THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310157
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: THEATER REVIEW
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: 98 lines
IF COMMONWEALTH Musical Stage has not offered its fiddler a hot tin roof, it at least presents a warm one.
There has never been a commercially unsuccessful local production of ``Fiddler on the Roof.'' There is no reason to suspect that the current Commonwealth Musical Stage version at the Virginia Beach Pavilion will mar the record.
This show is money in the bank. When Tevye, the milkman, talks to God and wishes he were a rich man, he might just as well have been a theatrical producer. It is the familiar, folksy drama-musical that audiences attend over and over - a producer's true answer from the god of box office heaven.
Based on the collective short stories of Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem, the drama, set in 1905 as revolutionary forces are stirring in Russia, chronicles the traumas of a poverty-ridden dairyman who has been cursed with five daughters to marry off.
From its inception, though, there have been two ways to do ``Fiddler on the Roof'' - with schmaltz or without. The debate surfaced with the very first Tevye in 1964. Zero Mostel was something of a ham, not above using a gesture or a grimace to get an easy laugh.
When the film version of ``Fiddler'' was made, Mostel's comic version was rejected in favor of a more dramatic interpretation by the actor Topol, who received an Oscar nomination for the effort.
The present version, with David Springstead playing Tevye for the eighth time, leans surprisingly toward the serious, dramatic side of things. Springstead is, like all the other Tevyes, something of a chronic complainer, but he is never a whiner. He brings some degree of nobility to the part. The choice, which sets the tone for this rather sober ``Fiddler,'' must have been that of director-choreographer Jay Berkow, an importee who most notably worked with John Kander and Fred Ebb on the revival of the musical ``The Rink'' in New York.
Viewers may miss some of the schmaltzy fun of ``Fiddler,'' but they will get the drama instead.
For example, ``Do You Love Me,'' the second act break in the husband-wife's lovable bickering, is often played for comedy. Here, it has a poignant sadness - a couple who have lived together all these years and never spoken their love aloud.
On the minus side, this ``Fiddler'' may be touching, but it is never quite inspiring; it's an untouchable historic pageant. When the villagers finally are forced to march out of their town in the finale, it is a little like the colonists of ``The Lost Colony'' marching stolidly to their fate. We aren't really moved to tears, and, in turn, we've given up searching for the big laughs.
George Hillow's set design is an open series of raked platforms that give ample space for the milk cart's final trip. Framed by rustic arbors, it suggests, contrary to the poem, that a man, particularly when he's a set designer, actually can make a tree.
Jerry Bock's plaintive and appealing music is still there, never quite matched by Sheldon Harnick's lyrics. Musical director Kevin Wallace has kept his abundant orchestral resources in check so that the singers are served rather than overblown. The melodic moments are all there: ``Sunrise, Sunset,'' ``Miracle of Miracles,'' ``Far From the Home I Love'' and the exuberant ``To Life.''
Jan Been and Shirley Hollandsworth, the company's in-house team of costume designers, have pleasingly kept the peasants looking of the earth rather than of Broadway.
This is a sober, thoughtful and dramatic ``Fiddler on the Roof,'' which, after all, is something of a novel choice. ILLUSTRATION: THEATER REVIEW
``Fiddler on the Roof''
What: The musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Hamick
and book by Joseph Stein
Where: Virginia Beach Pavilion Theater, presented by Commonwealth
Musical Stage
Who: Directed and choreographed by Jay Berkow, featuring David
Springstead and Pamela Denning
When: Tonight at 8, Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.
Tickets: $15-$30 for adults, $7.50 for students and children; at the
Pavilion box office, Ticketmaster and First Virginia Bank outlets
Call: 340-5446
L. TODD SPENCER
The Virginian-Pilot
David Springstead is Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof." The fiddler in
the back is Ed Anderson.