If you go
› What: “The Creation of Fiddler on the Roof”› When: 3 p.m. Sunday, March 24› Where: Girls Preparatory School, 205 Island Ave.› Admission: $24› Online: eventbrite.com
Charles Troy has turned telling the stories of how iconic theater productions came to be into an art form.
He presented “The Creation of West Side Story” last year in Chattanooga, and returns on Sunday, March 24, to present “The Creation of Fiddler on the Roof” at Girls Preparatory School. The original Broadway production of “Fiddler on the Roof” opened in 1964, winning nine Tony Awards.
Troy is a Chicago-based graphic designer and musical theater historian. He creates these programs with original graphics, audio tracks, historic video clips and a script pieced together from hours of research. For this performance, he will also enlist the services of five Chattanooga performers to provide the music and songs for the show.
Performing will be Bryony Stroud-Watson on violin, Gordon Inman on clarinet, Ed Bergin on accordion, with Joel Scribner and Samantha Teter providing vocals.
The Broadway show, and a later film, were adapted from stories by Sholem Aleichem, the pen name of Sholem Rabinovich. The Russian-born author based many of his stories on Tevye, a dairyman he met in 1894. Rabinovich listened to Tevye’s stories for nearly 20 years and used them in his plot. They are stories of Jews who worked hard and did the best they could for their families.
“Fiddler on the Roof” was written by Sheldon Harnick (lyrics), Jerry Bock (music), Joseph Stein (book) and Jerome Robbins (direction and choreography), who reportedly wanted their show to be authentic, though they worred it was “too Jewish” prior to its release.
It was a big success.
The original Broadway show had the first musical theatre run in history to surpass 3,000 performances. The musical held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for almost 10 years until surpassed by “Grease.” It remains the 17th longest-running show in Broadway history.