If you’re in South Florida and looking for some family entertainment this weekend, check out the Miami Acting Company’s production of Fiddler on the Roof at the Banyan Bowl in Pinecrest Gardens. This legendary musical that opened fifty years ago once held the record as the longest-running show on Broadway. This production runs tonight through Sunday, so go already.
I attended the final dress rehearsal last night (which explains the dearth of posts this morning) and it looks good to go with a strong cast, a good-sized orchestra, and a very nice set that was assembled by a dedicated crew of skilled (if uncredited) carpenters last Sunday just out of range of the pouring rain.
This is not my first trip to the shtetl. In 1972 the University of Miami Ring Theatre did Fiddler on the Roof. Tevye was played by Ernie Sabella and the cast also included Gail Edwards and yours truly as the Russian priest. I had one scene behind a scrim. But to quote the immortal Avery Schreiber, there are no small parts, just short pay.
My high school, Berkeley, did Fiddler On the Roof the first year it became available for amateur productions, about 1971 or so. Since I was both a drama student and a violinist, they cast me as the Fiddler so I could play the opening solo actually from the roof of Tevye’s house. Not even Broadway did that.
I should have been terrified and frozen up, as I was only about 15, but I wasn’t. I thinks it’s because it wasn’t really me up there risking embarrassing failure, it was the Fiddler. In costume, in character, I could do it.
This show has a member of the orchestra in costume playing the part. He’s a high school kid — I think — and he’s great. So you set a precedent.