Last Tuesday night, myself and my fellow chorus members took a trip to New York City to see the infamous Fiddler on the Roof. As we walked into the elegant Broadway Theatre, with chandeliers hanging from the ornate ceiling, we began to feel the anticipation associated with seeing a Broadway show.

The lights dimmed, and Danny Burstein took the stage as Tevye, the story’s protagonist. A spotlight on an anonymous fiddle player shifts to him, when he explains the way of life among the primarily Jewish residents of the small Russian village of Anatevka. “Every one of us is a fiddler on the roof. Trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck,” he explained. Elaborating on the simple, yet difficult way of life, the rest of the cast gradually emerges to perform their first musical number, “Tradition.” Ironically, throughout the play, three of Tevye’s daughters break tradition, much to the chagrin of their hardworking and conventional parents. The opening musical number was lively and energetic; a great way to captivate the audience. Precise choreography paired with the idea of unifying traditions completed the message of the initial outlook held by the protagonist and many of the villagers.

Early on in the play, Tevye and his wife, Golde, decide that their oldest daughter, Tzeitel, is of age to be married (in accordance with tradition, of course) and wait for Yente, the village matchmaker, to, well, make her a match. I especially liked Yente, and thought that her character was just the right blend of sarcastic, comical, and old-fashioned. These traits just made the character seem even more realistic to me. Things then take a predictable turn as Tzeitel reveals her love for her childhood friend, Motel, who is a modest tailor--unlike the wealthy butcher Lazar Wolf, who Yente has picked out for her. (Of course, these plot details are beautifully sung in “Matchmaker”). All of this drama is about to go down as Tevye returns home from his daily work (being a milkman) and expresses his desire for wealth in perhaps the most well-known song of the play: “If I Were a Rich Man.”

The play then progresses towards the marriages of Tevye and Golde’s first three daughters: Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava. Following “To Life,” in which Tevye initially agrees on the marriage between Lazar and Tzeitel, Motel finally gains Tevye’s permission after begging to marry his daughter, leading to Tevye reversing his decision about Lazar. The “To Life” number was very vibrant, and wonderful to watch. While Golde is initially apprehensive about her daughter not marrying up in social class, Tevye seals the deal with a “dream” he has in which Lazar’s deceased wife and Tzeitel’s grandmother (whom she is named after) return from the dead and entreat hi about how Motel is the only one meant for Tzeitel. Golde, believing the dream to be a message from God, agrees (“Tevye’s Dream”). This number, while a little morbid, wound up incorporating a bit of comedy, with Tevye thanking God for a reason to convince his stubborn wife to agree to Tzeitel’s marriage. Eventually, the wedding is interrupted by the Constable and the Russian police, who threaten that the Jews must soon leave Anatevka (“Sunrise, Sunset”).

After Hodel falls for Perchik, a student and revolutionary, Tevye is faced with marrying off another daughter to a poor man (and in this case, he just so happens to also be a political rebel who is exiled to the frozen wasteland of Siberia, where his daughter follows). They wind up being permitted to stay together, and just as the family comes to terms with both Tzeitel and Hodel’s unusual marriages, they are hit with yet another blow: their third daughter, Chava, has her eye on a Christian guy named Fyedka who shares her love of literature. Nothing is more scandalous than an inter-faith marriage within a tight nit community where news spreads quickly. While the amount of tradition breaking at play here may be unrealistic, it is important to the contribution of the dramatic effect to portray the balancing act constantly maintained by Tevye. A confused father and husband, Tevye asks his wife if she loves him (“Do You Love Me?”) to which, after some beating around the bush, she admits she does. This number was very endearing, and I enjoyed the depiction of how tradition still did not prevent the love between the couple, which is holding the family together.

All of these events tie into the bittersweet conclusion that all of the Jews must leave Anatevka. They reminisce about all of their memories of the village, and wish each other well as they go their separate ways (“Anatevka”). Tevye, Golde, and their youngest two daughters, Shprintze and Bielke, plan to go to America, with Tzeitel and Chava headed to Kraków, Poland, and of course Hodel out in the boondocks of Siberia. Initially, I had been a bit disappointed by this ending. Had these lovable characters just gone through so much trouble to stick together for nothing? It was then that I realized, as the Fiddler follows Tevye out of the village, that the Fiddler had been a walking metaphor for the life that Tevye had lived. He had indeed sung a beautiful tune, with his daughters happily married to men that they love, headed for places with more opportunity for them, all while managing to balance just enough tradition, and leave before the pogroms. Tevye had fiddled his way through life, creating many beautiful memories. The cast’s wonderful performance of such a bittersweet and brutally honest tale was phenomenal.