'Fiddler' tour brings Arlington native home for the holiday
Actor Dave Adamick can't believe his luck this Thanksgiving season.
The Arlington Heights native is in the touring company of “Fiddler on the Roof,” which plays eight performances at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in Chicago Nov. 22-27. That means he'll be home for the holiday.
As an actor, “not knowing where you're going to be at any time, it's amazing to not only be off for Thanksgiving, but to be in Chicago and have a job and be able to go to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving and be with my family,” Adamick said, during a recent telephone interview from a tour stop in Lethbridge, Canada.
Though Adamick now lives in New York, he considers Chicago his hometown since so much of his family still lives in or near the Windy City. It's also where he got his acting start, appearing in BAM Theatre's tours of “Schoolhouse Rock Live” to Chicago and suburban schools and in Bailiwick Repertory Theater productions like “The Christmas Schooner” and “Parade.”
But for the past year and a half, Adamick been making his home on the road as part of the non-Equity company of “Fiddler” playing the role of Avram, the bookseller. And with many one-night-only stops on the itinerary, Adamick says the cast and crew have to bond together like a family to get through it.
“It's nice when the company gels well together, and I would say we've been very lucky,” he said. “I'm so proud to be a part of the company because it really is a show every night where I think, ‘Wow, not only is this a wonderfully written show I get to do and people love ... but it's also a production I'm proud to be a part of.'”
The current tour of “Fiddler” is the same physical production that played Chicago back in 2009 when star Topol led the cast. In this non-Equity cast, Tevye is played by John Preece, a veteran of more than 1,800 performances as the milkman and father of five trying to hang on to his Jewish traditions.
But like the previous “Fiddler” tour, the director/choreographer is once again Sammy Dallas Baye, who heavily modeled his work on the late Jerome Robbins' original 1964 Broadway production. In fact, Baye was in the original cast in the role of Yitzuk, the Streetsweeper.
“(Baye) was sort of Jerome Robbins' protégé, and so he learned the show from ‘Jerry' as he calls him,” Adamick said. “I've never worked with a director who knows the show as well as he does ... To work on this production with Sammy has been invaluable.”
Adamick is relishing his chance to show off his hometown to fellow company members. But his touring stop with “Fiddler” also marks something of a personal career milestone.
“My first national tour I ever saw was ‘Les Miserables' when I was probably in the third grade, and that was at the Auditorium,” he said. “So when I saw (the Auditorium Theatre) on the itinerary, I was like ‘Wow!' Not to be cheesy, but it really is a lifelong dream of mine to perform there.”
“Fiddler on the Roof”
<b>Location: </b>Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress Parkway, Chicago, (800) 775-2000 or <a href="http://broadwayinchicago.com">broadwayinchicago.com
</a><b>Showtimes: </b>7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22; 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 23; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 25, and Sunday, Nov. 27; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 26
<b>Tickets:</b>$26-$85