One of Broadway’s most beloved—and longest running—musicals is back again. Fiddler On The Roof, lovingly revived by director Bartlett Sher (inspired by the work of Jerome Robbins), features designs by an award-winning team: sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Donald Holder, and sound by Scott Lehrer. As you get ready to wail and waltz with Tevye and his daughters, here’s a look at the lighting as we are transported to the small town of Anatevka in rural Russia circa 1905.
LIVE DESIGN: What research did you do for such a revival? How to make it “fresh”?
DONALD HOLDER: Bart Sher was interested in creating a Fiddler that was a clear departure from the whimsical Boris Aronson/Chagall original designs. This version is set in an overtly theatrical surround—a vast, white brick box—where period and somewhat authentic objects, props, and scenic effects are flown in and tracked on to tell the story. Bart mentioned early on about doing a production with only tungsten sources. I believe it was his way of saying he was looking for a rough-hewn, spare vocabulary: a raw, unadorned beauty that was very much in keeping with the world of the shtetl and the tragic undertones of the story.
LD: What were your design goals?
DH: The principal objective of my design was to fill the world of Fiddler On The Roof with a living light that suggests the passage of time and season, ebbing and flowing with the constantly shifting emotional and musical landscape. We experience every time of day and move from spring to summer, fall, and winter during the course of the evening. The first act—set in spring-summer-fall—is more colorful and impressionistic. The second act—late fall-winter—is increasingly stark and drained of color as the play reaches its tragic conclusion. I responded to the open, almost operatic scale of the space by carving it out with bold singular lighting gestures, rather than breaking the space up into smaller components. “Tevye’s Dream” is really a departure from everything else in the musical, and the level of abstraction is at its height here. I use a lot of kinetic movement effects—ground fog, slowly spinning gobos cutting through haze, ballyhoos—and some rather intense color choices to create the sense of dreamscape.
LD: Which fixtures are the workhorses and what are they doing?
DH: The front-of-house rig is all tungsten and virtually fan-less, which allows the more silent moments in the show to really be heard. It’s a combination of City Theatrical AutoYokes and ETC Revolutions. The onstage rig also features Revolutions for much of the low sidelight. For backlight, I’m using a combination of Clay Paky Sharpy Washes and [Philips Vari-Lite] VL3500 washes for the more dramatic and operatic moments, and [Harman Martin Professional] MAC TW1 tungsten washes to backlight tighter and more intimate scenes. The GLP impression X4 Bar is making its Broadway debut on Fiddler, doing a great job with key moments, such as the opening and “Tevye’s Dream,” that require a low profile, high intensity LED strip light with tilt capability, color mixing, and zoom optics. I’m also using VL3500Q profiles for scenic detailing and back and cross-light specials. The rig also employs a fair amount of ETC Source Four ellipsoidals and Wybron Coloram II scrollers for the basic systems of light that carve out the space and serve as the backbone of the design.
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