CENTERVILLE — “There’s no shame in being poor ... but it’s no great honor either.”
The wit and wisdom of Tevye, the milkman in Anatevka, is a captivating feature of "Fiddler on the Roof,” the musical to be staged by CenterPoint Legacy Theatre.
The story may be set in a Jewish village in Czarist Russia a century ago, but the show retains its strength because the themes of parent versus child and ritual versus change remain timeless and universal.
“People identify with Tevye — the way he handles bad news and things that don't go his way. He questions these predicaments and has turmoil over them, but he finds a way to deal with these situations, and that’s such a great message,” says director Addie Holman.
“No matter what religion or culture we are, we all experience many of the same struggles in our own families. So it’s nice to be able to see someone else going through the same suffering or go through an experience and realize that we’re not alone.”
The characters of Tevye and other dwellers in the village of Anatevka first came to attention in the stories written in Yiddish by the popular fiction writer who called himself Sholem Aleichem (literally “peace be with you” in Hebrew).
A proud and obstinate father who sternly clings to his traditions, Tevye and his wife, Golde, are parents of five daughters — three who are approaching marrying age — in the era of pogroms in pre-revolutionary Russia. One daughter resists the pairing made by Yente the matchmaker; another asks for her father’s blessing, not his permission, to marry the man she loves; and the third dares to marry a non-Jew, a crisis that forces Tevye to choose between his faith and his family.
“It all comes down to tradition, which is the underlying theme of the show,” Holman adds. “We all have traditions, no matter what religion or culture we may be a part of.”
While initially criticized for its “limited appeal,” “Fiddler on the Roof” struck such a universal chord in audiences that it became the first Broadway musical ever to run more than 3,000 performances, from 1964 through 1972. The original production won nine Tony Awards, and the film adaptation, which earned three Academy Awards, triumphed as a hit movie musical, a rarity in the 1970s.
Tevye deals with serious issues — persecution, poverty and the struggle to hold on to his beliefs in the midst of a hostile and chaotic environment — and “Fiddler on the Roof” was one of the first shows to defy Broadway’s established rules of commercial success, which opened the door for other musicals to deal with more serious issues.
Holman kept the gravity of those issues in mind as she conceptualized the production.
“We knew we couldn’t stage a show-stopping, ‘ta-da’ musical,” she says. “Our objective is to make ‘Fiddler’ authentic and realistic. That way it becomes funnier, because the audience is laughing with the characters and what is happening to them, rather than laughing at punch lines and jokes.”
Throughout the years of its continuing popularity, audiences have agreed that “Fiddler on the Roof” is a mekhaye (the Yiddish word for something that gives zest to life).
If you go ...
What: CenterPoint Legacy Theatre’s “Fiddler on the Roof”
Where: Davis Center for the Performing Arts
When: June 24-July 20
How much: $17-$21
Tickets: 801-298-1302 or centerpointtheatre.org