By Alex Biese
How do you take on one of the most well-worn works of American musical theater and make it feel fresh? It’s simple – you present it with such quality of craft and clarity of purpose that an audience is taught anew all about exactly why such a musical can transcend the life of a crowd-pleasing show and become, well, a tradition.
Such is the case with the new production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” on stage through Nov. 24 in Deal Park at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center’s Vogel Auditorium.
With a book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and drawing inspiration from the stories of Sholen Aleichem that date back more than a century, the eventual Tony- and Oscar-winning “Fiddler” made its Broadway debut 60 years ago under the production of Harold Prince. At the Axelrod it’s being directed by Prince’s protege and artistic associate Daniel Kutner.
Kutner, directing the storied musical for the first time, isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here. From the opening salvo of “Tradition” it’s clear that this is very much a classic and, no pun intended, traditional rendering of “Fiddler,” in a staging that feels lived-in and comfortable, like coming home. It’s an incredibly appropriate tone to take because, after all, “Fiddler” is by and large concerned with matters of home: family, faith and the ins-and-outs of rural working class life.
Set in the Russian village of Anatevka at the turn of the 20th century, “Fiddler” is a domestic saga centered on Tevye, the struggling local milkman, and a look at how, in matters of life and love, happenings in the wider world can send unexpected ripples through even the most tightly-knit of communities.
Returning Axelrod player Bruce Sabath, last seen on this Monmouth County stage in “A Monkey and Me” in 2022, anchors the proceedings as Tevye. He works wonders with the role, having previously played the character in Yiddish in an off-Broadway run directed by Joel Grey. Tevye is no small task – he is the heart of a two-dozen-player ensemble, sings some of the most iconic numbers in Broadway history (taking lead on “Tradition” and “If I Were a Rich Man” and as part of the ensemble on “To Life” and “Sunrise, Sunset”) and the role of a conservative and big-hearted patriarch demands the navigation of some complicated moral ground. But Sabath takes on the role with the appropriate aplomb tempered by achingly tender humanity.
The cast around Sabath is aces, with Joy Hermalyn stealing scenes as family matriarch Golde, her chemistry with Sabath instantly apparent as they convey decades of shared history with loving ease. The international, multigenerational cast – including Ksana Sergienko, Mariia Ivashchenko and Sarah Coleman as Tevye and Godle’s “Matchmaker, Matchmaker”-singing daughters Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava – approaches the well-trod material with such immediacy and urgency that they bring it all, once again, to life.
Kutner’s direction and the choreography of Cindy Mora Reiser shine brightly in the show’s trio of iconic big ensemble numbers in the first act. There’s the tavern celebration of “To Life,” the fantastically phantasmagoric all-hands-on-deck “The Dream” sequence and the show-stopper simply referred to in the program as “Wedding Dance.” These sequences fill the stage with power, humanity, propulsive motion and pure emotion, and all three are wonders to behold.
Just as powerful, however, are the show’s quiet moments, the Sabath-as-Tevye “conversations with God” soliloquies, one-way dialogues weighing life’s big questions with wit and warmth.
That’s “Fiddler” in a nutshell, isn’t it? It’s a classic that can’t help but feel contemporary. It’s an epic that is filled with intimacy. It’s a comedy that will break your heart. It’s a drama that gets you singing. It’s a great balancing act, like a fiddler on a roof.
“Fiddler on the Roof,” running through Nov. 24 at the Vogel Auditorium of the Axelrod Performing Arts Center, 100 Grant Ave., Deal Park. For tickets, $32 to $65, and more information, visit axelrodartscenter.com or by call 732-531-9106, ext. 14.
The article originally appeared in the November 7 – 13, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
