this, Tevye and his wife examine, for the first time in twenty-five years of an arranged marriage, whether they really love each other, and the threat of persecution casts a constant shadow on the Jewish community of Anatevka and their beloved traditions.
The principal cast is mostly capable. Alan Weller, a talented and experienced actor in fine voice as usual, seems like he would make a good Tevye, but during the performance I saw, he experienced some trouble with his lines which upstaged his characterization (and which I hope were mere opening-night kinks), creating a sporadically funny but not-very-endearing Tevye whose long-suffering wife Golde (well played by choreographer Hight) is a saint for putting up with him, and who does clearly love him and their headstrong daughters as best she knows how. The young ladies playing Tevye's three eldest daughters – Dominique Higdon, Laura Goins and Lindsay Vincent – all show a great deal of promise, particularly Ms. Higdon, injecting some much-needed energy and humor into the mix in the smaller role of eldest daughter Tzeitel (and, in an unusual bit of double-casting, as her namesake great-grandmother). However, with the exception of the poor but determined tailor Motel (a charismatic and utterly lovable Tom Gudding), none of the suitors seem worthy of the daughters, certainly not enough that I can believe they would risk everything to be with these men. George Bailey and Cathy Butler-Weathersby do their best in amusing if stereotypical supporting roles as Motel's rival for Tzeitel's hand and the village matchmaker, respectively. The Hayswood has two more weeks to clean up some of these problems, and I wish them well; I should like to see this theatre and this production succeed. To be fair, choosing suitable material for the Hayswood's stage poses a problem. The stage is too small to accommodate, without severe compromise, large and traditional crowd-pleasing musicals such as this. I would suggest a more intimate selection for the future. I also think it a bad idea that the program lists the actors singing each song, rather than the characters living them. This takes us immediately out of the illusion and reminds us at every turn that what’s happening onstage is not even remotely real. The physical production, including accompaniment on an offstage (but barely hidden) solo keyboard, is actually fairly remarkable for the budget available. As I mentioned earlier, it is plain to see that this production has been a labor of love for everyone involved. I'm sure many of the audience members will come away touched by the production, and some, like the inquisitive child in the row behind mine, will have their eyes opened for the first time to the sad chapter of all-too-recent history on which this story is based. Some may even witness fine performances like those given by rising young stars such as Ms. Higdon, Ms. Goins, and Ms. Vincent (all of whom are studying performing arts at their respective colleges), and be inspired. If any of these things should happen, the work involved in putting this production together will certainly come to fruition.
Fiddler on the Roof Tickets: $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for seniors (65+) and children (17 and under) 888-738-2137 Remaining Performances:
Posted July 14, 2008
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