The musical classic "Fiddler on the Roof" has returned to Broadway. Here with her review is Roma Torre.
Fiddler on the Roof, revived five times since it first opened on Broadway 51 years ago starring the legendary Zero Mostel is a near perfect musical.
Impossible to top, no? Well yes, but director Bart Sher and lead actor Danny Burstein deliver as movingly dramatic a Fiddler as we’re ever likely to see.
As Tevye, the struggling milkman in pre-revolution Russia, Burstein is the ultimate mensch, a hard-working God-fearing everyman scraping by with his wife Golde and 5 daughters. The Sholom Aleichem-inspired-stories so brilliantly adapted by Joseph Stein capture the life and times of the shtetl Jews just as the world is turning upside down on them.
"Tradition," that beautifully evocative number by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, introduces the culture and dynamics that held the tiny Anatevka village together for generations.
And, just as tradition is so important to the dwellers here, so it remains for fans of the show who are seeing a breach in the tried and true with some key changes.
Director Bart Sher, known for his celebrated revivals of classic musicals, shakes things up with a framing device reflecting on the refugee crisis plaguing the world today. No words are uttered but Burstein appears in modern dress. Does it add relevance? Yes. Does it detract? No.
Instead of Jerome Robbins wondrous choreography, Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter stages the dances with an impressive authenticity. But happily Robbins bottle dance is untouched.
The performances are mixed. Jessica Hecht as Golde seems at first miscast and her accent out of place but her talent ultimately prevails. And the two suitors Motel and Perchik played by Adam Kantor and Ben Rappaport are standouts.
Sher’s emphasis on the dramatic core of the story is well served by Burstein whose warmly understated command of the iconic Tevye — mastering the comedy and tragedy — wins our hearts completely.
Tevye never really gets Golde to say she loves him after 25 years of marriage. But for me, two and a half hours is all it took.