Over the last few years there have been a number of very high profile West End shows that have opened, and then rapidly closed, usually because they have failed to capture the imagination of the theatregoing public. It’s not always clear why they fail but, as I sit watching, and listening to, this superb production of Fiddler on the Roof, I can’t help but think that it could just be that “they don’t write them like they used to”.
Exactly fifty years after Zero Mostel played the lead on Broadway, and over 45 years after Topol’s awe inspiring performance on film, Paul Michael Glaser dons Tevye’s kippah and prayer shawl and gives us all the opportunity to see a master performing in a masterpiece.
Glaser is, of course, best known for his role as Dave Starsky in the 70’s cop drama, Starsky and Hutch but, just four years before that international fame, he had starred in the film version of Fiddler as the Ukrainian student Perchik, the boy who eventually marries Tevye’s second eldest daughter.
Now, 39 years after Starsky first rolled over the bonnet of the famous red car, Paul Michael Glaser is 71 years old and sports a bushy grey beard, but is incredibly spritely and still has that mischievous glint in his eye. He also has an incredibly good voice and, from the opening number “Tradition” right through to the end of this marathon three hour production, he sings and dances like a man half his age.
He is supported by an incredible cast of actor / musicians who, as well as delivering all their lines totally faultlessly, move about the stage picking up a huge variety of musical instruments to provide the musical accompaniment.
The sound team on this production have worked particularly hard to ensure the right balance between voices and music and it is to the Sound Designer, Richard Brooker, and his team that congratulations should go for getting the balance perfectly right.
Although this production is really an ensemble performance, there are some of the cast who deserve a special mention for going above and beyond the rest. Karen Mann works very hard as Tevye’s wife, Golda, as does Liz Kitchen as Yente the Matchmaker. The best of the supporting male cast members have to be Steven Bor, who takes over Glaser’s original role of Perchik the student and Daniel Bolton who plays Fyedka, the love interest of Tevye’s third daughter, Chava.
It is, without doubt, Jerry Bock’s wonderful musical score, containing such memorable hits as “Matchmaker”, “To Life”, “Tradition” “If I were a Rich Man” and “Sunrise, Sunset”, that ensures the audiences enduring love for this show, but the story of Tevye’s daughters fighting against Jewish traditions like arranged marriages, set against the beginning of the Russian Revolution, is also incredibly passionate and engaging.
Craig Revel Horwood surpasses himself as Director and Choreographer of this wonderful production and it is great to see that, although one might expect the dancing to take centre stage, it is Paul Michael Glaser who holds the spotlight and who raises the show as high as that fiddler, on the roof.
***** Five Stars