Fiddler on the Roof at the Barbican Theatre – Reviews round-up

"This is a must-see"

"The Broadway classic revival transfers from Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre to the Barbican, and manages to retain all of its magic"

"What a bittersweet delight to see again this revelatory revival of the Broadway classic set in a Jewish stetl, beset by both antisemitic pogroms and modern ideas, seven months after its debut at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Jordan Fein’s staging remains joyful, exhilarating and humane, the big hits – Tradition; If I Were a Rich Man; Sunrise, Sunset – magnificently stirring."

"A terrifically tight, partially recast ensemble is again led by warm, beautifully-sung performances from Broadway veteran Adam Dannheisser"

"Tom Scutt’s ski-slope roof of waving corn, on which Raphael Papo’s fiddler has his precariously symbolic base, has sadly been trimmed and levelled to fit indoors, however: and we miss the original, surprising connection to the air and the soil. But Julia Cheng’s choreography is still dervish-like in its exuberant abandon and the production is full of life, light and love."

"Beverley Klein is very funny as the gabbling matchmaker Yente, as is Dan Wolff as Tzeitel’s waftily diffident beloved, Motel."

"The transferred show is pretty much faultless... But I see I only gave it four stars back then. What was I thinking, God? This is a must-see."

"A simply glorious revival"

"Stripped of schmaltz and imbued with a genuine folk sensibility, Jordan Fein’s magical version of the classic musical starts at the Barbican and then tours"

... this version of the story of Tevye the milkman and his neighbours in Anatevka is simply glorious."

"Adam Dannheisser may not be the most flamboyant of Tevyes, but he brings a quiet sense of nobility to the role of paterfamilias.... Lara Pulver adds grit as his wife, Golde."

"Julia Cheng’s joyous choreography kicks up dust. The musicians, tucked away at the rear of the stage, function as part of the community, delivering arrangements with a jagged edge."

"Horror and humour go hand in hand in this pitiless world."

"Great musicals often end in great sadness — this five-star Fiddler shows why"

"This bewitching revival joins the ranks of Les Misérables, Sweeney Todd and Evita because it’s nailed the secret of so many classics"

"Big-hit musicals are often tragic but never hopeless. You don’t make film adaptations, sell cast albums or get that all-important repeat business with hopelessness. So in Fiddler on the Roof, a much-revived masterpiece whose greatness comes over sweet and strong in this bewitching revival by the director Jordan Fein, the light and the shade do the hora folk dance all evening."

"... here the jokes, the tunes, the fiddler who wanders through the action, the wheatsheaf-fringed spareness of Scutt’s design, the hazy lighting — all are in perfect harmony. The scenes are funny (funnier than you might expect) or sad or bittersweet, capturing a world in flux."

"The American Adam Dannheisser gives our hero Tevye the milkman a canny charisma that is wry and warm but not always pleasant."

"It’s huge fun rippled with great reversals of fortune."

"Topol made the film sing, but this Fiddler dances to its own tune"

"The big musical in London’s Barbican Theatre this summer is a joyous, but finally sombre, revival of the sixties classic"

"... 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)."

"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"

"Dazzling musical simmers with contemporary resonance"

"After its success at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, the fizzing production fills London’s Barbican Theatre with spirit and song"

"... given the dazzling electricity of its choreography and the fizzing energy of its superb cast, it may yet raise the roof of the mighty Barbican. Fein’s staging of the beloved Broadway musical loses that spine-tingling natural backdrop — a perfect match for the gradually darkening tale — but it fills the giant theatre with story, spirit, song and sorrow."

"It’s the eloquent mix of light and shade that distinguishes this show and the tiny shifts that make the characters feel real and fully-fledged. Adam Dannheisser as Tevye, the hard-pressed Jewish milkman, is, as always, the beating heart of the production."

"Julia Cheng’s sizzling choreography creates a vibrant sense of community, filling the stage with life, while retaining Jerome Robbins’ original bottle dance"

"Seen now, it comes freighted with all that followed in the 20th century and with all that is happening across the globe today."

"Lean, muscular delivery ensures that every emotion rings true"

"This transfer from Regent's Park Open Air Theatre sustains its magic"

"It’s a pleasure to be able to report that this transfer to the Barbican has not robbed the show of its magic. We are gripped from the opening coup de theatre"

"The brisk pace of the production is underscored by a lean, muscular delivery from the ensemble cast which ensures that every song takes flight and that every joke (no matter how cheesy) has bite."

"Mark Aspinall’s superlative music direction bolsters the sense of a story told with grit and liveliness rather than regret and sentimentality. Tom Scutt’s glorious set keeps our sensibilities firmly anchored in Russian wheat fields."

"An utter delight."

"The glorious revival moves indoors, and loses the wow factor"

"This Olivier-winning production, which has transferred to the Barbican, is superb – but you miss the magic of last summer’s alfresco staging"

"... this loving iteration merits packed houses. Even so, I was also left wishing I’d caught the production at Regent’s Park Open Air theatre last August. The alfresco setting clearly augmented the portrait of a Jewish community not snugly self-contained but vulnerable to the elements as well as brutish Russians."

"... even if the earthiness for which this incarnation was celebrated is less in evidence now, that’s no reason to kvetch about the experience overall. Compared with his co-directing work on the recent stripped-back Oklahoma!, Fein privileges emotional truth over experimentation, the imperishable score rendered with musical heft and folksy simplicity, the lighting beautiful without being self-advertising."

"Adam Dannheisser’s commanding performance as Tevye is of a piece with this confident restraint."

"Jordan Fein’s darkly comic take on the classic musical triumphs again at the Barbican"

"... director Jordan Fein’s superb take – a transfer from Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre – manages to find its own, brilliantly idiosyncratic balance. The tone here is, for the most part, drolly surreal, a dark clown show underpinning everything from the gags to the choreography (by Julia Cheng) to Fein’s penchant for a weird tableau."

"Key to all this working is US actor Dannheisser as Teyve. Avoiding the obvious temptation to tackle the role as if he’s delivering a stand up set, Dannheisser instead beautifully underplays it."

"The air of dark absurdity is aided by a wonderfully evocative set from Tom Scutt"

"... what an interpretation this is from Fein and co. It’s Fiddler with all the stuff you love about Fiddler... but recast as an absurdist comedy with a beating human heart in Dannheiser."

"Beautifully judged"

"Fresh and rapturous rendition of the classic musical"

"I didn’t catch it at the Open Air Theatre, so I can’t comment on whether the loss of the interaction between Fein’s pungently evocative staging and the outdoor environment have significantly impacted its effect. What I can attest to, though, is the power and passion of the show, and the startling alacrity with which the union of story and score regularly cause the heart to soar and the skin to tingle."

"Fein’s take on Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s work is emotive, but it is also tough"

"Designed by Tom Scutt and lit by Aideen Malone, the production often looks as luminous and lovely as a Chagall painting"

"Adam Dannheisser’s Tevye, the philosophical milkman at the centre of Joseph Stein’s book, has all the compassion and warmth we’re accustomed to in the role; but there’s a survivor’s grit even in his humour"

"As Golde, Tevye’s wife, Lara Pulver is iron-willed, unshakeably loyal and movingly anxious to secure a future for her daughters in an overwhelmingly uncertain world."

"It’s a beautifully judged production of a classic: tradition tenderly rendered truly fresh."

"Though presenting a Tevye a sharp tongued that knows exactly where to find the laughs, Dannheisser teases out a marinated melancholy absent from so many other, more whimsical, takes on the character."

"Fein’s direction and conceptual clarity are as tight as they were last year"

"Scutt’s slightly anachronistic design touches remain: this time including a clattering shutter off stage left, an exposed brick wall and dabs of contemporary costume choices. Once more, the past and present blend with disconcerting ease."

"This production is a keen reminder of theatre’s power in providing not only a safe space for expression, but equally an uncompromising, inescapable mirror unflinchingly held up to the present day."

Read our reviews round-up for Fiddler on the Roof at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre