TPAC Produces: Fiddler On The Roof
Tulsa Performing Arts Center
August 18, 2024
“I didn’t know Tulsa theatre could do that.” It’s a sentence I regularly hope to get to say to myself while watching a show. I got to say it last weekend, halfway through the Tulsa Performing Arts Center’s self-produced Fiddler on the Roof, when a line of actors with wine bottles balanced on their hats took a wedding dance number from “ok, that’s impressive” to “actually jaw-dropping” and the audience lost its collective mind.
It was the kind of spine-tingling build you live for in performing arts—that thing where you think something’s gone as far as it can go, and then it goes further. There were a handful of those moments in this show, which could have coasted on a classic musical’s beloved songs (“Sunrise, Sunset,” “Matchmaker,” “If I Were A Rich Man”), its emotional depth, and a hefty slice of local talent, but instead pushed them all towards Broadway-level excellence.
Shows that happen at the TPAC are usually produced by other organizations (Celebrity Attractions, Theatre Tulsa, Tulsa Ballet, etc.). But the TPAC is staffed by people with their own theatre chops—from the CEO (Mark Frie, here playing the lead role of Tevye, which he’s performed several times during his career) and the VP of Development (Sara Phoenix, director and choreographer) to the technical and backstage crew. Fiddler is now the second full-length musical the TPAC has produced itself; under the “TPAC Produces” label, it’s not just a home for other groups’ shows but increasingly a successful (and paying) generator of its own.