Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters (or Tevye the Dairyman) and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. The story centers on Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to maintain his family and Jewish religious traditions while outside influences encroach upon their lives. He must cope both with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters-each one's choice of husband moves further away from the customs of his faith-and with the edict of the Tsar that evicts the Jews from their village.
Bartlett Sher, the director behind the acclaimed Lincoln Center revivals of 'South Pacific' and 'The King and I,' respects the material while enlivening it. The scenes are staged with acute sensitivity, while a full orchestra plays the timeless score. The opening sequence is somewhat new. Danny Burstein, dressed in modern attire, is apparently looking to retrace his ancestry. As he recites Tevye's opening lines ('A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no?'), the shtetl community, like a ghost being summoned back, comes forward and breaks into 'Tradition.' The fiddler also flies, a la Peter Pan.
Mr. Burstein unleashes his rich baritone with roof-raising force when Tevye's emotion is at its height, bringing home the character's indomitable will, often hidden beneath his self-deprecating humor and sorely tried by his rebellious daughters. Mr. Burstein's way with a classic Jewish joke is assured but unforced, his performance affecting but not overscaled, in keeping with the production's emphasis on the musical's emotional underpinnings, rather than the frosting of shticky comedy.
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