On stage at the Theatre Royal, a wheat field stands tall and stretches into the sky – a lovely quirk of design that also takes our eponymous Fiddler on to his roof. If you look closely, you’ll see crimson poppies tucked among them, an unexpected offering of beauty, hope and memory.
This is Anatevka, the fictional village in tsarist Russia’s Pale of Settlement, now Ukraine (the wheat is an elegant tribute) and home to the characters of Fiddler on the Roof, the much-loved and lauded musical by Joseph Stein, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock based on stories by Sholem Aleichem. The first musical to play Broadway for more than 3,000 performances, and still popular more than 60 years after its debut, this is a musical that – like those poppies – persists.
Tevye (Troy Sussman) is a dairyman who lives in the village with his wife Golde (Alexis Fishman) and his five daughters. When the local matchmaker (Sigrid Thornton) finds a husband for his eldest daughter Tzeitel (Freya Boltman), Tevye is pleased to know she’ll be taken care of. Tzeitel, however, loves someone else. As Tevye’s daughters Hodel (Ellen Ebbs) and Chava (Caity Plummer) also make increasingly modern and autonomous choices about who they love and how they want to live, he must weigh his bright and obvious love for them against his clear devotion to his beloved traditions.
At the same time, we start to hear news of pogroms in neighbouring villages, and the threat of displacement moves from an abstract fear to a concrete reality. Change is inevitable and everywhere here, and it is frequently frightening. But love – for faith, for each other and for the possibility of creating change together – emerges as the strongest thread with which to weave a future.
Deeply connected to his village and his Jewish faith, Tevye – one of the great characters of musical theatre – is funny and thoughtful, breaking through the barriers of the narrative to talk to God, and to us in the audience, about his life, his dreams and his family.
In this production, originally created for London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre by director Jordan Fein, the Fiddler (Ben Adler) is close to Tevye in these moments, his sonorous notes challenging, empathising and ruminating with him – like they are in conversation. In the second act, when Tevye’s thoughts complicate and darken, so too does this musical conscience – but in a way best not spoiled here.
Sussman, a musicals veteran who has understudied leads in a number of major productions, is having a much-deserved moment in the spotlight; his Tevye’s easy physicality and warmth is already apparent; his performance will likely grow richer and more complex as the run continues.
Fein’s production, designed by Tom Scutt to move from the outdoors to London’s Barbican theatre before making its way to Sydney, fits neatly into the Theatre Royal. It features a superlative cast that welcomes you in, invites you to lean forward, and, during the show’s famous bottle dance, to cheer the characters on. It also rewards your close attention. Fein (and Gary Abrahams as resident director) have built close character work into the fabric of this production; every member of the ensemble is giving a detailed and dialled-in performance that, collectively, paints a picture of a vibrant and close-knit community (keep an eye out for Thornton and John Waters as community rascals). Musical director Dominic Woodhead leads a loud and nimble band, and additional orchestrations by Mark Aspinall slice through the sound to add a layer of poignancy.
There is a welcome freshness to this production, especially when it comes to Fiddler’s women. Boltman, Ebbs and Plummer are fearless and joyfully unique as Tevye’s oldest daughters. There’s a gorgeous parallel in Boltman and Sussman’s physicality, these bookends and leaders, and Ebbs foregrounds Hodel’s strength of character even as she falls in love with activist Perchik (Maxwell Simon); there is no question here about whether or not she will be an active participant in the fight for change when she leaves her family for his side. Plummer’s Chava – whose choices offer Tevye his greatest test – keeps a spine of steel behind her famed sweetness. Golde, who is the most resistant to change in the family, is beautifully realised here by Fishman with a rich and forthright performance.
The story’s melancholic ending – a community forcibly removed from its home, loved ones separated by unimaginable distance and uncertainty – has long been played in different ways over the years, but it remains upsettingly relevant. Here it lands heavily, like swallowing a stone. In a time of rising antisemitism and constant news of displacement, violence and loss – where wheat fields are littered with bombs and burnt stalks, and holy lands are besieged by war – perhaps it couldn’t be any other way. Sunrise, sunset: this is a cycle we know all too well and have yet to break.
-
Fiddler on the Roof is on at Theatre Royal Sydney until 3 October. It tours to QPAC in Brisbane on 9-25 October; Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne on 31 October to 27 December; and to His Majesty’s Theatre in Perth from 7-31 January 2027.
