BWW Reviews: For Tom Robbins, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Feels Like Coming Home

Tom Alan Robbins first stepped into the role of Russian milkman Tevye in the classic Tony-winning musical Fiddler on the Roof some 40 years ago, as a high school student. This week, he returns to his stage roots at Atlanta's Fox Theatre, once again taking the Fiddler lead.

"It was one of those experiences every actor has," Robbins said. "You play a part that there's just something about it that makes you say, 'This is what I want to do.'"

The decades since that first experience have been full. An Ohio native, Robbins was a member of one of the early classes at Julliard's Drama Division, where his classmates when he started in 1973 included Frances Conroy and Robin Williams. After graduation, he joined The Acting Company, which was formed by members of the first Julliard class, and then toured as Thenardier in Les Miserables. That tour played in Atlanta, but he said that was his last trip to the city. "I haven't been there in 35 years," he said.

During the ensuing decades, his Broadway credits have included Jerome Robbins' Broadway, The Threepenny Opera, Sunset Boulevard, and Once Upon a Mattress, but audiences are most likely to have seen him during his 13 years in the part of Puumba the warthog in The Lion King, a role he originated.

"I wanted to stay at home with my daughter," he said. "Disney treated me so, so well." He left the show last year but recently returned briefly to fill in for an injured performer. His daughter, now 20, is in college in Massachusetts.

Of Fiddler and Tevye, Robbins said he particularly likes a moment in which his character isn't the focus. "There's a scene when I send my daughter to Siberia to meet her fiancé," he said. "I don't do much in the scene, but it's my favorite." He did add that Teyve's featured number "If I Were a Rich Man" is always lots of fun. "That's just the best," he said.

Asked about other roles he'd like to play, Robbins listed Max Biaylystock in The Producers, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and "basically, anything Zero Mostel played." He said "what's so great about the theater" is that there are so many good shows and roles to choose from.

Robbins hasn't seen much in the way of recent shows, though.

"In all those years I was doing The Lion King, I was working when the other shows were on," he said. "And when I was off, the last thing I wanted to do was spend time getting on the subway and going back down for a show!"

Fiddler on the Roof, presented by Theater of the Stars, is a short-run production, with a week of previews and performances in Virginia followed by the week in Atlanta. In addition to the professional cast members, the show is featuring 16 local youth performers. Produced by Christopher Manos, Fiddler on the Roof is directed and choreographed by Norb Joerder with Joey Chancey as musical director and conductor.

Robbins is glad to be a part of the production and said, "I just have to say how lucky I am to work with Susan Cella as Golde," Teyve's wife. He adds that he lists Fiddler as among his favorite shows.

"It's one of the best-written shows in musical theater," he said. "You should come expecting to have a good time, and even to be moved."

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