PATRICK MARMION reviews Fiddler On The Roof's first night at the Barbican Theatre: Topol made the film sing, but this Fiddler dances to its own tune
Rating:
The big musical in London's Barbican Theatre this summer is a joyous, but finally sombre, revival of the sixties classic about life in an East European shtetl in the early 20th century.
The show is surely still best known from the 1971 film starring Chaim Topol as the hard-working, God-fearing milkman Tevye with five feisty daughters to marry off.
But the great achievement of this Olivier Award-winning production (first seen in Regent's Park last year) is to stand squarely on its own feet – thanks largely to the terrific Adam Dannheisser as Tevye (alongside Lara Pulver as his wife Golde).
He is a proper put-upon mensch, who dutifully drags the weight of his Jewish heritage behind him like the cart normally hauled by his lame horse. With a twinkle in his eye, Dannheisser is a big softy who brings heartiness, pathos and mischief to the part.
Accompanied by a gangly violinist (Raphael Papo) who mirrors his inner pain, Tevye – and the show – are buoyed by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's music and lyrics, most famously in the stomp of Tradition, but also in the comic plea for God to smite him with a just small fortune in If I Were A Rich Man.
American director Jordan Fein's production includes a glorious dream sequence resurrecting Golde's long-dead grandma.
And Julia Cheng's reeling choreography is a riot –whether it's toasting Tevye's eldest daughter's betrothal in the tavern (ominously interrupted by menacing Cossacks), or at the actual wedding, which has celebrants spinning like huge black spiders with bottles balanced on their heads.
Surrounded by grassland torched in a violent pogrom authorised by the Tsar, the second half takes a darker turn. And we are kept mindful of global events today – as Perchik, a suitor from Kyiv, warns Tevye: 'You can't close your eyes to what's happening in the world.'
Fiddler On The Roof runs until July 19.
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