FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. To 1 June.
Newbury
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Watermill Theatre To 1 June 2002
7.30 Mats Thur & Sat 2.30pm, except 1 June 1.30pm & 6.30pm
Runs 2hrs One interval
TICKETS 01635 46044
Review Ian Willox 2 May
English reserve doesn't help but the younger generation comes to the rescue.Director John Doyle has a distinguished history of refreshing musical stalwarts for the Watermill's small space and casts. He’s done it with Cabaret and Carmen. His Gondoliers transferred successfully to the West End. This time he doesn’t quite match his own high standards.
Fiddler is a stalwart. Inspired by Sholem Aleichem’s stories, it's the tale of Tevye, milkman in a Ukrainian shtetl, saddened by the loss of each of his three daughters as they marry who they will, and driven by a pogrom to emigrate to America. A downbeat story with upbeat songs.
The show opens with Tevye, his family, and the villagers emerging from the smoky darkness wearing, not turn of the century shtetl clothing, but the striped concentration camp pyjamas and yellow star of a 1930s ghetto. We never find out why. As if the pogroms were not bad enough to warrant our sympathy.
But the Doyle magic is still there. The cast of 10 (large by Doyle at the Watermill standards) act as chorus, orchestra and stage crew, beside performing their own roles in a tightly blocked, well directed and musically sophisticated reduction of the show. The intimacy of the Watermill provides the perfect setting for a play about small village life, where everyone knows everyone, and every act is a performance because someone is bound to be watching or listening.
The songs (re-arranged by musical director Sarah Travis) are stripped of gloss and schmaltz to deliver genuine emotion. Tevye’s lament at the loss of his daughters is very touching. But schmaltz, as any cook will tell you, lubricates and flavours. Without it, Fiddler on the Roof is a dry dish.
Edward York's Tevye starts well, but lacks the ego to fill the stage. Karen Mann supports well as his wife Golde (as she should, having created so many fine performances in past Doyle productions). The rest of the cast are too English, lacking the swaggering, melodramatic, shameless Yiddishisms that are the essential language of the show.
With one notable exception. Stephanie Pochin plays Tevye’s youngest daughter, Chava, with a grave intensity that makes the Doyle interpretation utterly plausible. Rarely the centre of the action, always supporting it (especially through fine fiddle playing), she, in the end, makes this Fiddler on the Roof a worthwhile night out.
Perchik: Christopher Dickins
Motel: Paul Harvard
Fyedka: Michael Howcroft
Yente: Rebecca Jackson
Lazar: Paul Kissaun
Golde: Karen Mann
Tzeitel: Susanna Northern
Chava: Stephanie Pochin
Tevye: Edward York
Hodel: Lesley Young
Director: John Doyle
Designer: Mark Bailey
Lighting: Richard G. Jones
Musical Director: Sarah Travis
2002-05-09 10:24:41