'Tradition' Treads the Boards

Therese Kincade and Glory Kissel in 'Fiddler on the Roof.' News-Progress photo by Keith Stewart

Who, day and night, must scramble for a living,

Feed a wife and children, say his daily prayers?

And who has the right, as master of the house,

To have the final word at home?

The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.

The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.

— “Tradition” from “Fiddler on the Roof”

By Dan Hagen

Just shy of its half-century mark, “Fiddler on the Roof” is now part of the very tradition it celebrates and slyly subverts in a famous number from the musical, a show that was the first to break 3,000 performances on Broadway in its original run.

And kicking off the Little Theatre’s 2013 summer season, this “Fiddler’ extends the tradition theme by casting Jack Milo and Therese Kincade as Tevye and Golde.

Milo and Kincade have played husband and wife before, in “Showboat,” and even this husband and wife before, in an Eastern Illinois University production. They know the moves, and it’s a pleasure to watch their practiced dance.

Tevye’s great affection for and witty wariness of his wife and Golde’s no-nonsense regard for him are understated but obvious, the long history between the actors making the long history of the turn-of-the-century fictional couple easily credible.

Milo has, in fact, played this role in seven productions, and that’s because he plays it extremely well. A poor Jew, Milo talks to God as a friend, comfortable enough to joke slyly with his deity.

Although the story is set entirely in Russia, the magnetic influence of America is felt throughout, finally pulling the hounded Jews to it physically at the end of the show. But the shadow of America’s individualism and self-assertion falls there earlier too, as Tevye’s daughters insist, one by one, on picking their own husbands — each, from Tevye’s viewpoint, more outrageous a choice than the last.

Milo portrays Tevye’s real apprehension at the possibility of moral failure even as, each time, he nervously and finally errs on the side of humanity, and thereby earns our regard.

This production, directed by Karla Shook, avoids a pitfall I’ve seen in other “Fiddlers.” Sometimes, the three younger couples aren’t entirely convincing. In a show that requires you to portray four sets of romantic relationships, I suppose it’s pretty easy to go off track with one or more of them. But Shook doesn’t.

And that’s thanks to having cast six assured and vital performers in those roles — Kelsey Andres and Colin Shea Denniston as Tzeitel and Motel; Lauren Patton and Will Skrip as Chava and Fyedka and, most particularly, Sarah Ledtke and Joshua Phan-Gruber as Hodel and Perchik.

Ledtke and Phan-Gruber rise to the challenge of playing two smart young people who barely hide their attraction to each other under an exchange of insults and defiant chin-up challenges. The romance is engaging and believable all around. In fact, this highly energetic production of this venerable musical works on about every level.

The choreography by Sam Hay and the costumes by Jessica Pautler get a star turn in the dream sequence, a fantasy concocted by Tevye to get his wife to suggest a marriage he’s already agreed to. The costumes are an eye-catching white, suggesting the surreal, and Hay’s choreography mimics puppets, which is what these characters are here — not people but contrivances that are a means to Tevye’s end.

The lighting, by Greg Solomon, is particularly effective at setting a series of poignant twilight moods, this being not the sunrise but the sunset of these Jews’ sojourn in Russia.

I always wondered, by the way, what that damn fiddler (Sterling Stowell) is doing up there. I understand the original reference is to a painting by Marc Chagall, but the metaphor of the fiddler always seemed strained and kind of pointless to me.

Then my friend Paul Beals pointed out that perhaps the fiddler is God. Only Tevye seems to see him. The fiddler never speaks but rains music, which is the joy of life, on the villagers, watches them from above and finally, at Tevye’s invitation, smiles, hops on the wagon and leaves with them. A plausible theory, I’d say.

Incidental intelligence: Fiddler on the Roof has music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and book by Joseph Stein. Set in Tsarist Russia in 1905, it’s based on “Tevye and his Daughters (or Tevye the Milkman and Other Tales)” by Sholem Aleichem.

The cast includes Maddie Keller, Zoe Bowers, Glory Kissel, Tommy Bullington, Andy Frank, Karl Skyler Urban, Earl Halbe, Matthew Glover, Willie Mellina, Rachel Perrin, Ashley Klinger, Tim Mason, Peter Marinaro, Connie Mulligan, Sam Mulligan, Brady Wambach, Marty Harbaugh, Sydni Mulligan, Lori Harbaugh, Jane Blair, Sheryl Snyder and Joyce Dively.

The show has scenic design by Matthew J. Fick and stage management by Jeremy J. Phillips. The music director is Kevin Long.

Performances will run through June 16. Tickets may be purchased by calling The Little Theatre on the Square Box Office at (217)-728-7375 or online at www .thelittletheatre.org.