Broadway couldn’t deliver a more magnificent 60th-anniversary Fiddler On The Roof revival than the big-stage, big-budget Jason Alexander starrer now dazzling audiences at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.

No sequins. No glitz. No feathers. No frills. Nothing but glorious songs and dances and a heartstrings-tugging story to transport you back in time and space to a Jewish shtetl in early 20th-century Tsarist Russia.

This is Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, and Joseph Stein’s 1964 musical adaptation of Sholem Aleichem’s tales of a philosophical Jewish milkman named Tevye (Alexander), his ever patient wife Golde (Valerie Perri), their five marriageable (or soon-to-be marriageable) daughters, and the village they call home.

A dark cloud of Antisemitism may hang over its characters’ otherwise fairly upbeat lives in 1905 Russia, but neither pogroms nor purges are Tevye’s primary concerns these days.

First and foremost is finding husbands for his three oldest daughters, a task in which he would customarily be aided by matchmaker Yente (Eileen T’Kaye), but as Bob Dylan had put it only months before Fiddler’s September 1964 debut, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”

Though Fiddler’s show-stopping show-opener proudly salutes “Tradition,” Tevye’s loyalty to the tried and true is tested when eldest daughter Tzeitel (Rachel Ravel) loses her heart, not to grizzled but well-to-do butcher Lazar Wolf (Ron Orbach) but to lowly young tailor Motel (Cameron Mabie), Hodel (Alanna J. Smith) is smitten with modern-minded university student Perchik (Remy Laifer), and Chava (Emerson Glick) dares to cross religious lines by falling for a handsome young Russian named Fyedka (Sawyer Patterson).

And things go from bad to worse after the local Constable (Gregory North) warns Tevye of an upcoming “little unofficial demonstration” that could prove a harbinger of worse to come.

These heady themes are seamlessly woven into Stein’s charming, engaging book as are the Bock-&-Harnick classics “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” “If I Were A Rich Man,” “To Life,” “Sunrise, Sunset,” and “Do You Love Me?” and dance sequences “inspired by the work of Jerome Robbins” that have been stunningly “reproduced” by L.A. choreographic treasure Lee Martino, most memorably Robbins’ how-do-they-keep-those-bottles-on-their-hats “Bottle Dance.”

Like Martino, director Lonnie Price knows better than to improve on perfection, declaring in his program note his intention to “painstakingly try to re-create what Jerome Robbins imagined and realized in 1964,” and what a treat it is to see that Original Broadway Production brought back to life sixty years later with a star the magnitude of its Best Actor Tony-winning leading man.

Alexander’s stage-commanding Tevye combines paternal love, marital devotion, powerful pipes, and a heady mix of gravitas and comedic timing honed over nine seasons of Seinfeld.

As Golde, SoCal treasure Perri adds yet another iconic role to her lengthy resumé, vanishing into a wife and mother’s strife and weather-worn skin to stunning, irresistible effect.

T’Kaye’s irrepressible Yente are Orbach’s irascible Lazar Wolf are equally scene-stealing, and North does powerful work as the conflicted Constable.

Younger featured performers are almost entirely new to L.A. audiences, and a talented bunch of up-and-comers they are.

Ravel, Smith, and Glick couldn’t be more winning as Tevye’s eldest progeny, with vocal snaps to Smith’s aching “Far From the Home I Love” and Glick’s graceful, heartbreaking dance backup to Alexander’s “Chavaleh (Little Bird),” and since Mabie’s adorably awkward Motel, Laifer’s passionately political Perchik, and Patterson’s superhero statuesque Fyedka are the objects of their forbidden love, it’s easy to see why none of the three can resist their unorthodox beaux (especially when Mabie’ and Laifer’s voices take flight in “Now I Have Everything”).

Completing the Broadway-caliber ensemble are child performers Catherine Last and Ava Giselle Field as Tevye’s youngest two Shprintze and Bielke, Mark Moritz (Rabbi), Hayden Kharrazi (Mendel), Ryan Dietz (Avram), Jean Kauffman (Grandma Tzeitel), Gwen Hollander (Fruma Sarah), David Prottas (The Fiddler/Yussef), Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper (Mordcha), Daniel Stromfeld (Nachum), dance captain Michael James (Russian Soloist), Dana Weisman (Shaindel), Hannah Sedlacek (Fredel), with special dance snaps to Russian Dancers Anthony Cannarella, Bruno Koskoff, Gavin Leahy, Mark C. Reis, Michaelis Schinas, Chad A. Vaught, and Michael Wells, and extra special balance-mastering dance snaps to Bottle Dancers Leahy, Reis, Schinas, and Wells.

The production looks absolutely gorgeous thanks to scenic designer Anna Louizos, costume designer Catherine Zuber (designs created for Fiddler’s 2015 Broadway revival), lighting designer Japhy Weideman, properties designer Kevin Williams, and wig, hair, and makeup designer Kaitlin Yagen and it sounds just as gorgeous thanks to music director Alby Potts, who conducts the production’s almost unheard-of 19-piece orchestra, and sound designer Jonathan Burke.

Nina Goodheart is associate director and James is associate choreographer. Erik Gratton is fight choreographer. Ken Wills is associate lighting designer. Jordan Goodsell is assistant director. Kevin Clowes is technical director. Shanon Mills Habelow, Tim Woods, and Chad Smith are production managers. David Nestor is company manager.

Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA, and Richie Ferris, CSA. Bailey Herskowitz, Charley Rowan McCain, and Donovan Mendelovitz are swings. John W. Calder, III is production stage manager and Lisa Palmire and Kathryn Davies are assistant stage managers. David Elzer is publicist.

I’ve seen some extraordinary Tevyes beginning as a teenager when Luther Adler headed the show’s First National Tour. I’ve even had the thrill of seeing Israeli superstar Topol recreate his 1971 movie role at the Pantages back in 2009.

Jason Alexander easily matches the best of the bunch in a performance that would surely earn him a Tony nomination (and maybe even a win) were Fiddler On The Roof playing on Broadway rather than locally for McCoy Rigby Entertainment. L.A. musical theater lovers can count themselves blessed.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Boulevard, La Mirada. Through December 1. Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30, Fridays at 8:00, Saturdays at 2:00 and 8:00, and Sundays at 1:30 and 6:30. No performance on Thanksgiving.
www.lamiradatheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
November 16, 2024
Photos: Jason Niedle

Tags: Jerome Robbins, Jerry Bock, Joseph Stein, La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts, Los Angeles Theater Review, McCoy Rigby Entertainment, Sheldon Harnick