Fiddler on the Roof | Sunderland Empire | 25th November 2025
Invited| Review by Stephen Stokoe
It feels like Christmas has come early for us this year at The Sunderland Empire with three fantastic productions leading up to the annual festive pantomime with Miss Rory and the inimitable Tom Whalley. Last week we had the song and dance spectacular Top Hat and next week I am very much looking forward to the heart warming and emotional Kinky Boots.
This week is an emotional roller-coaster of a musical set in the impoverished village of Anatevka which at the time the story was written was a small Jewish enclave in what is now The Ukraine. There is now a town in Ukraine called Anatevka named after this musical by Joseph Stein and with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.
The story follows the trials and tribulations of father of five daughters, milkman Tevye (Matthew Woodyatt) whose faith in God and the traditions of his religion are sternly tested as he tries to keep up with his head-strong daughters’ modern outlook on love and marriage. The story is told against the backdrop of Tsarist Russia when there was rising antagonism and prejudice against Jewish people resulting in them being evicted from their homes with only the belongings they could carry.
The set is superb with a large levitating platform which rises and lowers depending on what it is being used to represent. Mainly it is the titular roof but it also, magnificently doubles as the canopy for Tzeitel (Natasha Jules Bernard) and Motel’s (Dan Wolff) wedding towards the end of act one. Not only this, the enormity of the ‘roof’ gives the stage a foreboding and claustrophobic feel. The director (Jordan Fein) keeps the characters of the village on stage while most of the major action takes place. This also adds to the stifling nature of the story that is to follow
It is Tzeitel who first tests her father’s beliefs in arranged marriage, followed by her younger sister Hodel (Georgia Bruce) who is enraptured by the idealistic and forth right student, Perchik (Greg Bernstein) with middle sister, Chava (Hannah Bristow) wanting to engage in a forbidden inter-religion relationship with the kind hearted Russian soldier Fyedka (Gregor Milne.)
The humour of the piece comes from Tevye’s interaction with God, his long suffering wife, Golde (Jodie Jacobs) and all the other assorted characters in the village such as the butcher Lazar Wolf (Michael S. Siegel) the Rabbi (Mark Faith) and Nachum the beggar (Ed Bruggemeyer) who has a small but wonderfully delivered and poignant line in the opening number ‘Tradition.’
This is not a happy clappy singalong musical with a clearly defined structure. It is also not an easy watch. On the other hand it is a magnificent listen with some truly amazing and emotional songs including the universally known If I Were a Rich Man and Matchmaker, Matchmaker, the soulful and beautifully melodic Sabbath Prayer and the heart-wrenching Far From the Home I Love and every single one was perfectly performed by the cast. I cannot leave this section on the music without mentioning the superb orchestra led by musical director Livi Van Warmelo and assisted by Sofia Tuovila. Each instrument rang out from their position at the back of the stage and it was an absolute pleasure to feel the incredible music to wash over the auditorium.
Before I leave the musicians, it would be entirely remiss of me not to mention two virtuosi who not only displayed outstanding musicianship but also performed their parts at the same time. First there is the eponymous Fiddler (Raphael Papo) whose skilful riffs of the theme which runs throughout the score added a playfulness which certainly brought a smile to my face. Fein and choreographer (Julia Cheng) were clearly very aware of Papo’s outstanding stage presence bringing him forward to interact mainly with Tevye. The cleverness of the use of the wonderful soulful solo clarinet performed by Chava actor Hannah Bristow cannot be understated. Bristow’s playing was outstanding as was her acting as the trouble-causing Chava but the use of her instrument to ring out playing the fiddler motif signifying the change from the Jewish settlement to a Russian-controlled one was simply genius.
Fiddler on the Roof contains some fairly tricky set pieces. There is the raucous and lively L’Chaim; the wonderful but lengthy wedding sequence and the famous bottle dance. These were all tackled with ingenuity and skill. Despite having been touring for many months, the energy from all the cast was top drawer and they all enjoy what must be a significant workout each performance. It was, however, the ghost scene, that often proves to be most troublesome, where Fein and Cheng really blew my socks off again.
It is normally performed by Tevye, Golde, her long dead grandmother, also called Tzeitel, and Lazar Wolf’s deceased former wife Frumar Sarah, No that would be far too easy for the creative minds of Fein and Cheng who formulated a thrilling, amusing but wonderfully effective sequence in which Tevye enlists the help of the whole village to collude in his fictitious dream about why his eldest daughter should not marry butcher Lazar Wolf, but instead the tailor Motel Camzoil.
I have already mentioned the set but designer Tom Scott is fully worthy of a name check. It is beautifully thought out and constructed. The lighting design (Aideen Malone) is superbly stark when it needs to be and complements the story very effectively indeed. The sound balance and design (Nick Lidster) was practically perfect which is not something I can always say on opening night of a touring production in a brand new venue.
This show will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will tug at strings of your heart you may hitherto not even been aware you had. A friend of mine commented that Fiddler on the Roof depends on having the right look for the actors. Casting director Stuart Burt CDG can take his own personal bow for putting together a cast which not only delivers for fans of the original broadway production directed and choreographed by the legend that is Jerome Robbins but also, I venture to say, this touring cast have added their own charm, characterisation and stamp to bring to the stage something that is truly memorable.
I must congratulate Sunderland Empire on their pre-Christmas schedule of “wow” productions, we really are being thoroughly spoiled with top class shows.