Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre | ★★★★✩
As Jordan Fein’s much-anticipated Fiddler on the Roof arrives, the metaphor of the fiddler perched precariously atop a roof resonates more than ever. This is the Jewish musical that tells the Jewish story.
“Without tradition, our lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof,” declares Tevye, the steadfast milkman of Sholem Aleichem’s story, immortalised in the 1964 musical. Fein’s production is remarkably true to tradition and serves as a reminder that our story began long before October 7 2023 or 1948. Under a canopy of trees, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre feels closer to Anatevka than any proscenium arched theatre, and, with modern flair, Fein transports us back to the time of our great-grandparents.
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The striking set, designed by Tom Scutt, features a wheat field roof opening into the village; a book turning the page on tradition. Like Anatevka, the theatre is isolated, but the outside world creeps in, with birds and helicopters flying above.
Staged in the fields of Ukraine among racist rioters, the story blazes with relevance. Fein paints in bold strokes and reinvents the classic in a series of cinematic images: Motel cycling down the field, Tevye pulling his milk cart into the village, and Chava running into Regent’s Park.
Act One is full of comic moments and legendary melodies. As night approaches, the pace quickens, and by the time the ensemble reaches Sunrise, Sunset, the light has dipped below the horizon and the second half, with its danger and violence, takes place in inevitable darkness.
The fiddler – often an afterthought – here becomes the driving force of the play, embodying tradition and God’s will. Raphael Papo’s haunting violin shadows Tevye from sunrise to sunset. When the pious father disowners his daughter Chava (Hannah Bristow), he upends his milk cart and Papo strikes up a lamenting duet with Bristow, who comes on with clarinet in hand.
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Music is central to this revival, and Noa Bodner and Stewart Curtis of family-favourite klezmer group Shir add a layer of authenticity. This is a production which has been created by a largely Jewish creative team and it shows.
Adam Dannheisser’s Tevye, though occasionally overwhelmed by the vastness of the park, portrays the protagonist’s struggle between tradition and change. Beneath the tassels of his tzitzit, his approach contrasts with the last Tevye in London: Andy Nyman struck a terrifying tone in Trevor Nunn’s West End production, where Dannheisser offers a more sympathetic figure. As his daughters’ marriages get more unconventional, his dad jokes dwindle, and the weight of change hangs heavy on his workman’s shoulders.
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As much as Tevye wants to be the head of the family, it is more of a matriarchy than a patriarchy – and this production is Golda’s, with Olivier-award-winning Lara Pulver’s sharp and knowing performance providing the perfect match. As she lights Shabbat candles and blesses her daughters, singing “May you come to be in Israel’s shining name”, a chill passes over the audience.
Liv Andrusier’s Tzeitel is another standout, with a frightening turn as Fruma Sarah, complete with a meat cleaver and a decapitated head. But the show is at its best when the ensemble comes together and blows off the wheat-topped roof in harmony and dance.
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As the play hurtles towards the end, the local police chief warns the village will have “an unofficial demonstration”. Parallels between far-right riots and anti-Israel rallies write themselves, but Fein ensures the story remains specific. Innovations never distract from the narrative, and the play’s relevance today speaks to its enduring power.
Since its creation by four Jewish men in New York in the 1960s, the musical has continued to speak to everyone – Jewish or not – and this production faithfully welcomes new audiences to Anatevka. In a bold final image, it is Chava who takes up the perilous mantle on the wheat field roof, striding forward with a clarinet in hand, as her family walk up the roof and into the light: tradition they sing, as she watches on defiantly.
