Directing BDT Stage’s final production is a poignant homecoming for Kenny Moten. Over two decades ago, as a freshman at CU Boulder, Moten immersed himself in the local institution, managing sound and reservations.
So when Seamus McDonough, BDT’s producing artistic director, asked if Moten would take the helm of Fiddler on the Roof for the dinner theater’s final offering, emotions ran high.
“Because I had learned a lot in the building,” says Moten, who, since his days running the sound board at BDT, has become a highly in-demand director across the Front Range. “I immediately thought: A.) Yes, and B.) How do we honor Fiddler and BDT?”
Moten says the first thing he and the design team talked about was how they want the audience to feel in the space, “to really honor the building,” which was sold to real estate development firm Quad Capital Partners last summer.
This will be BDT Stage’s seventh production of Fiddler on the Roof, making it the company’s most-produced show and a strong choice for an emotional farewell. But originally it was The Sound of Music — the company’s most-requested show — that was slated to close out BDT’s nearly 50-year run before the property’s new owner gave the theater the go-ahead for one more production.
“Originally, when I was plotting out what would have been our next season, I had just gotten the rights for Fiddler. Literally, the day after I found out that I got the rights for [the play], I found out we were closing,” McDonough says. “And then, because I know how long [new development in] Boulder takes, I decided to hold onto the rights, and, luckily, we were able to do it as an encore.”
Over the years, Fiddler has become one of BDT’s signature shows, a surefire hit that draws an audience. Nearly 60 years after its debut, theatergoers still flock to the story of a poor milkman guiding his family through racism and corruption in turn-of-the-20th-century Russia.
The cast includes a number of BDT veterans, including Wayne Kennedy reprising the role of Tevye for “the fourth or fifth time.”
“It’s such a personal thing for me,” Kennedy says. “The first time I did it in 1999, I was probably a little too young [for the role]. But the next time I played Tevye, I had small children, and now they’ve graduated from college. … During [the song] ‘Sunrise, Sunset,’ I’m thinking about my kids and what words of wisdom I can give them. It is also interesting to see how the same exact lines affect me emotionally at different times and places in my life.”
‘Not an anomaly’
Just as Kennedy grew along with the role of Tevye, Moten anticipates many in the audience will have long-running familiarity with Fiddler. Moten wanted the production for BDT’s staging to be a little darker than what viewers might expect from the Golden Age musical.
“It’s going to look more like what the real world was like for these people,” Moten says. “Making it feel a little more stark and using less color to really drive home where they are and how their lives would be. While there’s such joy in [the story], [the characters] were living a hard life that they were forced into, and there are people in Ukraine right now who are dealing with these same struggles. I don’t want to make a complete downer of a show, but I do want people to understand that this is not an anomaly.”
The company collaborated with Nancy Lipsey, senior director of programs at Boulder Jewish Community Center (JCC), to guarantee the historical accuracy of customs shown in the musical, like the Jewish wedding scene, and to respond to cast questions.
“Since so many people in the cast have done the show before, the questions they thought to ask led to the most fascinating conversations,” Moten says. But great conversations haven’t masked the sad reality: “I think it hits us all some days that this is the last thing that’s going to be rehearsed here, and then some days it’s just joyous.”
During the final weeks of the run, the team is inviting dozens of people who have worked with BDT over the years to join in the musical’s large numbers, like “Tradition,” “Sunrise, Sunset,” and “Sabbath Prayer,” in order to include as many company alumni as possible.
“So many theaters have closed and not been able to have a months-long goodbye,” Moten says. “I’m forever thankful that we get to celebrate before it’s gone. It is easy to take places like this for granted, and after 46 years of serving Boulder, the community will miss BDT. When people leave the show, I hope they’ll seek out where these performers go next and support their local arts organization, because it doesn’t stop with BDT. All of these artists will still do this work somewhere else, and we need to get out and see it.”
ON STAGE: Fiddler on the Roof. Sept. 9 through Jan. 13, BDT Stage, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder. Tickets here.
