Tradition!

The first time I saw Fiddler on the Roof was almost two years ago at the Imperial Theatre in Saint John. I made the perilous journey on icy roads to watch a mostly lackluster performance from a touring company. Naturally, I was disappointed, and regretted spending $75 for my seat.

Tonight, I gave the show another chance to win me over, as I attended a production from Fredericton High School. The ticket was still a little pricey for my taste ($18 to see a high school musical?), but I think I almost got my money's worth.

Fiddler follows the characters of Tevye, his wife, and their five daughters as they struggle to keep their traditional ways in a rapidly changing world. It's a classic musical with many familiar songs, including the first three songs that open the show: "Tradition", "Matchmaker", and "If I Were a Rich Man". The plot is not the most uplifting one you'll ever see, in fact, the second half is quite sad, but the show manages to strike a balance between tears and laughter.

One of the first things I noticed about FHS's production was the sheer volume of kids onstage. I counted over 100 chorus members in the program, which reminds me of a few prior Colonel Gray shows I've seen. While it's great to see so many kids participating, sometimes having that many cast members affected the flow of the performance. To their credit, the directors attempted to deal with the inflated cast by having them stream into the audience during several songs. I found that this was mostly distracting, except during the "Sabbath Prayer", where clusters of singers throughout the house filled the space with haunting harmonies.

The production was very well cast, particularly Tevye and his family. While Warren Macauley's rendition of "If I Were a Rich Man" fell a little flat vocally, he more than made up for it with his solid acting and ease of movement on stage. He handled Tevye's numerous asides with ease. Adele Dicks was excellent as the sarcastic, sharp-tounged Golde. Ashleigh Brooks, Lauren Richard, and Amy Welcher showed both vocal prowess and natural acting ability as Tevye's daughters, Tzeital, Hodel, and Chava. I also particularly enjoyed Kristy LaPointe's spot-on characterization of Yente the Matchmaker, and the unnamed chorus member with the green vest and grey hat.

Choreography for the show was hit and miss. My favourite dance sequence was during "To Life", a showcase for all the male dancers. It was lively, energetic, and featured impressive acrobatic dancing. I think that some of the other dance sequences suffered because of the overly large cast. It must have been difficult to choreograph the dances for the wedding scene, because two-thirds of the stage were occupied by "mamas" and "daughters". There was also some unfortunate "prancing" moves given to some male characters that seemed a bit out of place.

I also found that some of the blocking choices were a little awkward. For example, during the wedding of Tzeital and Motel, the rabbi was blocking my view of the bride and groom, and the entire cast was virtually motionless, even the characters who were singing. There were a lot of sloppy endings to various scenes and songs, and this seemed to slow down the flow of the performance.

Happily, the production featured a live orchestra. I would compare their ability to that of a typical Charlotteown Rural pit orchestra - they made valiant attempts at sounding good and achieved moderate success a lot of the time. A live orchestra adds so much to my enjoyment of a musical, so I was thrilled to listen to them, muddy sounding or not.

Overall, I was pleased by what I saw. The show's theme of dealing with changes in life struck a personal chord with me. I got goosebumps listening to several songs. I was sad to see many subtle humourous bits of dialogue sail over the audience's heads, but that did not diminish my own amusement. FHS appears to have many talented people involved in their musicals, and I look forward to seeing next year's effort.