Classic musical coming to Somerset West
It’s a new world, a new world. Love...
This is the realisation and timeless message of Fiddler on the Roof, that comes to The Playhouse Theatre in Somerset West early next year.
In a new look production directed by Darryl Spijkers (Show Me How You Burlesque, Hairspray), with music direction by Jon-paul Ruschenbaum (Sister Act, Grease) and featuring glorious songs, If I Were A Rich Man, Tradition, Matchmaker and Sunrise, Sunset, this classic musical of joy, revolution and community is an exuberant celebration of love and life.
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in a poor farming settlement in Imperial Russia in or around 1905.
It is based on Tevye and his Daughters and other tales by Sholem Aleichem.
The story centers on Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, who attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon his family's lives.
He must cope with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters who wish to marry for love; their choices of husbands are successively less palatable for Tevye.
An edict of the tsar eventually evicts the Jews from their village, something strangely reminiscent of what we see in the news today happening in many countries and places.
Helderberg Academy of Theatre is headed up by Spijkers and Ruschenbaum, both teachers at local high schools, and accomplished performers, writers and directors.
This will be the ninth production presented by the academy since 2021, providing great entertainment and critical theatrical training and experience to a variety of actors and crew.
“We are so passionate about theatre and storytelling, but most importantly about young people on stage where they develop a passion for performing. They are the artists and audiences of tomorrow,” explains Ruschenbaum.
The original Broadway production of the show, which opened in 1964, had the first musical theatre run in history to surpass 3 000 performances.
Fiddler on the Roof held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for almost 10 years, until Grease surpassed its run.
It won nine Tony Awards, including best musical, score, book, direction and choreography.
It spawned five Broadway revivals and a highly successful 1971 film adaptation, and has enjoyed enduring international popularity.
This local production has the highly experienced Zanodean Cassiem (set) and Christalla Fernandes (costumes) teaming up on the design.
“Can the humble milkman Tevye hold on to his roots, or must he bend to the will of his children and learn to embrace the unfamiliar?
“Come an experience this beautiful musical that reminds of the futility of war and how families everywhere are affected by it,” says Spijkers.
Tickets are available on WebTickets, and more information is uploaded regularly on social media pages: Helderberg Academy of Theatre.