By Jody Tuso-Key

The much anticipated 2023-24 season at City Springs Theater opened Friday evening to a full and appreciative house with FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. I’ve been personally anticipating this show for months since it was announced. FIDDLER has been a family favorite since we saw the movie in 1972. It was special to my dad as he and my mom had 5 girls. I was 5 at the time, and my sisters and I wore out the album recreating the scenes in our family room.

At Friday’s opening night, I was blessed to see this iconic show with my oldest sister, Ann Tuso-Baxley. Her assessment of the show is “phenomenal”. My assessment is this show is a marvelous masterpiece! The singing, acting, and dancing were all superb and the set was incredible. This is the most beautiful show City Springs has ever produced.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF is a classic piece of historical fiction with a book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. It premiered on Broadway in 1964 and has been performed worldwide for almost 60 years. is based on Tevye and His Daughters, a series of stories by Sholem Aliechem, written in Yiddish between 1894 and 1914 about Jewish life in a Ukrainian village occupied by Imperial Russia at the turn of the 20th century. The musical has been revived on Broadway and the West End (London) a total of 10 times and has won a collective 11 Tony Awards and numerous nominations and other awards throughout the years. In 1971, Filmaker Norman Jewison adapted the musical into a motion picture which won 2 Golden Globe Awards and 3 Oscars.

Bravo to the entire cast and crew of this production! It is simply magical. Director Shuler Hensley’s vision gave this show a new and fresh take. This is FIDDLER though a new and fresh lens, starting with the gorgeous and innovative set.

City Springs has taken the ‘tradition’ of FIDDLER and made it an immersive experience. Guests are asked to write their family traditions on pieces of parchment before the show. These papers are brought on by the performers and scattered as leaves and attached to the houses. The set is spectacular, designed by Jacob Olson. His design was discovered on TicToc and director Shuler Hensley commissioned Jacob to come to Sandy Springs and make the design come TO LIFE — L’CHAIM!!

Other than the tree and houses, the set was minimalist. Tables and chairs were brought on and off, Sheets were hung to represent laundry and walls. Transitions were seamless and well executed. As this is, at its core, a simple story about a simple and seemingly insignificant village, the set reflected that perfectly. At heart, this is a story of a beautiful and courageous yet tragic group of people, and where the minimalist set played a character as the village, the characters themselves were highlighted wonderfully as their stories were told.

Accenting the set with cool and warm tones, lighting designer Mike Wood gave the set a different feel and tone appropriate to each scene. The subtle use of blues and purples on the houses during Tevye’s retelling of his dream in the graveyard casts a perfect eerie feeling. In contrast, the warm tones in numbers like “Miracle if Miracles” fit the feel of joy and love in the scene.

The show was incredibly well cast, with Jacob Fishel taking the lead as Tevye, a father of 5 girls who is conflicted between tradition and the changing times as it relates to his family and his village. Jacob played Motel the Tailor in the Broadway production directed by David Leveaux, and while stepping from Motel into Tevye’s shoes is a big undertaking, he did so expertly. He has a beautiful voice, great comedic timing and a wonderful sense of who Tevye is as a father and member of the community.

I was delighted to see personal friends and personal favorites on stage, especially Carly Berg-Lovell (Tzeitel) and Haden Rider (Perchik). These two are near and dear to my heart as I’ve worked with them on projects in the past and consider them part of my theater family. I haven’t seen them on the same stage together since their Gainesville Theater Alliance days, and they both delivered stellar performances.

I also especially enjoyed Brian Kurlander as the Rabbi. He’s been doing a lot of film work lately, but the Actor’s Strike has given a chance to return to the stage, to the delight of the Atlanta fans who love his work. Be sure and keep your eyes on him during the dream sequence as he enjoys the comfort of the bed — something a dead Rabbi hasn’t has the luxury of sleeping in for many years. His performance in this scene is hilarious.

Another personal favorite role of mine is Fruma-Sarah, the ghost and former wife of Lazer Wolf come from the underworld to warn doom and gloom if the nuptials occur between Tzeitel and Lazar Wolf. Galen Crawley performed this role hauntingly.

Other Key-Noteworthy performances were delivered by Liza Jaine (Golde), Leigh Ellen Jones (Hodel), Aliya Kraar (Chava), Brian Wittenberg (Motel), and Courtenay Collins (Yente). The entire ensemble was expertly cast and did an amazing job telling this important story.

This is a beautiful, heartwarming, funny, and heartbreaking show. It will absolutely take your breath away. FIDDLER is a definite Speakeysie MUST SEE with what has been happening in our world today, especially in the past week.

Get your tickets at City Springs Theatre and hurry before they sell out!