JOIN USThe thunderous applause reverberated through the auditorium of Chowdiah Memorial Hall over the weekend, where the popular Broadway play ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ was showcased.
At the end of the two-hour performance, the crowd stood to cheer for the cast, who took the audience back to 1905 Russia.
The show was known to be one of the longest running plays in the history of Broadway and surpassed 3,000 performances, before it was overtaken by ‘Grease’ in 1971. But it remains a popular play to-date and is enacted all over the world.
Transfixed for two hours, people watched the two dozen or so actors retell the tale of Tevye, a poor milkman in the village of Anatevka, who has five daughters and struggles to keep to traditions. The gentle mockery was done to perfection and each actor added their bit to the musical.
Popular songs got the audience moving. One of them was ‘Matchmaker, Matchmaker’, a song where daughters Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze and Bielke get together to discuss their pending marriages.
The other songs were, ‘If I were a rich man’, sung by Tevye, ‘Sunrise, Sunset’, a group song which was sung at Tzeitel and her childhood friend Motel’s wedding and more. The audience were moved when Tevye sung ‘Do You Love Me’ to his wife Golde.
While the fiddler, who is tradition incarnate, follows Tevye in the end, it didn’t fail to put a smile on your face. Although the two-act play was slightly longer than the usual play, it bothered no one. Directed by Laila Alvares, the play starred Priya Mendens, Arvind Kasturi, Shyju Varkey, Jude Lazaro, Rahael Thomas and Alisha D’Souza.