Fiddler On The Roof

  This popular musical is about a Jewish family living in Tsarist Russia in 1905. Tevye, the head of the family, struggles to provide for his wife Golde and five daughters whilst maintaining their cultural and religious practices - he also finds challenging the many changes that are taking place. In this production the part of Tevye was played by Tony Smith, who, being familiar with the part, delivered an immensely strong performance amply demonstrating his acting and vocal talents. Golde was very capably played by Helen Gray, who has considerable experience of playing lead parts in musicals. The part of the matchmaker Yente was performed by Sue Blair who was “Right! Of course right”. Ray Ratty made his successful debut as a principal in this production playing the part of Lazar Wolf, a widowed butcher; he was joined in the cast by other members of his family, Shelley (Fruma Sarah), Sam (Russian Soldier) and Joe (The Fiddler). Motel, the tailor, was played by the very entertaining and versatile character actor, Jim Burrows. Kerry Kingston was ideally suited to and delightful in the role of Tzeitel, Tevye’s oldest daughter. Other members of the large cast made worthy contributions to this production, but it would be remiss of me not to make special mention of those young people whose participation in this show clearly indicated they possess considerable talent in their formative years. They were Joe Williams who played the Fiddler, Stephen Blanchard who played Fyedka - a Russian, Nadia Potter who played Tevye’s 2nd daughter Hodel, Jamie Puddu who played the student prodigy Perchik and Kacey Hall who played Tevye’s 3rd daughter Chava. We have a responsibility to encourage and support such youngsters. The musicians provided excellent accompaniments to the vocalists and the chorus was particularly impressive. In summary this was first class entertainment greatly appreciated by a very enthusiastic and appreciative audience. Well done all concerned!      

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