Theater review: ‘Fiddler on the Roof’

It’s all about tradition.

Casa Mañana’s production of the Broadway warhorse, Fiddler on the Roof, which opened Saturday, respects the grand tradition of that musical by sticking to the basics. Director and choreographer Tee Scatuorchio, who once performed under Jerome Robbins (the show’s original director-choreographer) in a revival of this work, uses his fine cast to tell the tale of Tevye and his daughters in a way that caters to expectations.

This musical by Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, which debuted on Broadway in 1964, is one of the most universally loved works in the American musical theater canon. It set performance records in its initial run and remains among the top 20 longest-running Broadway shows. It is also a favorite of community theaters everywhere. So it is little wonder that Scatuorchio wisely chose not to try and reinvent the wheel with this production.

The key to any Fiddler is, of course, a strong actor-singer in the lead role of Tevye, the impoverished Jewish milkman with five daughters and a cart full of problems who is trying to survive in early 20th-century Russia. Visiting actor Bruce Winant fills that bill admirably and carries the show like it is a bag of feathers. He has a mannered, Broadway-approved approach to his acting, in that his technique is intentionally obvious. But that sort of artificiality works for a show like this because that is what audiences want and expect from it. More importantly, Winant has an outstanding voice that more than does justice to such indelible classics as If I Were a Rich Man and Sunrise, Sunset.

Also strong are the performers playing Tevye’s three elder daughters and the young men who become their husbands. Casa’s director of children’s theater Noah Putterman, as the tailor Motel, and Shayne Kennon, as the rabble-rouser Perchik, stand out among those six players, but all handle their acting and singing chores well. Greg Dulcie, as the butcher Lazar Wolf, also does the home team proud while sharing the stage with a number of imported actors.

There are no real show-stopping numbers or performances in this production (except maybe the bottle dance, which is always amazing), but everything about it as correct and solid as it can be. Scatuorchio’s direction is unerringly logical, and his choreography is particularly impressive in this exceedingly well-prepared presentation. The choral work by the cast is especially robust. The eight players in the pit, conducted by music director James Cunningham, also add to the overall quality.

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Theater review: ‘Fiddler on the Roof’."