Could I sit through yet another performance of the oft-seen Fiddler on the Roof, I wondered? Indeed I could at the sterling presentation by Derby Dinner Playhouse that won my admiration from the outset and held my undivided attention throughout. One of the great works of the American musical theater, Fiddlerwon the Tony Award for best musical of 1964. Tonys also went to nearly all the major theater names who brought it to life, including Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, composer and lyricist; Joseph Stein, librettist; and Jerome Robbins, director and choreographer. Why that happened is clear from the way Derby's cast, under Georgette Kleier's expert direction, makes real the characters from Sholom Aleichem's stories about the poor Jewish dairyman Tevye (J. R. Stuart), his family, and neighbors who are driven from their village by the prejudice and pogroms of 1905 Russia. Their lives may be hard and barely above subsistence level, but they have each other and their joys and pain unite them as they sing and dance to the songs in the now-classic score: "To Life," Sunrise, Sunset," "Tradition."
Stuart's Tevye is a tour de force; the audience is in the palm of his hand from the start, and his sure sense of timing gets all the laughs and responses he seeks without overkill. His singing and dancing are first rate, and his exchanges with no-nonsense wife Golde (the always outstanding Rita Thomas) and his five daughters are thoroughly believable.
A high point is the poignant "Do You Love Me?" duet of Tevye and Golde. Barbara Cullen's dazzling choreography features a wedding dance routine, in which three men precariously balance bottles on their hats and another that spotlights gravity-defying Russian dances. The whole cast dances exuberantly in other numbers. As the fiddler who flits through the play, Brian Rash is a fitting reminder and an impressive symbol of the fragility and resilience of life. He makes the part as memorable as any in the show though he doesn't say a word.
