Fiddler On The Roof

Yes, it's good to have this wonderful show back on Broadway. On the other hand (to use Tevye's expression), there are serious casting flaws.

First, the good news. Fiddler is presented virtually complete and with no reinterpretive gimmicks. There's a large cast of 40 and an orchestra of 24. Jerome Robbins' original choreography and Don Walker's original orchestrations are basically followed. The set is dominated by trees that look pretty, but we don't see the homes where the people live. If their huts were visible, we could better feel their enclosed, tight-knit lifestyle.

Like Porgy and Bess, this is about an ethnic community and it needs the same care in casting. The show makes the point that these people marry within their own circle, and diversity is never seen in Anatevka. Director David Leveaux makes some effort at authenticity; it is unusual to see a large New York production that has no black, Asian or Latin faces. On the other hand, some key players look nothing like Eastern European Jews. Robert Petkov has a great voice and sings spectacularly as Perchik, and even might be Jewish, but he looks wrong for the part. And that fine actress Nancy Opel lacks the face, body language and inflection to make a convincing Yenta.

Alfred Molina looks passable with a traditional black beard but never seems to inhabit the role of Tevye. He has none of the mannerisms of a prayerful Jew and of the lovable dominating personality in the village. I never thought an actor had to be the same ethnicity as his character. (Look at Anthony Quinn, who was Mexican, as Zorba.) But the performer has to capture the specifics of his man, and Molina doesn't do it.

The most captivating person is Motel the tailor, played by John Canani. He's a likeable klutz who steals the hearts of Zeitel on stage and everyone in the audience. Laura Michelle Kelly, Sally Murphy and Tricia Paoluccio as Tevye's daughters look like they're related to each other and sing well, but they are as bland as their stage father. Randy Graff is a puzzlingly colorless Golde, while Joy Hermalyn is superb as Fruma Sara in the nightmare scene. With so many in the cast looking and acting out of place, we must blame the director more than the performers.