Interview: Tradition, Tradition . . . and Innovation: Gary John La Rosa Directs FIDDLER at MSMT

"This is like a real homecoming. The last time I worked at Maine State Music Theatre was in 1995, and it was also Fiddler on the Roof," says nationally acclaimed director-choreographer Gary John LaRosa. La Rosa, who is widely considered one of the reigning authorities on the beloved 1964 Bock-Harnick bitter-sweet musical about Russian Jews confronting a changing world, has in his own words, "literally done dozens" of Fiddler productions throughout his vibrant, busy career. "I've actually stopped counting," he says with a smile, though we note that among all these, he staged the 50th anniversary Fiddler gala on Broadway, as well as at least four of these won prestigious theatre awards and nominations. This month he finds himself in Brunswick, Maine, directing a thirty-six person cast in MSMT's third main stage show of the 2016 season.

"One of the reasons I get asked so often to do Fiddler is my association with the original Jerome Robbins choreography and staging. And I do pay homage to the original production's flow and construction, but I also like to make each of my stagings a little different. Every theatre space is a little different, and you have to tailor a piece to the talents and chemistry of your cast."

La Rosa's own connections to Fiddler go back a very long way. "Fiddler was the first Broadway show I ever saw as a child near the end of its run. The Tevye was Jerry Jarrett, and for many years I kept the Playbill with his picture on the cover on my wall. Some twenty-five years after first seeing him in the show, I ended up sharing a dressing room with him. He was now seventy-five and playing Avram. I showed him the Playbill I had kept all those years, and he autographed it for me. He wrote, 'Dear Gary John, After twenty-five years, it is nice to know you.'"

La Rosa began his own theatre career as a performer - in that time playing three different roles in Fiddler and even essaying the show in a German-language production - and later he worked as a choreographer before becoming a director. "When I first started directing full time, I had the good fortune to do Fiddler here [MSMT]. I began to meet all the creators of the original production. For me it is more than a show. I feel an intense closeness to the heart and soul of the piece and to what it represents." Asked if he ever gets tired of staging the work, La Rosa replies, "I never tire of Fiddler because it is so well-written and its effect on the audience is so special. But, naturally, I do direct a great many other shows."

Among the many merits of the Bock-Harnick classic, La Rosa cites the Jerome Robbins choreography, Joseph Stein's "tightly written book" based on Sholem Aleichem's stories, and the incredible lyrics and score. Of Robbins he says: " I think what is essential for Jerome Robbins is to tell the story through dance, not just to choreograph numbers which lighten the spirit of the piece. His work comes from a classical ballet background, but in this show he was able to frame the narrative organically with folk dancing styles from 1905 Russia, as well. The Chava ballet in Act II, where Tevye conjures up memories of his three daughters is so poignantly eloquent in its simplicity and honesty, you cannot fail to be moved." As for the music, La Rosa says one of the challenges is that the show has become so enormously popular that many people in the audience can "recite the lyrics, so the actors have to find something fresh in what they are doing."

For this MSMT production which opens July 20, La Rosa's cast includes some veterans and some young performers who have never even seen the show before. He has worked with his Tevye, Bill Nolte, before, but not with Susan Cella, who plays Golde and who also has an extensive history with the show. "When you work with someone who has done as many productions as she has, I always try to find our common ground, and I am delighted to say she couldn't be more open to trying something new."

Speaking about his approach to mounting each new production, La Rosa explains, "When I work on a show, I try not only to teach the staging, but to help the cast understand the culture of shtetl life, which became extinct after the World Wars. I want people to understand the poverty and the innocence of the characters, how cloistered their lives were in the early 1900s. I also make sure I am accurate in terms of recreating the religious and cultural customs, such as the fact that men and women would not touch each other in public or the Sabbath ceremony or the use of the mezuzah on doors. All this adds depth and reality to the piece, but I have to explain these concepts to the actors at the beginning of rehearsal. It's all part of my passing on a tradition."

"He's a walking encyclopedia on the show, the time period, and the Jewish culture," says ensemble member Raymond Marc Dumont. "It has been a thrill to learn this piece from him."

Gary John La Rosa grew up on Long Island and claims to have known from the age of six that theatre would be his vocation. "I went to the theatre in New York City constantly in my childhood and that helped me develop a judicious eye. By the time I graduated from high school, I had seen more than five hundred Broadway shows! I started to study dance as a young teenager, and I performed in the ensembles of several Equity theatres, worked props backstage at a dinner theatre and did everything I could to immerse myself in this world." La Rosa went on to study theatre and dance at UCLA and then worked "non-stop for the next fifteen years" as a performer before one day deciding he "wanted to handle the entire production." From that decision was born Gary John LaRosa, the director-choreographer whose current resume boasts more than sixty productions on Broadway, off-Broadway, in regional theatre and opera. Among the many different shows he has mounted, La Rosa holds a special place in his heart for Light in the Piazza, West Side Story, and even his excursion into punk rock with two stagings of American Idiot. Of the shows he has yet to undertake but would like to direct, he lists Carousel, South Pacific, Next to Normal, Sweeney Todd, and Merrily We Roll Along as goals. "I find it exciting to challenge myself to do different things. I work at a great many different kinds of venues, and I have done a fair bit of teaching and coaching. Right now I hold a guest artist position at Montclair University (New Jersey)."

"Coaching and teaching," La Rosa feels, "impact my own creative process. I love working with young people, especially those who are interested in seriously pursuing a theatre career. They are so hungry for knowledge, so willing to explore things they haven't tried before They are willing to work on something that is a little out of their sandbox." For these reasons La Rosa is particularly pleased to be working with MSMT's performance interns as members of the Fiddler cast. "Not only are these kids amazingly talented, but the entire intern program that Curt [Dale Clark] has put together really integrates them into the whole of the company. I take my hat off to Curt and to them because in some places I've worked, these young actors only get to do grunt work, but here, MSMT gives them as complete an experience as possible."

Returning to the theme of Fiddler on the Roof, La Rosa muses about the timeless appeal of the musical. He feels the work, for all its being rooted in Jewish tradition, speaks universally to all cultures and especially to contemporary events. "I have done the show in Germany and Austria where they embraced the piece, and I have done it in Japan where people told me they couldn't believe I had created such a 'Japanese musical'. They identified with Tevye's conflicts with the march of time and the erosion of traditional customs. And what with all that is happening in Syria today, this play remains very relevant."

So when Gary John La Rosa's new production of Fiddler on the Roof opens at MSMT next week, the director says he hopes "that the production gives full value to the time period, culture, and events it portrays; that the audience is moved; and that even though they have seen it or can sing the score, they perceive it as fresh. If it rings honest, true, and real, people will feel this is the first time they have heard it."

Preserving tradition and embracing innovation...hallmarks of Gary John La Rosa's work!

Photos courtesy MSMT and www.garyjohnlarosa.com

Fiddler on the Roof runs at MSMT on July 20- August 6, 2016 at the Pickard Theater, 1 Bath Rd., Brunswick, ME 207-72