By CB Adams
Union Avenue Opera’s “Fiddler on the Roof” returns to the artistic conversation from which the musical emerged. Stage director Kasey Cox reunites the humanity of Sholem Aleichem’s original Tevye stories, Marc Chagall’s symbolic visual imagination, Joseph Stein’s theatrical adaptation and Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s beloved score in a production that speaks confidently in the company’s own operatic voice.
Judged on those terms, it succeeds as a cohesive interpretation that lets each artistic voice strengthen the others.
Tevye is one of those rare roles that every audience has already cast before the actor walks onstage. E. Scott Levin wisely avoids competing with the ghosts of Zero Mostel, Topol and others who have shaped the character’s legacy.
Instead, his resonant bass-baritone opens another path into Tevye, revealing the milkman’s negotiations with God, his family and himself through the expressive power of the voice.
Kate Tombaugh’s Golde finds her greatest authority in song, while Brianna Murray and Eric Botto as Tzeitel and Motel, Vianca Alejandra and John Tibbetts as Hodel and Perchik, and Arielle Pedersen and James Stevens as Chava and Fyedka allow the musical’s three courtships to unfold with steadily increasing emotional weight.
Amy Maude Helfer gives Yente warmth beyond comic obligation, and Spencer Reichman brings both strength and vulnerability to Lazar Wolf.
Conductor Scott Schoonover draws warmth, clarity and balance from orchestra and cast, allowing Bock’s score to bloom without overwhelming the unamplified voices. The great ensemble numbers—especially “Tradition,” “Sabbath Prayer” and the wedding sequence—rise, swell and wash over the audience like a warm, powerful wave.
They become the sound of Anatevka itself, voices rising from individual characters into a shared expression of faith, celebration and endurance.
Patrick Huber’s scenic design speaks Chagall’s symbolic visual language rather than literal realism, its fragmented imagery gaining meaning as the evening unfolds before culminating in a quietly moving final image.
Andrea Reed adapts Jerome Robbins’ iconic choreography with intelligence and economy to Union Avenue Opera’s intimate stage, while Teresa Doggett’s costumes and Zak Metalsky’s lighting complete a visual world rooted in memory, tradition and community.
Cox directs with confidence in the material itself, trusting the performances, voices and score to carry the storytelling. The result is a thoughtful, integrated production that honors the musical’s deepest artistic roots while making full use of Union Avenue Opera’s greatest strength: the expressive power of the human voice.
Union Avenue Opera presented “Fiddler On the Roof” on July 3, 5, 10 and 11 2026 at Union Avenue Christian Church.
CB Adams is an award-winning fiction writer and photographer based in the Greater St. Louis area. A former music/arts editor and feature writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, his non-fiction has been published in local, regional and national publications. His literary short stories have been published in more than a dozen literary journals and his fine art photography has been exhibited in more than 40 galley shows nationwide. Adams is the recipient of the Missouri Arts Council’s highest writing awards: the Writers’ Biennial and Missouri Writing!. The Riverfront Times named him, “St. Louis’ Most Under-Appreciated Writer” in 1996.
