Fiddler On the Roof – Menier Chocolate Factory

Andy Nyman in Fiddler On the Roof at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London. Picture: Johan Persson

Fiddler On the Roof continues at the Menier Chocolate Factory until 9 March 2019.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Rehearsals for Trevor Nunn’s intimate but full-blooded revival of Fiddler On the Roof must have only just begun days after it was announced that anti-semitic attacks in the UK were numbering more than 100 incidents a month. This statistic, released after a summer of news involving seemingly endless accusations of hate crime, gives Nunn’s production a striking and tragic cogency, and it’s all too sad that its themes resonate so powerfully in our “modern” world.

This gorgeous production, nestled in the intimate Menier Chocolate Factory, does what all productions of Bock and Harnick’s Broadway classic need to do – make you cry with tears of laughter and sadness – but does it with a rare emotional intensity. And it has a cast to die for.

The magnificent Andy Nyman, a Menier regular who took our breath away as Charles Guiteau in Jamie Lloyd’s coruscating Assassins here in 2015, returns, this time as the loveable, beleaguered milkman Tevye. A consummate stage-craftsman, Nyman summons up a beautiful, believably human Teyve, channelling the barrel-chested pomposity of Zero Mostel and the warmth of Chaim Topol – the two actors most associated with the role – but very much sculpting his own character.

Nyman has a powerful voice – speaking and singing – and he fills the small thrust stage like an explosion. His characterisation is rich and considered, and his tears are genuine. He is absolutely captivating.

He is joined matrimonially by Broadway star Judy Kuhn, who as wife Golde holds her own and gives us a masterclass in musical theatre. Nuanced, and gorgeously sung, her performance is faultless.

The remaining cast of 21 is equally as bright and includes the ever-reliable (and hilarious) Louise Gold as Matchmaker Yente, Stewart Clarke as the Bolshevik Perchik and Dermot Canavan as the lovelorn butcher Lazar Wolf. A few wayward accents aside, the ensemble does a sterling job, and of particular note are Molly Osborne and Harriet Bunton as the older sisters, Joshua Gannon as the gormless tailor Motel, and Matt Corner as Fyedka. Oh, and look out for Gaynor Miles as the nightmarishly funny back-from-the-dead Fruma-Sarah.

In fact, the nightmare sequence is one of the highlights of the show, giving stage magician Paul Kieve plenty to work with and showcasing Matt Cole’s dazzling choreography. Cole’s movement work really shines in ‘To Life’ and the ‘Wedding/Bottle Dance’ sequence, packing a serious amount of action into the small space. As for the setting, designer Robert Jones has wisely opted for gritty realism rather than the Chagallian brightness of Hal Prince’s original version, and it’s all beautifully lit by Tim Lutkin.

It’s an aural feast too. Musical supervisor and MD Paul Bogaev, with the help of orchestrator Jason Carr and a seven-piece band, re-creates Jerry Bock’s klezmer-infused score in a riot of colour, and we’re treated to half the band clambering their way through the audience from their home in the cowshed for a couple of numbers.

Nunn’s Fiddler is an intense experience that places you in the midst of the shtetl, and you will palpably feel the pain at the end as the Jews are expelled from Anatevka. It’s affecting stuff, and as important to bear witness to now as it was when it first opened in 1964 – if not more so.

Craig Glenday