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STORY
Fiddler on the Roof – West End
Theatre
Playhouse Theatre
Duration
170 minutes
Age Restrictions
6+ years
Fiddler on the Roof, one of the all-time great American musicals, feels shamefully relevant once more. Would that it didn’t. When it premiered in New York in 1964, this story of an imperilled Jewish community attacked by Russian pogroms struck a chord with a generation that had lived through the horrors of the Holocaust. With anti-Semitism on the rise again however, Trevor Nunn’s top-drawer revival lands like an early warning call about where it can lead.
Set in a Russian shetl in 1905, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is a hearty celebration of Jewish customs and community as they come under threat. Based on a series of Yiddish short stories by Sholem Aleichem, it drops in on a poor milkman Teyve (played by Andy Nyman) and his wife Golde as they seek suitable husbands for each of their five daughters.
But a show that starts with a broad comic touch takes darker turns as a pogrom closes in on this close-knit community and Teyve’s loved ones find themselves turfed out on the road. Joseph Stein’s book does justice to those that were expelled from their homes: yet another exodus to endure.
For all its humour, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is a musical of ideas – not least about the importance of tradition in terms of identity. Jerry Bock’s score mixed lively kletzma with mournful laments, but it builds to a crescendo with ‘Tradition’ – a hymn to the rituals that keep the past alive and glue us together. It vies with progress: ‘If I Were a Rich Man’ lays bare the inequalities of an impoverished society yearning for the Russian Revolution to come.
Past productions of ‘Fiddler’ have fallen foul of sentimentality, but Nunn’s revival, which began life across town at the Menier Chocolate Factory, aims for the utmost of authenticity and with it, atmosphere. Not only does Robert Jones makeshift design stretch around the auditorium of the Playhouse Theatre, pulling audiences right into the show’s world, the staging emphasises the contrast of light and dark, and as the forces of history close in, a candlelit stage is swallowed by shadows.
CREATIVE
Cast and Creative
Cast
Andy Nyman – Tevye
Judy Kuhn – Golde
Nicola Brown – Chava
Harriet Bunton – Hodel
Dermot Canavan – Lazar Wolf
Stewart Clarke – Perchik
Joshua Gannon – Motel
Louise Gold – Yente
Matthew Hawksley – Fyedka
Molly Osborne – Tzietel
Miles Barrow – Luka
Philip Bertioli – Sacha
Fenton Gray – The Rabbi
James Hameed – Vlad
Adam Linstead – Hersch
Adam Margilewski – Bagel Man
Robert Maskell – Mordcha
Benny Maslov – Mendel
Robyn McIntyre – Frayda
Gaynor Miles – Shaindel
Ellie Mullane – Nava
Tanie Newton – Miriam
Craig Pinder – The Constable
Ed Wade – Asher
Creative
Trevor Nunn – Director
Matthew Cole – Choreographer
Joseph Stein – Book
Jerry Bock – Music
Sheldon Harnick – Lyrics
Robert Jones – Set Design
Jonathan Lipman – Costume design
Tim Lutkin – Lighting design
Gregory Clarke – Sound Design
Richard Mawbey – Hair Design
Jason carr – Orchestrations
Paul Bogaev – Musical Supervisor
Jo Hawkes – Children’s Casting
Kate Morely – PR
Martha Geelan – Associate Director
Ross Edwards – Associate Director
Jane McMurtie – Associate Choreographer
Matthew Samer – Associate Musical Director
Paul Kieve – Illusion
Sonia Friedman – General Management