Over the years, Schmooze Productions has become known in the Harbour City for staging more risqué productions than a typical theatre company.
So to celebrate their 15th season in Nanaimo, Schmooze Productions decided to go in a different direction by producing the Broadway classic, Fiddler on the Roof.
“One of things that I like to do is offer something to different audiences,” said Schmooze Productions co-founder and artistic director Dean Chadwick. “This is something for everybody.”
Fiddler on the Roof, which opened on Nov. 13, runs until Nov. 29 at the Harbour City Theatre.
“It’s really relatable to everybody,” Chadwick said. “There is some character in the show that everybody will relate to, feel for and recognize in themselves.”
Fiddler on the Roof is based on a series of stories written in Yiddish between 1894 and 1914 called Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem. Fiddler on the Roof opened Broadway in 1964 and would go on to win numerous Tony Awards and experience four Broadway revivals, with the most recent occurring in 2004.
“It’s about tradition,” Chadwick said about Fiddler on the Roof. “It’s about family relationships and it is about how you are trying to keep your traditions alive and intact while the world is changing around and while your kids are growing up and the family choices that come from that.”
The musical is set in Russia during the early 1900s and is centred around a dairyman named Tevye, who is forced to balance his beliefs and traditions while trying to find suitable husbands for his more modern daughters.
“He is the ultimate papa,” Chadwick said about Tevye. “He is the papa figure in the show and it his family and his traditions that are being challenged the most.”
Schmooze’s production of Fiddler on the Roof is co-directed by Chadwick and Lisa Kerr and features musical and orchestral direction by Jill McElwain. Chadwick also stars in the production as Tevye, a character he portrayed over a decade ago in a Bard 2 Broadway production.
“It is interesting because 12 years ago my kids were still young and now I am actually at the age where Tevye really is and I have a lot more life experiences and I can connect to him even more,” Chadwick said. “It’s a powerful role that I think people are going to be able to recognize and appreciate.”
Fiddler on the Roof runs until Nov. 29 at the Harbour City Theatre, 25 Victoria Rd. Tickets are $25 plus a service charge and GST and can be purchased in person at Lux, 212 Commercial St., or by calling the box office at 250-739-0721. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.schmoozeproductions.com. For more information, please visit www.bit.ly/1xQ5XAR.
arts@nanaimobulletin.comTwitter: @npescod
