Director-choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge does not settle for reproducing the work of her Broadway predecessors, as she previously demonstrated with her fresh takes on Hello, Dolly! and The King and I at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre.
Now, as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of Fiddler on the Roof, she received special permission to not be tethered to the — admittedly brilliant — original staging by Jerome Robbins.
So she removes the museum cobwebs from the show, casts a younger, more age-appropriate Tevye the dairyman and his wife of 25 years, Golde; she gets a new look for the show from scenic designer Troy Hourie, based on the primitive art of Israeli Shalom of Safed; and, perhaps most importantly, she creates her own dances rooted in her research of shtetl traditions in early 20th century pre-Revolution Russia.
Nevertheless, Dodge remains respectful of Robbins’ work and the essential material of composer Jerry Bock, lyricist Sheldon Harnick and librettist Joseph Stein. She leaves no doubt why this musicalized tale of an impoverished Jewish father and his five tradition-challenging daughters would still pack an emotional wallop after half a century.
If you have seen Fiddler before — and really, what theatergoer hasn’t? — you may miss the “Bottle Dance” during the climactic first act wedding sequence, or perhaps the circular choreography of the textbook tone, theme, character and location-setting opening number, “Tradition.” But stay open to Dodge’s personal, somewhat female-centric vision of the show and watch it come alive for you in a new way.
She also has a large pool of performers she has worked with previously to call on for the many vivid characters in tumbledown Anatevka. Among the standouts is a vibrant, if soft-spoken Robert Petkoff — who not coincidentally played Tateh in Dodge’s Broadway revival of Ragtime — as Tevye, Tia Speros as Tevye’s steely wife Golde, as well as Sarah Stevens, Hannah Freeman and Emily Rynasko as their three eldest daughters.
See this Fiddler on the Roof and you will understand why Dodge is a quintessential Maltz Jupiter Theatre director, staging familiar chestnuts of the musical theater, but in a way that allows seasoned audience members to experience these shows in a new light.
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Through Sunday. Tickets: $54-$79. Call: (561) 575-2223.
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In distinct contrast to the Maltz’s Fiddler is the first in-house production by Delray Beach’s Crest Theatre of another great show of the musical theater, A Chorus Line. Directed and choreographed by Kimberly Dawn Smith, who appeared in the show’s original, marathon Broadway run, she took an entirely different approach than Marcia Milgrom Dodge does.
As one of the few anointed torch bearers of Michael Bennett’s singular, sensational staging, Smith prides herself on duplicating his work as closely as possible. And since that means nearly two hours of precision dance, what she has accomplished with a young, relatively inexperienced company verges on the miraculous.
Still, by imposing the performances of the Broadway cast on the Crest talent — down to the exact stances as they pose on the bare stage’s iconic white line — they have no room to infuse the characters with their own personalities, which is what A Chorus Line is all about. As proficient as these dancers are, the production has no room for their spontaneity.
As a result, this production was surely much more enjoyable for those who have never seen A Chorus Line — as with Fiddler, that must be a relatively small fraction of the theatergoing public. Everyone else probably knows that Bennett created a documentary-like peek behind the scenes at a chorus audition for an upcoming new musical, delivered in intermissionless real time.
Ostensibly to help the show’s director Zach make his choices, he grills the dozen and a half hopefuls on their personal lives. And their mini-interviews melt into song-and-dance expressions of their memories.
As Zach, Shane Tanner is aptly brusque and sadistic. Of the rest of the skilled cast, the standouts tend to be those with the strongest material. That means Rebecca Jiminez as a chipper gal with rueful memories of drama class, Christie Rohr as a dancer who found success through plastic surgery and Brian Varela, delivering a catch-in-the-throat soliloquy about his beginnings in the tawdry depths of show business. Deleted from the show is the character of Connie Wong, the tiny Asian who began as a child performer. Presumably casting the role proved difficult, but Smith’s solution clearly violates the show’s copyright.
Still, so much was right about this Chorus Line, the Crest’s experiment in assembling a show from scratch (along with MNM Productions) has to be deemed a success. In the future, however, it should find a way to showcase its cast and creative team’s originality instead of delivering a carbon copy, however effectively.
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Into its second season, The Wick Theatre is still struggling to attract an audience, so it is playing the box office star card. For its production of Jerry Herman’s 1966 hit Mame, producer Marilynn Wick has imported Tony Award winner Leslie Uggams to play larger-than-life bon vivant Mame Dennis, who becomes an unexpected aunt when her nephew Patrick is suddenly orphaned.
Uggams remains a terrific vocalist, well showcased by the character’s 11 o’clock power ballad, “If He Walked into My Life.” When she is singing, it is hard to be anti-Mame. On the other hand, her acting is pretty perfunctory and, at 71, she does not move comfortably onstage (probably due to a rehearsal mishap that got her hobbling). Fortunately, the show was always designed to give the dance chores to the chorus, which high-steps energetically around Uggams, handling the heavy lifting (literally).
The storyline takes Mame and her young charge around the world, so moving the plot along efficiently with its many scenic demands is probably one reason the show is so rarely revived. At the Wick, scenic designer Eric Harriz transports us from New York to a Georgia plantation, from Europe to Asia and beyond, but at almost three hours the production lacks the requisite zip. Director-choreographer Norb Joerder does what he can moving around his 23-member cast, but early in the run the results were decidedly sluggish.
So sit back and enjoy one of Herman’s more old-fashioned, optimistic, anthem-rich scores. He knows that the secret of embedding a tune in the audience’s heads is an excessive succession of verses and reprises, and it works. If you are not humming the title tune or one of the other upbeat ditties as you exit the theater, you may be tone deaf.
Lending solid support to Uggams is a handful of area performers that has appeared previously at The Wick. They include a Southified Jim Ballard as Mame’s beau Beauregard, Lourelene Snedeker as her tipsy theatrical sidekick Vera and a more subdued than usual Missy McArdle in a trio of supporting roles. Making a welcome Wick debut is an amusing Irene Adjan as secretary Agnes Gooch and tiny Ryan Sell is certifiably adorable as the younger Patrick.
I guess you could consider The Wick’s Mame somewhere between the Maltz’s Fiddler and the Crest’s Chorus Line. It has neither the former’s innovative spirit nor the latter’s lockstep replication. In The Wick’s short history, it will not be remembered as its finest hour but, as the song puts it, if you “Need a Little Christmas,” Mame should fill the bill.
MAME, The Wick Theatre, 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Through Dec. 28. Tickets: $58 – $62. Call: 561-995-2333.