BWW Reviews: EPAC Ushers in Holiday 'Tradition' With FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

If you want tradition, there's little more traditional in musical theatre than performing the classics - and there's little in musical theatre that's more of a classic than FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock's musical retelling of the stories of Sholom Aleichem. The 1964 multiple Tony winner (So, only nine Tonys? You call that a lot, nu?) is known by virtually everyone, whether through one of the four Broadway revivals (Four? That's all? What do you think this show is, THE MUSIC MAN or something?) or its regular rotation in community, college, and high school production, or through the popular 1971 movie, or from the still-popular cast album and movie soundtrack. If you're Jewish, eh, your synagogue's musical staff performs songs from it at the drop of a hat. Not many shows are better-loved. Sholom Aleichem may have written the basics of the story in 1905, in Yiddish, but the problems it poses are as contemporary as anyone raising children now can attest.

Fortunately, for everyone who loves FIDDLER, Patricia Kautter has a fine production of it at Ephrata Performing Arts Center, where it's playing through December 21. She, choreographer Kristin Pontz, and costume designer Kate Willman have produced a show that may be minimalist on set (nonetheless neatly designed by Mike Rhodes) but that's well-cast and is big on acting, music, and selling one of Broadway's - and America's - favorite stories, the tale of Tevye the Dairyman and his eligible daughters. All of them want to get married, none of them through the auspices of the village of Anatevka's matchmaker, the appropriately-named Yente (Claire Daher).

The lead, Tevye - of course, it's tradition that the father is in charge - is played neatly by Artistic Director Ed Fernandez, who was acting well before he became a local director. He's got a firm grasp not only of the humor of Tevye's role but of the angst. A man who's locked in the firm grip of tradition, and one who doesn't believe in breaking with it, Tevye becomes the center of change in the village's Jewish community as he deals with his daughters' heartaches and joys in their relationships. In everything from allowing a match without Yente's help to allowing mixed-sex dancing at his eldest daughter's wedding, his role as patriarch of his otherwise all-female household becomes that of navigating the slippery slope of where adherence to tradition can bend, and where, at least for him and for his community, it must break, and Fernandez is completely believable as the father who only wants what's best, but has to decide just what that means.

Equally fine are Trish Corcoran as Golde, his overworked spouse, and Kathy Becker, Rebecca Bauer, and Sophie Gialloretto as Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava, the three eldest of Tevye's daughters. Becker is particularly notable in "Matchmaker," one of the best-known of the array of well-known and well-loved songs in the show. Corcoran is best shown-off in her duet with Fernandez, "Do You Love Me?" but nonetheless shines throughout.

Among the men, Matthew Rush makes a delightful Lazar Wolf the butcher, friendly enemy of Tevye who sends Yente out with a proposal that he marry Tzeitel. Darren Wagner as Motel the tailor is a joy to watch, going from nebbish to man as he works up the courage to tell Tevye that he wants to marry Tzeitel himself. His growth from 98-pound weakling to hero is convincing and keeps the audience on his side - and if he's not the strongest singer in the cast, his delivery of "Miracle of Miracles" has enough chutzpah in it to keep the audience cheering in their seats. Perchik, the rebel student in love with Hodel, is Alexander P. Bannon, who pulls off the cheeky know-it-all-against-authority with his own chutzpah.

Fydeka, the Russian soldier in love with Chava, and the Constable, Tevye's friend in the non-Jewish community in Anatevka, two parts that aren't the easiest, are played by Sean Deffley and John Rohrkemper with some great sensitivity. Deffley's Fydeka, who has more guts than brains when it comes to love, is charming, and the Constable feels real in the tightrope he walks between carrying out the Czar's orders for the region and trying to protect the Jews he's come to like. The only slightly off note may be for the Rabbi, PatRick Reynolds, who feels as if he's playing more to the humor in his part than to the Yiddishkeit the old clergyman has to pull off.

But it's not only tradition that's being challenged in Anatevka - daughters not asking for permission to get married? And marrying... gentiles? - but an entire way of life, as Czarist Russia is preparing to evict the Jews of the country from more than one city and town. Without tradition to hold them together, can the community in Anatevka survive? The cast finds itself wrestling with that question as well, as they find their days in Anatevka numbered. This is musical theatre, but it's no musical comedy, and fortunately, Kautter has a firm hand with keeping the tone even throughout - the humor is there, but it usually doesn't overshadow the drama of the piece.

The choreography's nicely done, especially in the group numbers, like "Tradition" and "To Life" - the Russian dancers in the latter don't have the most complicated routine ever but it's well-executed. The only real difficulty with Pontz's choreography is that - a miracle for a community show - there's such a large cast here that in the large group numbers, they feel constricted; the stage isn't large enough for all the joy they're trying to express. Watch, particularly, for Tevye's dream sequence (and for Sherrill Wesolowski's especially fine Fruma Sarah), an enjoyable recounting of his alleged nightmare.

At Ephrata Performing Arts Center through December 21. If you've never seen it live, catch it; if you've seen it before, this production won't disappoint. So go, already. For tickets, call 717-733-7966 or visit ephrataperformingartscenter.com.

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