FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
At Gateway Theatre until Dec. 31. Tickets: 604-270-1812 gatewaytheatre.com
Is there a musical with a more heart-wrenching song than "Sunrise, Sunset" from Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's Fiddler on the Roof? It sends tremors through the soul with its recurring "Sunrise, sunset/Sunrise, sunset/Swiftly fly the years." What parent hasn't wondered, as the song goes, "Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play?" as their children grow up, marry and have children of their own?
David Adams, as Tevye, father of five daughters, has more than a few in the audience misting up as his rich, vibrant voice carries this song straight to the heart. But Te-vye is not melancholy all of the time; in fact he's downright good at sparring with God who has dealt him - a good Jewish dairy farmer - a hard time. And he's full of folksy homilies. Adams is playful in the role and warm and loving as a father whose three eldest daughters break with tradition, defying Yenta, the village matchmaker (Barbara Pollard), by marrying men of their choice. Heart-broken at their decisions is their longsuffering mother Golde (Patti Allan) who wants the girls to marry men with money and security - even if they're old and ugly.
Fiddler opens with "Tradition," a full ensemble number with 30 singers and dancers on stage. The show's most rousing song, it gets our blood stirring as it describes life in Anatevka, a small shtetl in Czarist Russia in 1905. There are the "papas," the fathers, heads of households; the "mamas," keepers of kosher homes; the "sons" who go to Hebrew school, learn a trade and marry the girl chosen by their father; and the "daughters" who learn how to run a home and marry "whoever Papa picks." Tradition! Tradition!
But Russia is on the eve of revolution and times are changing. When Perchik (Gaelan Beatty) arrives in the village, he brings news from the cities where the revolution is already beginning. Demonstrations and pogroms are happening elsewhere; trouble will soon come to Anatevka.
Directed by Christopher McGregor, this is one of the best shows I've seen at Gateway. It's big, it's beautiful with its weathered cluster of farmhouses (designed by Drew Facey) and earth-toned cotton costumes by Carmen Alatorre all evocatively lit by Alan Brodie. A six-piece orchestra under the direction of Allen Stiles is lively and Dawn Ewen has taken Jerome Robbins' original choreography, reproduced it and adapted it for the Gateway stage. Especially exhilarating is the wedding of Tzeitel (Ranae Miller) and Motel (Alex Pangburn) as five male dancers with bottles balanced on their heads entertain the bride, the groom and all the assembled guests.
As well as Adams' there are some outstanding voices here including Ranae Miller, Kat Palmer (Hodel), and Gaelan Beatty. Patti Allan absolutely nails the role of scolding, hard-working Golde; and Pollard is terrific as the nosy, well-intentioned matchmaker.
McGregor goes for broke in the "dream scene" with masked spirits of the dead circling the ghost of Golde's grandmother.
There's history and romance, tears and laughter, singing and dancing. What more could you want? A happy ending? With families torn apart as the Czar's troops move across the country forcefully evicting all the Jews, a happy ending is too much to ask. But Fiddler leaves it open; some go to Krakow, some emigrate to America. Life goes on.
The title comes from a painting called "The Fiddler" by surrealist Marc Chagall. Without tradition, says Tevye at the top of the play, "our lives would be as crazy as a fiddler on the roof." Significantly, the fiddle (played by Caleb Di Pomponio) is passed to the youngest villagers as the Jews of Anatevka move on. It becomes a symbol of survival in a world full of hardship, "happiness and tears."
