I went to Parkland College's production of Fiddler on the Roof on Thursday, April 28. I went with some trepidation because since Parkland scheduled the performances during the Jewish holiday of Passover, the cast was composed nearly exclusively of non-Jews. It's not that non-Jews can't play the roles. It's called "acting" after all. But, sometimes, there is just something about being raised in a culture that can't be duplicated. There is a connection to the material that is almost ingrained. It seemed like in the 60s, every Jewish home in the US (or at least the ones I visited!) had a copy of the Original Broadway Cast album with Zero Mostel. And that album was played constantly in our house and in other homes. "Sunrise Sunset" became so iconic and almost a religious requirement at weddings that I had to ask the music director for my wedding to resist each and every entreaty to play "Sunrise Sunset". I was raised on this show. I've seen many productions from junior editions to school editions to church editions in North Carolina to touring editions and of course, my family went to the movie version which also was required viewing when on television before the days of the VCR (and later DVD players). But while I like seeing something "familiar" - I still want to see something different in a production of Fiddler. A director has to resist the temptation to treat the show as a museum piece.
On the one hand - this was a good straightforward production that I was glad to see. On the other hand, there were some staging issues that detracted from the show. On the other hand, there were some strong performances. On the other hand, there were some weak performances. On the other hand, it's real hard to have a non-enjoyable version of Fiddler. On the other hand, there were things I didn't enjoy.
Parkland's production had two of my pet peeves about theatre. First, accents. To me, either everyone in a cast should do an accent or no one should do an accent. This cast's accents were all over the place. It wasn't just that this cast would not have lived in the same village - they were not even people who lived on the same continent. Lou Kinnamon's Tevye was doing Topol's Israeli accent. Jenny Gleason's Golde was using her normal American speaking voice as did most of the villagers. The Russian accents of Gil Yohnka's Constable and Jeff Dare's Fyedka plus the other Russians were very dissimilar such that they must have come from different parts of Russia. This was not a town where the Constable and Tevye knew each other all their lives - despite what the dialog says. When people in a community speak to each other - they don't hear accents. These characters are not speaking "accented" English. They are either speaking Russian or Yiddish. Since the Jews and Russians understand each other, presumably, all the characters were speaking Russian and they would hear each other as "normal" and not "accented." Along these lines - but more minor - Tevye pronounced every "h" as the gutteral "ch"- even when the "h" was not gutteral. Thus, "Chava" should have a gutteral "ch" but "Hodel" should be spoken with a regular "h". When singing "To Life" the word "L'Chaim" has a gutteral ch" but the cast sang it as a regular "h" so it sounded like "hi- yim", That's not saying all cast members didn't sing "Chaim" properly - it's only what I heard - and what people around me also heard
My second pet peeve is static staging. This is where characters just stand in place and sing. Or stand in place and talk. Sometimes, this is appropriate. Other times, it just doesn't work for me. The song "Anatevka" was staged with the singers all frozen in one place with no movement. Now "Anatevka" is a lovely song - but the staging seemed to sap it of the emotion it should have. Even "Far From The Home I Love" was affected by the disconnect between the emotional words of the song and the static staging.
Lou Kinnamon's Tevye was fairly strong - even if I grew tired of the Topol accent which often blurred his diction. I thought he was strong in his singing and his asides. It was a good solid performance - but nothing exceptional. If you'd never seen Fiddler before, you would have lauded his performance. Indeed, while for the most part, I enjoyed Kinnamon's portrayal, somehow, I lost the softness of Tevye - especially in "Far From The Home I Love" and when confronting Chava. The cutting of the "Chavaleh" ballet cut off a major opportunity for Kinnamon to show the softer side of Tevye. Kinnamon was best in his scenes with Jenny Gleason's Golde. There was a feeling of a real relationship there most of the time.
I almost always like Jenny Gleason's performances - and this was no exception. She knew how to stand up to Tevye and how to yield. Her transition in "Tevye's Dream" was convincing. However, her soprano voice did not blend well in choral numbers and even in her duet with Tevye "Do You Love Me?" harmony was lacking - whether that was due to her or him (or the lack of a vocal director), I can not say. And I was disappointed that at the end of "Do You Love Me" Tevye and Golde simply sat on a bench and stared straight ahead like Benjamin and Elaine at the end of "The Graduate." After such a lovely song sung with such emotion where Tevye and Golde realize their love for each other - even though "it doesn't change a thing" - they still should have some physical acknowledgement. They could hold hands or put their heads together or even a pat on the thigh, but they should have done something to indicate they are a unit.
Ray Essick was Motel and I think this was the best performance I've seen him give. Warren Garver made for a nice charming revolutionary Perchik. However, after reading about how wonderful the sound in this show supposedly was, Garver's microphone on Thursday had major problems with distortion that detracted from my enjoying his performance. Tafadzwa Diener's Hodel had just the right amount of spunk when needed even if I felt like she held back or was held back a bit on "Far From The Home I Love". Blaine Lehman was too young for the part of Chava particularly when paired up with the older Jeff Dare.
Whitney Havice came through with some energetic dances and good story telling for "Tradition," "To Life" and "Tevye's Dream." However, for some reason, men and women were dancing together during "The Wedding" before Perchik announces that he is going to break the tradition of men and women dancing separately. As a result, that dramatic moment was lessened. There also needed to be a mechitza- a barrier of some sort that separated the men and women at the wedding for Perchik to cross.
I liked the seemingly simple set of wood plank walls that could be moved to indicate different settings. But, director Stephen Fiol had people walking downstage in front of interior scenes so that those characters could get to the interior or could leave. It was very distracting and caused me to lose focus on the dialog. A member of the audience asked me what was the point of the tall bare tree trunks in the back of the stage. I presume it was to suggest the rural nature of Anatevka. But, I don't know. The trees were not used in any sequence, nor was there any reference to characters going through woods.
The orchestra had some of the best sound I've heard at Parkland in a while. However, on Thursday night, it seemed like the curtain came down before the final dramatic drawn out notes began to play. Those notes almost always bring me to - at the very least - the edge of tears. But, alas, the coordination of curtain and music was off and the moment was lost.
No comments:
Post a Comment