Lantz Hemmert is the perfect choice to play Tevye the milkman in “Fiddler on the Roof JR” at Arts Bonita Center for Performing Arts. The actor and his character share a zest for life.
“He’s got pretty much nothing but he’s the happiest guy in the world,” Hemmert observed. “Even when they’re kicked out of their homes, like, sure he’s sad, but the fiddler’s still with him there at the end and there’s still hope. So throughout everything, he always perseveres. That’s a very big thing about Tevye.”
Tevye’s upbeat attitude is underpinned by his relationship with God. He treats the Almighty more like a drinking buddy than a Supreme Being.
“Tevye is so open with everyone, but he’s like I’m going to tell God everything,” Hemmert pointed out. “You’re like my therapist, so I’m just going to dump everything out, and think whatever’s in my brain, you’ll say. So really no filter there at all, which is the comedic part of it.”
This is most evident in the musical’s signature song, “If I Were a Rich Man.”
"Oh, Lord, you made many, many poor people
I realize, of course, it's no shame to be poor
But it's no great honor either!
So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?"
If I were a rich man
Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum
All day long, I'd biddy biddy bum
If I were a wealthy man
I wouldn't have to work hard
Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum
If I were a biddy biddy rich yidle-diddle-didle-didle man
While Hemmert loves performing and mentoring the numerous youngsters in the cast, he takes particular joy in doing the bookwork needed to understand Tevye, his culture and the musical’s myriad themes.
“I’m so grateful that I’ve done this show and ‘The Boy from Block 66,’” said Hemmert. “I’ve lived in six different states but not in one of those states have I learned a single thing that I’ve learned from these two shows. Not even a little bit. I’m just happy that I got to be a part of this show and learned the amount that I have because without it, I don’t think I would know anything, sadly. It’s how the world is now.”
Hemmert is quick to point out that those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. He doesn’t want to be that guy.
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“Fiddler on the Roof JR” is a condensed version of the nine-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical. The story follows Tevye the milkman as he tries to protect his daughters and his way of life from a changing world. Created by Broadway legends Jerome Robbins (“On the Town,” “Billion Dollar Baby,” “West Side Story,” “The King and I,” “Gypsy,” “Peter Pan" and “Call Me Madam), Harold Prince (whose directing credits include “Cabaret,” “Candide,” “Evita,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “The Pajama Game” and “Phantom of the Opera”), Jerry Bock (music), Sheldon Harnick (lyrics) and Joseph Stein (book), “Fiddler on the Roof JR.” tackles the universal theme of tradition in ways that reach across barriers of race, class, nationality and religion.
The play is set in a colorful and tight-knit Jewish community in the little village of Anatevka in present-day Ukraine on the eve of the Russian Revolution. Tevye tries to marry off his daughters and instill in them a sense of tradition in the face of growing anti-Semitism in Czarist Russia.
The theme of tradition is set in play in the musical’s opening number, appropriately titled “Tradition.”
Tradition, tradition! Tradition!
Tradition, tradition! Tradition!
Who, day and night, must scramble for a living,
Feed a wife and children, say his daily prayers?
And who has the right, as master of the house,
To have the final word at home?
The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.
The Papa, the Papa! Tradition.
Who must know the way to make a proper home,
A quiet home, a kosher home?
Who must raise the family and run the home,
So Papa's free to read the holy book?
The Mama, the Mama! Tradition!
The Mama, the Mama! Tradition!
“It’s all about tradition,” said director Kody C. Jones. “I tell the kids, ‘Think about what you’re proud of in life, in your everyday life. Think about what you’re happy about, what you earned, that’s a part of you that no one can take away. Visualize that and bring that out on the stage.’”
In the rousing opening number “Tradition,” Jones’ large cast sways to an inner spiritual calling, boots stomping for emphasis, voices in an operatic chorus, arms and hands held high in joy, with Hemmert in the lead.
“Kody Jones asked me if I wanted to be in [‘Fiddler’] because I just recently turned 18 and can technically still do junior shows,” Hemmert said.
Jones needed a veteran actor to lead his youthful cast by example. At the time, Hemmert was appearing in the lead of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which also had a number of aspiring young actors.
Hemmert expertly portrays the struggle between Tevye’s love for his daughters and his devotion to his religion, deftly vacillating between well-timed humor and somberness. In Hemmert’s hands, Tevye comes across as an expansive, grateful, honorable, kind force at the center of the story, who accepts his life with grace and humor. He talks affectionately to himself, reasons fairly with others while attempting to unravel dilemmas and talks to God on a personal level, often chiding him for his perverse sense of humor.
Tevye’s attitude toward God undergirds the show’s signature song, “If I Were a Rich Man.”
“That number has been very fun to work on,” said Hemmert. “I approach it as a daydream. That’s really all it is. Just this daydream that you have to get lost in.
The key, said Hemmert, to making the number work properly is accepting that we all act a little freer and perhaps crazier when there’s nobody around to observe our behavior.
“You’re just whatever you want to be,” said Hemmert. “None of it’s true, but what if it were true? And it keeps him happy. It keeps him sane. It’s a great part of the show.”
The “Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum” portion of the song especially demonstrates Tevye’s joie de vivre even though he’s dirt poor.
“I was working with the music director, Roz, and she was like 'I don’t want you saying deegle diggle deegle diggle. I don’t want to hear what you’re saying. I want you to feel it and come up with something new every single night.' So every single night I’m saying random gibberish and it’s all just whatever I feel, whatever comes to me, and it’s great. I love it. It’s very different from anything I’ve ever done before.”
What makes Tevye such a sympathetic figure is the fact that he is so happy, so joyous in the face of abject poverty and a world that’s chipping away at the very traditions he cherishes and that provide him comfort.
He accepts Tzeitel's and Hodel’s deviation from the dictates of tradition with aplomb and equanimity. But Chava’s desire to marry outside the Jewish faith is a step too far.
Hemmert noted that the script for “Fiddler on the Roof JR” doesn’t really elaborate on why Teyve is completely unable to accept Chava’s marriage to a non-Jew. But Hemmert’s research into Jewish culture and Europe’s entrenched attitude of antisemitism gave him some important insights into the subject.
That research began in January when Hemmert appeared in “The Boy from Block 66.”
“The Boy from Block 66” tells the true story of Moshe Kessler, a 14-year-old boy who, after enduring the horror of Auschwitz, arrived at Buchenwald concentration camp in January 1945. There, he learned of Block 66, a sanctuary for children, where a secret resistance works to ensure their survival against all odds.
“I did a lot of research on the Jewish heritage for ‘Block 66,’” said Hemmert. “But I learned even more from this role. It’s a very different time obviously."
But the antisemitism that gave impetus to the Holocaust was nearly as strong in Europe in 1905.
Antisemitism, pogroms and efforts to either convert, expel or kill Jews dates back centuries. In fact, in 1543, Martin Luther published a manifesto on how to treat Jews. “First,” he wrote, “their synagogues should be set on fire, and whatever does not bun up should be covered or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it.” He went on to advocate that their homes be destroyed, that they be placed in stables and put to work “by the sweat of their noses,” if not stripped of their belongings and driven out of the country “for all time.”
Four centuries of rampant antisemitism inevitably resulted in deep-seated distrust within Jewish communities and serves to help explain Teyve’s reaction to Chava’s intention to marry a non-Jew.
“Tevye learns about a lot of things throughout the show and that’s the beautiful thing about his character arc,” Hemmert observed. “He learns so much more from his daughters than he ever thought he would, which surprises him because he should be the one teaching them. But there’s one thing they’re not going to change his mind about and that’s marrying a non-Jew.”
Hemmert conceded that the younger members of the “Fiddler” cast may not fully appreciate the long and tortured history of antisemitism in Europe and elsewhere, but they have come away from the show with a greater appreciation of the phenomenon and why it has steadfastly endured into the present.
“We’ve definitely talked about that a lot at Arts Bonita,” Hemmert added. “We’ve been very careful about it, though, because the kids in this junior show are a lot younger. There are 9-year-olds, and with everything going on in Florida, it’s scary to know what you can and can’t talk about without getting into trouble, especially with these young kids and their parents and stuff. But we have tried our best, especially Kody and Joseph [Brauer], to really teach everybody about what truly is going on and what has gone on, because if you don’t talk about history, then we will relive it. And that’s the reason why it’s so important to be doing shows like this and why I’m happy to be a part of everything that we’ve done here.”
Hemmert leaves in the fall for the University of Miami, where he will work toward a BFA in musical theater.
“The admission process was crazy,” Hemmert said, shrugging.
He applied to 37 schools. He sent pre-screen videos to most and either auditioned in person or interviewed with many, either in person or via Zoom.
“I chose Miami because I really loved the director,” said Hemmert. “I loved all the kids I’ll be with. There’s only a class of 17, including me, so it’s really intimate, really cool.”
Gaining a seat in UM’s musical theater program was a coup. According to Hemmert, Miami received nearly 10,000 applications for the 17 spots available in the program this fall.
“Most schools keep class size small intentionally because you can’t do shows if you have 50 or a 100 kids in the program times four years. It also permits the faculty to really work with us and get to know us.”
While he will pursue residency programs and other performance opportunities, Hemmert nonetheless expects to return to Southwest Florida each summer … assuming Kody Jones and Joseph Brauer will have him.
After college, he’d love to do Broadway, of course, or film.
But there’s another role he covets more – that of role model.
“One day, I’d love to have just one kid, or somebody, look up and say, ‘I want to do that.’ And of course, they can. Anybody can. You just have to work hard for it. So that’s my goal. Make it somewhere and inspire somebody. And if that’s somewhere famous and big, that would be awesome. And if it’s someplace smaller and being a director or actor, I’d be just as happy doing that.”
And perhaps the fiddler won’t just be perched on Hemmert’s roof, he’ll play an opus worthy of his emerging talent.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.