Marcus Center’s “Fiddler” features local actor

Fiddler On The Roof is a tradition in American theater – every high school and college theater department, community theater and professional troupe has put this musical on the stage. And tradition is the central theme of Fiddler, as Tevye struggles with the traditions of his Jewish faith and culture while the world and his family change around him. All the topics that are typically taboo – faith, societal roles and politics –  come together in a small Jewish village in pre-revolution Russia.

Tevye struggles as his daughters demand marriages based on love, not dowries; as racism rises from long-time friends; and as a new political landscape turns the caste system, to which he is so accustomed, on its head.

A touring Fiddler will open Tuesday at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall, as part of the Broadway Across America series. John Preece will star as Tevye; he’s played the role more than 1,500 times. But Milwaukee theater goers should keep their eyes on Kevin Stangler, the young actor playing the revolutionary, Perchik.

Stangler is a Watertown native and earned a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point musical theater program. He couldn’t be happier to return to his old stomping grounds.

“I am looking forward to visiting with friends and family and taking the cast around,” he said in a telephone interview from a rest stop in Illinois. “I can’t wait to show off our community. Take the cast out for some genuine German food and maybe a beer or two.”

Stangler first stage role, as it happens, was in Fiddler, as a ballroom dancer in a Watertown High School production. A few years, later he showed off his dancing skills once more in the infamous bottle dance scene in this Broadway classic. Now he’s playing Perchik, the intellectual tutor to Tevye’s daughters and communist revolutionary. Perchik believes in his heart that Jews and Russians will live in harmony after the Bolshevik Revolution.

“He’s an intellectual, he didn’t come to the family to cause trouble,” Stangler explains about his alter-ego. “He is the common man who is looking for change and spreading that message.”

While Stangler has Fiddler in his blood, his first love is performing original works as a member of  The New Colony, in Chicago. The collaborative group allows actors to shape the characters within a play, as the actors work collaboratively with writers and directors.

“I get to create new characters, and that is really the purpose of theater,” Stangler said.

Stangler has also performed with the House Theatre of Chicago, Marriott Theatre, Metropolis, and Connecticut Free Shakespeare.

This production of Fiddler On The Roof features the late Jerome Robbins’ original Broadway direction and choreography, from 1964. The classic numbers in the show include Sunrise, Sunset, If I Were A Rich Man, and Tradition.

Fiddler On The Roof will open at The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14 and running through June 19.  Tickets are on sale now and are available by calling the Marcus Center Box Office at 414-273-7206, by clicking on the link above or at all Ticketmaster locations.