BWW Interviews: Talking with Tevye, Jonathan Hadary of Arena Stage's FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

As the landmark American musical FIDDLER ON THE ROOF celebrates its 50th anniversary, Arena Stage is bringing the show to audiences new and old in production on the intimate and iconic Fichlander Stage. Arena's artistic director Molly Smith directs the production which features the original Jerome Robbins choreography adapted and restaged by Parker Esse.

Jeffrey Walker of BroadwayWorld-DC caught up with actors Ann Arvia and Jonathan Hadary who play Golde and Tevye in the new production. Hadary and Arvia make their Arena Stage debut performances in Bock, Harnick, Stein's musical masterpiece.

This is part two: Jeffrey Walker's interview with Jonathan Hadary.

Jonathan Hadary considers himself "the luckiest guy in town" performing the role of Tevye back on his old stomping grounds. A native of Chicago, his family moved to Maryland while he was a teen and he began to usher for Arena Stage productions. College and his active career on Broadway and in regional theatre followed, bringing him to Washington for his Arena debut.

Hadary is a New Yorker with many Washington credits, among them THE LITTLE FOXES at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, THE MATCHMAKER at Ford's Theatre and Wenceslas Square, GYPSY and ANGELS IN AMERICA (Helen Hayes Award - Roy Cohn) at The Kennedy Center. Broadway credits include AWAKE AND SING!, GOLDEN BOY, SPAMALOT, ALL SHOOK UP, GYPSY (1990 Tony nomination), AS IS (Obie Award, ACE nomination) and Albert Innaurato's GEMINI. His off-Broadway credits include last summer's COMEDY OF ERRORS at the Delacorte; THE DESTINY OF ME; ASSASSINS; WEIRD ROMANCE; and GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER. On-screen credits include Kenneth Lonergan's MARGARET, the Coen brothers' INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, A TIME TO KILL, PRIVATE PARTS and Adult Swim's THE HEART, SHE HOLLER. He is a graduate of the Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda and a co-founder of the area's student-run Wildwood Summer Theatre, now in its 50th season.

JEFFREY WALKER: In your view, what is the significance of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF in the American musical theatre canon?

JONATHAN HADARY: It means a lot of things to me personally. I saw it, pre-Broadway at the National Theatre with my parents in 1964. Zero Mostel was out at the performance I saw. So as it happens, I saw the original FIDDLER ON THE ROOF without Mostel as Tevye. But it made an enormous impression on me. Only a few years later, I had moved to New York to become an actor and knew people who were in the show. And I saw it more times and learn things about it. Time went on, and, even though I didn't forget about it, I just moved on and never really thought about it as a show I would be cast in. Until I saw it online that Arena Stage was doing it and wondered who was playing Tevye.

I understand you have a connection to Arena Stage although not as a performer.

My family was from Chicago but we moved here to Bethesda when I was in junior high and I was a theatre lover already. I found Arena Stage, which was at that time about the only game in town aside from the National. So I saw maybe 18 productions, I think, in the Arena back in high school and college. And I had a fondness for theatre in the round, my college theater was an arena space, so I went to town doing arena and in-the-round productions.

So, from wide-eyed drama kid watching shows at Arena, a busy career, and now your debut on "that" stage - how does it feel?

The fact that they were going to do this FIDDLER on "that" stage [the Fichlander], just thrilled me.

It's a kick. I went to school, to college, at Tufts University and, as it happens, their theater was an arena, it was in the round. So that type of stage is where I grew up as an actor, where the audience sees you at all angles. It kicks the whole experience up. The arena itself changes everything, it's just a different view of theatre. There's an openness, and there are things you can't do in a proscenium theater. This show is so beautifully suited to people being all around you. Right off the bat, in the text of FIDDLER, and the original Jerome Robbins choreography - which is being enhanced here - is based on the circle, the community.

Does the story in FIDDLER have a personal significance to you?

And, as I said to Molly Smith when I met her, these are "my people." My grandparents, both sides, were about the age of the young people in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF when they immigrated to Chicago. I heard about the shetls growing up in fond memories from my great aunts, recollecting leaving on the back of a cart. And then to have this show crystallize all of that, with the story and the actual experience of my family - that was extraordinary in the first place. And now to be in it? It's like 'come on!' It doesn't get better than that.

As personal and specific as the show is about a poor, Jewish-Russian family and their plight losing their home, FIDDLER is powerful as a universal message.

All of us in this beautiful cast and all the people who been working on it have marveled almost every day at the script, and the score, and the writing as we worked on it and now are performing it. It is simply so clear and clean, and pointed, and it the universal themes just pop up. We kept crying as we worked on it, our own lines or at somebody else's. The creators - whatever they were exactly trying to do - I think they succeeded beyond what anyone could have ever dreamed for.

I had a professor in college who said to make something universal everybody thinks you have to put people in black leotards. And instead, the more specific you make it - if it's true, if the characters are recognizable, and the human interactions are recognizable - that's the way to go. There's the story of when FIDDLER was presented in the Far East for the first time. The Japanese producer was perplexed at how the show ever could have been a hit in the West, since the story was so Japanese. And I think everyone sees it that way.

At the heart, what is the show really about?

It's the nuclear family that we all used to have: a mom, a dad, and a family, all in the house. You stayed in the house and you married - in order - and there were a lot of rules but the system worked well. That's what the play is about - whatever tradition is to people. It's something clear and real.

You mentioned that years ago, Tevye was not on your radar of roles to play. Now, here you are as Anatevka's favorite milkman. Who is Tevye?

Tevye is a mensch, as they say, which is a Yiddish word that means man. But it's said approvingly of a man who has his feet on the ground. He's a good Jew, doing all the things he should as a man, and as a father. He's a lovely, smart, wily, troubled, good-humored, sweet, loving, open-minded man. And it's that open-mindedness throughout the story that challenges tradition. And things don't go the way one thinks they will.

Working on the show, I went back to read the original Sholem Aleichem stories - they are incredible to read. I found Tevye is such a modern character.

And I am very much informed by the memory of my father and his, and just my upbringing. My grandfather wrote a memoir for his children and grandchildren. It's funny and fascinating and it's a remarkable document that I have in my family. I can't help but be informed by all of that.

And you have some choice material to work with.

What these guys - Joseph Stein with the book, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick with the score and libretto - did with this show, it was just monumental. But in a simple, straight forward way, it is so honest. And it's so gorgeous - the music and the lyrics - and how they are deployed and when they are, and dance, too - it's so ravishingly beautiful. They tug your heartstrings.

Now that the show is open, what's the best part of this experience?

The first thing that comes to is sharing it - sharing this play with that house of people. It is so welcoming and warm, and I am so eager to give them this show. I'm the luckiest guy in town.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at Arena Stage runs through January 4, 2015.

For Tickets and more information, click HERE

[MAIN - Top] Jonathan Hadary as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater October 31, 2014-January 4, 2015. Photo by Margot Schulman.

[CENTER - Right] Jonathan Hadary

[BOTTOM - Left] Jonathan Hadary as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater October 31, 2014-January 4, 2015. Photo by Margot Schulman.

PHOTO CREDIT(s): Arena Stage