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Fiddler On The Roof, Broadway

Fiddler on the Roof was a moving yet highly entertaining musical about a Jewish family living in Russia during the early 20th century.   This book musical allows the audience to embark with Tevye, the father, and the rest of his family on the journey that is life.   In addition to the many life-situations that the characters find themselves in, there are numerous singing scenes in which the audience can hear classic after classic.   Some of the themes tackled by Fiddler include racism, love, forgiveness, and the unknowns in life as well as coping with situations while remaining positive.   We grow up with the family as they experience new things in life, like whom to marry, etc.   We also see the effects of geo-political factors, like the expulsion of the Jews in and around Europe, and how this affected your typical family in the early 1900's.   Relationships, preconceptions, as well as misconceptions make up a large part of the message that the playwright intended on exploring, and this was definitely accomplished in this production of Fiddler on the Roof.
The audience seemed to be a decent mixture of ages, sex, and interest level.   It appeared that many of the audience members were familiar with the musical, as many of them sang along to the songs as if they had been to a few of these productions.   I sat around the middle of the theatre, which gave me a good overall point of view for observing the audience performer relationship.   People were very involved with the play, and the performers had a good connection with the audience, especially with regard in their musical performances.   There was a definite exchange of energy between the performers and the audience.   One thing that encouraged this connection was the aesthetic distance, which was extremely small.   Also, throughout the play, characters engaged in several soliloquies.   Some of them appeared to be talking to God, and some appeared to be in distant thought.   Either way, it was like the audience had direct...