Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof                      

Book by Joseph Stein

Music by Jerry Brock

Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Director Jordan Fein

Theatre Royal Sydney

Photography by Daniel Boud

Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP

There’s been a long held view that in Hollywood, Jewish actors have been cast out of type but have been favoured by Jewish casting agents, producers and directors. Mel Gibson and Marlon Brando were outspoken about it. Peter Lorre was cast as Mr. Moto in the films about the Japanese detective. In Get Smart, the Asian villain, The Claw, was played by Leonard Strong, Joey Forman was Chinese detective Harry Hoo and Bernie Kopell was cast as the German Siegfried. In many films, the non-matinee idol Gene Wilder was the romantic lead. Henry Winkler was Fonzie but he made the character his own.

The tradition has been reversed in the latest incarnation of Fiddler on the Roof in which Sigrid Thornton is Yente the village matchmaker and plays it very Jewish. I could imagine her saying something that I once heard and old Jewish woman say, “It’s alright, I’ll sit here alone. You go out and have a good time”. John Waters plays Lazar Wolf, an elderly butcher. Waters understandably looks entirely different to the young actor whom I first saw in the original production of Hair in 1969 but I couldn’t help doing a mental comparison.

Tevye is a poor Jewish milkman in 1905 Czarist Russia. He and his bossy, sharp-tongued wife Golde have daughters Tzeitel (Freya Boatman), Hodel (Ellen Ebbs) and Chava (Caity Plummer). Tevye explains the customs of Jews in the Russian village of Anatevka. Preparations are being made for the Sabbath meal, with Golde directing the daughters. Yente, the village matchmaker, arrives to tell Golde that widowed Lazar Wolf, the wealthy local butcher who is older than Tevye, wants to wed Tzeitel. A girl from a poor family must take whatever husband Yente brings, yet Tzeitel wants to marry her childhood friend, Motel (Felix Star) the tailor.

It’s a lively production with slow bits in Act 1 and some of the performances are inconsistent, but the pace picks up in Act 2. 

One of the cast members must have been trained in classical dance because choreographer Julia Cheng threw in a few fouettés for him to execute.

The eighteen musical numbers include Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Sunset, Sunset and of course, If I Were a Rich Man. Wasn’t surprised to find out that Do You Love Me? isn’t the same version that were 1960s hits for The Contours and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes.

The eighteen-piece band enhances without dominating the songs.

So how was Troy Sussman in the central role of Tevye? Have you ever seen an actor who was so good that you can’t imagine anyone else in the role? Decades ago I saw the great Hayes Gordon and he defined the role. As good as they, including Sussman, might have been, no one since has reached the high bar that Hayes Gordon set.

For me, a highlight was the performance by Alexis Fishman as Golde, Tevye’s wife who holds the family together when challenges occur. Fishman was solid and consistent and deservedly attracted the most applause at the curtain call.

If you haven’t seen a production of Fiddler on the Roof, or if you are a fan of the musical, you just might enjoy this one.