The Bridge, July 2006

Jonathan Herz, left, as Tevye, and Ellen Jaworski, right, as Hodel. Staff photo.

By Nat Frothingham
     In what is rapidly becoming a splendid local summer tradition, the QuarryWorks Theater opened its new season on July 13 with the Broadway hit musical, Fiddler on the Roof. The show will continue with matinee and evening performances until July 23 at the Phillips Experimental Theater on the grounds of the Adamant Music School.
     Fiddler on the Roof, inspired by the work of artist Marc Chagall, with the book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, first opened on Broadway on September 23, 1964, and has had at least four Broadway revivals.
     The original 1964 show with Zero Mostel in the lead role as Tevye ran for seven years and nine months and at the time set a new record for the longest running Broadway show with 3,242 performances. It was later made into a successful film.
     In the Adamant production, a five-piece, live orchestra and a community cast of men, women, and children staged a spirited performance of the musical with such enduringly popular show tunes as "If I Were a Rich Man," "Matchmaker, Matchmaker," and "Sunrise, Sunset."
     In the largest sense, Fiddler on the Roof celebrates the Jewish love of tradition in a world that threatens persecution and the loss of Jewish cultural identity. The musical tells the story of Tevye, a Jewish milkman, his wife Golde, and their five daughters who live in the small Russian village of Anatevka in 1905 on the eve of the Russian revolutionary period.
     Tevye, who is a man of great charm and a beguiling talker, opens the show by reflecting about a fiddler on the roof. Who is the fiddler on the roof? He is anyone who is trying to scratch out a pleasant tune while maintaining balance.
     Tradition-Jewish tradition-is what Tevye honors most, and he attaches supreme importance to the tradition of a father's right to choose a husband for each of his daughters. And as the musical progresses, we see this tradition challenged.
     Times are changing, and when Tevye confidently promises the hand of his eldest daughter, Tzeitel, in marriage to the village butcher (Lazar Wolf), Tzeitel has other ideas. True enough, Lazar is a rich man, but he's also an old man, and Tzeitel has already given her heart to the poor village tailor, Motel.
     What's Tevye to do? Honor his agreement with the rich (but old) village butcher? Or yield to his daughter's entreaties and let her marry the poor tailor? In the end, the daughter prevails.
     Now comes Tevye's second eldest daughter, Hodel, who falls in love with Perchik, a visiting student with radical ideas from Kiev. In this instance, the two lovers simply announce their wish to be married. "We're not asking your permission," they say to Tevye. "Only your blessing." This is a more severe challenge to the father's role in choosing the man his daughter will marry.
     Finally, Tevye's third daughter falls in love with a Russian soldier, a man outside the Jewish faith-a much more dire challenge to Tevye's traditional right to choose his daughter's husband. As if this weren't enough, in the final scene of the musical, the constable arrives with orders from the Russian government. All the people in Anatevka must abandon their village.
     In its time Fiddler on the Roof broke new ground in American musical theater by showing that a musical could take up such painful issues as tradition and change, even government persecution and a threat to the survival of Jewish culture and religious identity.
     There are many fine performances in the Adamant Fiddler on the Roof revival. As Tevye, Jonathan Herz has the voice, the stage presence, and the sense of irony that the role demands. Tevye has plenty to say and is full of clever observations. To a man who says he's eaten a chicken, Tevye says, "If a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick." Commenting on a report of his eldest daughter marital happiness, he says, "They're so happy they don't know how miserable they are." Reflecting on his third daughter's decision to marry outside the Jewish faith, he says, "A bird may love a fish. But where would they build a home together?"
     Tevye's long-suffering wife, Golde, is played by Karen Machia, and Machia handles her role with great poise. She moves extremely well on stage and is a convincing wife and mother. Yente, the matchmaker, played by Sheila Collins, was convincing as an interfering, gossiping rumor-monger.
     In a show with many good moments, there was something quite tender, almost innocent, in the scene when Perchik, the young revolutionary student from Kiev, invites Tevye's second eldest daughter, Hodel, to tryout a new and forbidden dance. Hodel, played by Ellen Jaworski, is at first unwilling, then reluctant, then tentative, then somewhat yielding, and finally rapturously joyful in this new dance. It's an entirely youthful and beautifully realized moment.
     Perchik leaves Hodel behind in Anatevka and returns to Kiev. Later, word is received in the village that Perchik has been arrested and sent to Siberia. And when the steadfastly loyal Hodel sings "Far from the Home I Love" she persuades us of the strength and permanence of her love for Perchik.
     Of course, the glory of musical theater is music itself-and the music in this show is wonderful. But there is another ingredient that deserves mention: the costumes for a large cast in all colors of the rainbow-a visual delight.

Quarryworks: How to Get There
     Adamant is about nine miles north of Montpelier. To reach the Phillips Experimental Theater, drive out to Adamant, really a crossroads country hamlet. Right at the crossroads is the Adamant Co-op building. If you are facing the co-op building, take a dirt road to the right of the co-op and drive about two miles on a single-lane dirt road to where it ends at an abandoned quarry.
Evening show times are 7:30 p.m. But to be sure to claim seats at the show, many people pack a picnic supper and arrive as early as 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. so that they can claim seats in the theater.