Theaters Revive Some Venerable Hits

For these pious Russian Jews at the turn of the 20th century, it’s a narrow world of poverty, grinding labor and religious custom. God hovers. Marriages are arranged. Men are educated, some of them, women, not so much — and everyone in the shtetl lives in fear of expulsion. Pogroms in Eastern Europe have scattered Jews all over the globe. “May God bless and keep the czar . . . far away from us,” the Rabbi prays. It was not to be, of course. We already know that. But Center Stage’s “Fiddler on the Roof” at Rhinebeck’s Performing Arts Center rolls out the joys and triumphs of an endangered people in a very fine production filled with buoyant performers, wonderful sets and Jerome Robbins’ original choreography and staging. At the heart of any “Fiddler” is Tevye, of course: grand, canny and pious, a fellow who is assailed by immense and precipitous change. And if we can’t have Zero Mostel as Tevye, well, Johnny Dell will do just fine. Better than fine. Dell is a terrifically persuasive actor who makes us feel for this man whose children break the ties that bind them all together, leaving him angry, puzzled and deeply humiliated. But this is Tevye. He gets over it and on with life, as unpredictable and as dangerous as it may be. “It’s a new world,” he says. Lisa Lynds, another wonderful actor, plays Golde, Tevye’s sharp-tongued mate who keeps the house and their five daughters in order. As the world bears in on them, the three older girls, in defiance of the rules that have always protected these people, choose their own mates: one a poor tailor, one a revolutionary and one a Russian outside the faith. From the opening moments with a fiddler perched on a rooftop,signifying this dangerous world, director Bill Ross keeps the big cast vital, expressive and moving. One of the most telling moments follows Tevye’s blessing on Hodel (Marta Fuerst), his second daughter, who aims to marry the Marxist Perchik (Tom Bunker). In the big village scene that follows, four men, bearded and wearing black hats and long coats, place bottles on their heads and dance slowly, swooping close to the ground and up again, keeping the world, and the bottles, steady, in place. In the only way they can. Moment to moment. “Fiddler on the Roof” runs at Rhinebeck’s Center for Performing Arts through May 20. For tickets and information, call 845-876-3080 or go to www.centerforperformingarts.org. Now “Barefoot in the Park” takes us back to New York in the 1960s, when tips were a dollar, young matrons wore chignons and clothes by Anne Fogarty, people had breakfast at Schrafft’s and the idea of same-sex couples was a little shocking. Here, Neil Simon’s newlyweds move into a five-floor walkup, not counting the stoop which added another floor, a building peopled by quirky characters like the bohemian Victor (Payton Turpin) who creeps along outer ledges of the building to enter his apartment because he has failed to make the rent four months in a row. And this is where we encounter the Bratters after their six-day honeymoon at the Plaza, just entering a jarring period of adjustment. So jarring, it looks as though Corie and Paul (Elizabeth Enkiri and Mike Zizka) might call it quits before all the furniture arrives. This is a witty play about the selfish, impulsive Corie, and her staid lawyer husband who is reluctant, as he tells her, to dive into a brown salad, or walk in the park without shoes. And it is a fine choice for the Goshen Players, entering now its 64th year. Director Janice Luise-Lutkus keeps it all airy, the costumes and set are spot-on, and the story never leads us to worry that all will not be well. “Barefoot in the Park” runs at Goshen’s Old Town Hall on Route 63 in Goshen, CT, through May 19. For tickets, call 860-491-9988 or go to www.goshenplayers.org.