Rather than trying to explain discomfort away, director Cait Bodenbender embraced the play's history by simply casting as Shakespeare himself did: with an all-male cast.

I admit that at Saturday’s opening-night performance, I was initially confused when Genesius Guild's Andy Shearouse explained both the entire plot of William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost and that the set was designed to represent the inner workings of a broken cuckoo clock. One might think both concepts would be self-explanatory. But alas, they were not. In the end, I was grateful for the introductory explanation.

Fiddler on the Roof is often considered one of the final entries in the Golden Age of Broadway era, a period defined by sweeping scores, big ensembles, and stories rooted deeply in character and community. Director Georgette Kleier’s production checks nearly every one of those boxes handily.

Jeff Adamson, clearly delighted by the room’s laughter on its opening-night performance, leaned into the humor with visible enthusiasm, which only seemed to widen the gap between the show’s tone and my own reaction to it.