A production of Fiddler on the Roof is returning to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts this week. The Broadway classic is about family, love, traditions, and how the modern world changes the way we live our lives.
This is the second year of the tour for Jonathan Hashmonay who played Avram in a previous iteration of the musical’s ensemble but now takes on the role of Tevye. Hashmonay said he fell in love with the show when he started learning about musical theater.
“I've kind of always grown up with the songs growing up in Israel. It's just something that everyone kind of knows,” he said. “Then, coming into musical theater school at Penn State, we actually delved deeper into the musical. So I fell in love with it then.”
Hashmonay said it’s incredibly meaningful to tell this story of Jewish people now in the current political climate.
“You know, the times that we live in with the war in Ukraine and the anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic hate crime spiking everywhere in the world, this show hopefully creates an environment where people can see the Jewish people and the Ukraine struggle in a lens that is different than what they originally thought,” he said. “And hopefully [they] will be able to change their minds to see it from, to walk a mile in, in their shoes rather than judge from the outside. It's incredibly meaningful. “
Fiddler on the Roof plays at the DCPA through March 19.
The Denver Center for the Performing arts is a financial supporter of Colorado Public Radio.
