by Isabella Pilot ’18

The fall musical, “Fiddler on the Roof,” opened last Friday night. Pulling off a successful rendition of this famed musical is no small feat, but C.A.S.T. exceeded expectations with strong male and female leads as well as a great, full sound from the pit band.

The story centers around a small Jewish town in Imperial Russia, specifically, one father’s (Tevye) struggles in marrying his daughters off and the inevitable eviction of his people from their home town. Junior Sean Alperin plays a wonderful Tevye, delivering beautiful vocal performances and capturing his stubbornness and struggle as Tevye learns to break tradition. Alperin must be credited for his commitment to Tevye’s Russian accent throughout the production, a trait taken on by no other actors. Alperin maintained a convincing accent and never broke character throughout the show.

Tevye’s wife, Golde (senior Lily Rathbun/junior Anika Mittu) and eldest daughters, Chava (sophomore Meg Kuchma), Hodel (junior Grace Castle), and Tzeitel (seniors Kathleen Rosendall/Lucy Kuchma), were each played with the raw emotion of an early twentieth century woman struggling to gain an identity outside of her husband/father. Whether they were performing menial tasks in the household or fighting for their independence, each girl expressed pent-up angst and, at times, hostility towards the age-old tradition of getting married off and slaving away to their chosen husbands.

Though only a minor role, freshman Nia Zagami’s rendition of Yente stole the show. From her commitment to the “New-York” Jewish accent to her hilarious shuffle across the stage, Zagami played the perfect stereotypical Jewish woman and got no shortage of laughs from the audience.

Of course, “Fiddler on the Roof” would be incomplete without the fiddler himself, or in this case, herself. Junior Sohn-Yun Hur set the stage with a beautiful violin solo before the first lines were even delivered, and then closed out the show with the same beautiful melody of “Tradition.” It takes precision to play this famed tune with such accuracy, and Hur was more than up to the task.

Along with playing the fiddler, Hur is one of many talented musicians in the pit band. Unlike many other schools which rely on audio tracks as background music, Sherwood is lucky to have a huge music department with plenty of students eager to play for the musical. The band’s timing was wonderful, clearly well-rehearsed, and their devotion to the music was well reflected in their performance. The tunes are bound to get stuck in your head for days to come after the show.

It’s not too late to catch this beautiful rendition of a classic musical. “Fiddler on the Roof” will be performed again November 17 and 18 at 7:30 p.m. (Mittu/Kuchma) and November 18 at 2:00 p.m. (Rathbun/Rosendall).