Review: FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at Tri-M Productions

Tri-M Productions finishes out their 2025 season with a production of Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock, and Sheldon Harnick’s (fun, considering Tri-M also has an upcoming production of She Loves Me in the works for 2026) Fiddler on the Roof – this ambitious and well performed production plays at the St Francis Auditorium at the New Mexico Museum of Art this weekend only.

Fiddler on the Roof tells the story of poor Russian Jewish milkman Tevye (Adam Wagner), his wife Golde (Jess Cunico), and their five daughters (Mariah Bolla Olesen as Tzeitel, Anna Balsamo as Hodel, Nandi Strieker as Chava, Miranda Sinkovitz Arteaga as Shprintze, and Genivieve Miller as Bielke); he is forced to confront biases held stemming from his traditional values as his three oldest daughters find and marry suitors (Koppany Pusztai as Motel, Stuard Charles Neef as Perchik, and Jason Martinez as Fyedka, respectively) who are increasingly distanced from his long held beliefs – all of this occurring while the Czar is upping violence against Jewish communities and ultimately forcing the community of Anatevka to be expelled from their homes.

To address a potential elephant in the room – like many older and golden age musicals, Fiddler on the Roof has elements that have aged in rather complicated ways. It would be irresponsible to write about a production of Fiddler without addressing the ongoing conflict and genocide in Gaza and how that tonally influences the piece, intentionally or not, due to generally falsely presumed anti-semitism interpreted in advocacy for the people of Palestine lending itself to sometimes complicated feelings around Jewish narratives; a cursory Google search of the two topics brings up rumors of protested productions as well as multiple think pieces and articles regarding concerns about the sensitivity of presenting Fiddler, and to be sure, Yente’s line towards the end of the second act about “going to the Holy Land” certainly hits differently in a production in 2025 than Joseph Stein likely intended for it to in 1964 (or Sholem Aleichem might have meant if this was also in his original stories, which were written around when the musicals is set at roughly the turn of the 20th century, and so before Israel’s founding in 1948). 

The current political climate, particularly around the practice of deportations and religious and cultural discrimination, also contributed tonally to this reviewer’s experience with the piece this time around – it’s just interesting and important to note that theatre such as classical musicals that are frequently considered such neutral standards are often anything but, and how the inherent political nature of theatre can flavor audience experience and perception; it would have been really cool to see this production lean slightly more into actively addressing displacement of marginalized populations, for instance, as well as government sanctioned antagonism of those same populations as both concepts are so unfortunately topical in 2025. Fiddler on the Roof does have significant potential in engaging the community in conversations around some of these issues, and Tri-M is to be commended for taking the piece on to hopefully function as a springboard for these conversations.

All that being addressed – this particular production itself does lean heavily into a modern sensibility through performances and direction; interactions between characters seem to intentionally skew in a contemporary light which does lend itself to the universality of the themes. Tri-M’s go-to choreographer, Laura Orozco Garrett, has once again developed stunning, well performed, energetic movement pieces for the performers in this ensemble; a particular highlight in a variety of ways was the Tevye’s Dream sequence, which I will not spoil for audience members but which was genuinely one of the most exciting takes on that number I have ever experienced; the bottle dance and wedding sequence at the end of act one were also very fun.

The ensemble of this production is very solid; there are a lot of people in the company for the somewhat limited stage space at the St Francis, but there were only a couple instances during whole cast sequences where sightlines were compromised in relation to characters directly involved in the action of a scene – the stage is otherwise quite well utilized and staging is quite effective. Particular highlights within the already strong company were the always wonderful Ann Roylance’s Yente (her mastery of the patter, pace, and sensibility in which the text was written was absolutely delightful) and Koppany Pusztai’s deeply endearing Motel (and a shoutout to the completely adorable dynamic he had with Mariah Bolla Oleson’s Tzeitel – the fact that the two are married in real life added additional charm to their dynamic), and Rae Dobrovolsky’s wickedly fun Fruma Sarah.