Mazel Tov, Kids! Watch Our Five Favorite School Productions of Fiddler on the Roof

L'shanah tovah, all, and mazel tov to Fiddler on the Roof on its 50th anniversary! In honor of the momentous occasion, we've been bringing you all things Fiddler this week: from crazy facts, to Fran Drescher as Fruma Sarah to some Yiddish rapping, to Tevyes around the world. Now, we're grabbing our backpacks and going back to school. Check out our favorite high school renditions of "Tradition," "Matchmaker, Matchmaker," "If I Were a Rich Man" and more below. And start rehearsing your bottle dance, because Fiddler is aiming a Great White Way return in the 2015-16 season!


Best Ensemble
How many times in high school did you hear “there are no such things as small parts, only small actors,” or some variation of the sort? Well the ensemble of Summit High School’s 2008 production took that to heart, and ended up taking home the “Outstanding Chorus” award at Paper Mill Playhouse’s Rising Star Awards in New Jersey. After watching their “Tradition,” it’s clear why. The harmonies! That synchronization! Those beards! The Papa, the Mama, the son, the daughter: they’re all there.


The RICHest "Rich Man"
We searched from sunrise to sunset for our favorite high school Tevyes, and Wesley David Toledo in the 2011 Christ Presbyterian Academy (you read that right) production in Tennessee gets top marks. He starts off relatively subdued, and grows increasingly animated throughout the signature number. How else can you “cheep,” “quack,” or “ya ha deedle deedle bubba bubba deedle deedle dum”?


Freakiest Fruma Sarah
Dry ice? Check. Spooky lighting? Check. Rolling in on a giant contraption and wheeled around the stage? Check and check. Here’s Amy Rachel as the butcher’s first wife in Salem Hills High School’s 2011 production in Utah, complete with all the crazy vibrato and head voice you could ever ask for. Sure, the makeup is half Fiddler and half Cats, but that kind of makes her Frumah Sarah all the more terrifying.


The Daughters! The Daughters! Tradition!
The Class of 2007 girls of New Canaan High School in Connecticut are looking for someone interesting, well-off and important. Fans of belting a plus. We were hooked once we heard this Hodel’s little scoop on “Find me a find.” And props to the pint-sized Tzeitel’s hilarious Yente impersonation. And why not throw Shprintze and Bielke into the mix? More harmony!


Most Daring Jr. High School Production
In 1969, a junior high school in Brownsville, Brooklyn put on a production of Fiddler on the Roof; a rarity, not just because the original Broadway production was still running a few miles up, but also because the cast featured predominantly black and Puerto Rican students. During a time of tensions between the African American and Jewish divide in the neighborhood, the students proved that the ideas of soul, community and yes, tradition, are universal. Take a look at a 60 Minutes segment on the production.

Happy Fiddler week! L'Chaim!