The Lowdown on Fiddler on the Roof

Jordan Fein’s revival of Fiddler on the Roof was a sold-out hit at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, last summer, and come May, the must-see production will be raising the roof at the Barbican Theatre. Here’s everything you need to know about the classic Broadway musical and a game-changing production.

Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock, and Sheldon Harnick’s Fiddler on the Roof was first produced in 1964, so it is just over 60 years old. 1964 was a golden year for Broadway musicals because two other blockbuster musicals, Hello Dolly! and Funny Girl, both premiered in the same year. But interestingly, this trio of musicals in some ways represented the last of their kind. The world was changing, and so was the Broadway musical, swapping nostalgia for something grittier with shows such as Cabaret and more contemporary Hair on the horizon.

Fiddler on the Roof production photo taken at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in 2024. Photo by Marc Brenner.

Outgoing Open Air artistic director Timothy Sheader (now helming up the Donmar) programmed Fiddler before the October 7th, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel. There were fears it might not be ideal programming, but it proved to be the Open Air Theatre's fastest-ever selling production and a massive success.

Inspired by the stories of Sholem Aleichem that told of the family life of milkman Tevye living in a Jewish settlement in Russia in the early 20th century at a time of great change, Fiddler takes its name from Marc Chagall’s Violin paintings. Chagall’s Green Violinist, a portrait of a fiddler floating above the roofs of a small village, is the painting most commonly cited as inspiration, but nobody knows for certain. What we do know is that the production was designed by Boris Aronson, an American stage designer who had been born in Russia, who was a Chagall admirer, and who had written a monograph on the painter. This current revival is designed by the great Tom Scutt, and very eye-catching it is too.

Fiddler on the Roof production photo taken at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in 2024. Photo by Marc Brenner.

Fiddler’s first Broadway run lasted for 3242 performances, a record only broken by Grease. It won a slew of awards, including a Tony for its star, Zero Mostel, who went on to star in the 1971 movie version. But not everyone loved it. “Shtetl kitsch," declared novelist Philip Roth. Yep, Fiddler is at times undeniably sentimental, but a great production can polish up the story’s heart to a shine but still not shirk the darkness. Fein, responsible for the groundbreaking revival, has become known as “sexy Oklahoma!” and does just that with a production that takes the hokiness out of the original and places the emphasis in the story on forced displacement and people blown hither and thither by the winds of change.

Why has Fiddler survived, and why is it ripe for reinvention in just the same way that some artists are reinventing Greek tragedy or Ibsen? In part it is because it is a great piece of storytelling and has so many memorable songs. But it is also because in being so specifically local, it becomes universal.

Fiddler on the Roof production photo taken at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in 2024. Photo by Marc Brenner.

Tevye is a man who does not embrace change. He wants everything to stay just as it is and always has been. There is a reason why the first rousing song of the show is called Tradition. But, as Perchik, the revolutionary student, points out, “You can’t close your eyes to what is happening in the world.” The reason Fiddler has endured is because, to some degree, we are all Tevyes clinging to our little corner of the world and trying to ignore the disruptions. As Nick Curtis observed in the Evening Standard, this is a revival “that feels sadly contemporary without even trying.”

Some have suggested that you fiddle with Fiddler at your peril. The best productions—John Doyle’s 2002 revival at the Watermill, a production that cleverly foreshadowed the Holocaust; Gemma Bodinetz’s 2017 Liverpool Everyman revival; and Trevor Nunn’s pared-back 2018 production at the Menier Chocolate Factory—do it with a light touch. That’s what Fein does too. Not least in the final haunting image. Want to know what it is? I’m not going to spoil it. You’ll have to see it to find out.

Cover image: Fiddler on the Roof production photo taken at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in 2024. Photo by Johan Perrson. Playing at the Barbican Theatre from Sat 24 May to Sat 17 July 2025. Book tickets on our website or app.