Fiddler on the Roof

I am having a feast of theatre visits at the moment.  This week saw me going to see Fiddler on the Roof at our local theatre. I saw the film many moons ago but hadn't seen the stage production, when it was all the rage in the 1960s and 1970s. The production was excellent - it had originally been on last year at Regents Park and then the Barbican in central London but was now touring the country. There was comedy, energetic dancing and of course quite a lot of well-known songs, the words of which I weirdly remembered from the 1960s.

The story is of course quite harrowing about the Russian pogroms, forcing the Jews out of their villages. Quite ironic really with what is happening now in Gaza. The violinist (Raphael Papo) who played the Fiddler was exceptionally talented and made his violin almost talk. Here is a youtube video of him, playing on the roof of the Barbican in London.

The main character, Tevye, is on stage about 95% of the time for the two and a half hours, either singing or talking. From my pathetic efforts to learn a 15-minute piece off by heart for our choir concerts, I can imagine what a lot of lines and lyrics he has to keep in his head. Here is also a favourite bit of mine - The Bottle Dance at the wedding scene - which was very cleverly done. It starts about a minute into the video.