Theatre Review: Fiddler on the Roof, Bristol Hippodrome

Photography by Marc Brenner

Summary:

Rating: ★★★★★
Running Dates: Tuesday 26th August 2025 - Saturday 30th August 2025
Where to see it: Bristol Hippodrome
Duration: 2 hours, 40 minutes (incl. interval)
Keywords: Community, Family, Faith

Review

Fiddler on the Roof is a show I will see multiple times and never get bored, a show that has everything you want - music, laughs, dancing, emotion and heart.

I’m sitting at my laptop, trying to type, trying to find the words to explain what I just saw, but no words are coming. It feels like no amount of nouns, verbs and adjectives are going to be enough to explain my emotions right now, to tell you of the songs I heard and the choreography I watched. Safe to say that the position I find myself in is not ideal when you’re trying to write a review! But here goes….

It’s 1905 in the tiny village of Anatevka where proud traditions and the Jewish faith rule. Tevye, a Jewish milkman, lives there with his family, a wife and five daughters, and they are all proud members of a humble community. As each of Tevye’s daughters starts to challenge the traditional notion of being matched with a husband by the village matchmaker, he must try to desperately hold on to his beliefs against the backdrop of an ever-changing world. Or will he bend to the will of his children and learn to embrace the unfamiliar?

Fiddler on the Roof (directed by Jordan Fein and music by Jerry Bock) is one of those musicals that has permeated popular culture. It’s referenced a lot in tv shows, there was a film adaption in 1971 which was nominated for 8 Oscars (winning three), and as a true millennial, I spent many hours singing along to the music video for “Rich Girl” by Gwen Stefani and Eve which is a loose cover of “If I Were a Rich Man”. It’s one of those shows that you think you have seen even if you haven’t, which was precisely the position I found myself in tonight. I thought I knew what I was about to witness, I thought everything would be familiar and unsurprising. I know now that I knew nothing.

Photography by Marc Brenner

This is quite possibly the best musical I have ever seen. The curtain rose at the start and we saw a giant canopy across the full width of the stage, rising higher and higher to reveal the cast, and the setting, underneath it. It was adorned with the village name in giant letters underneath and a big layer of straw could be seen on top, from which rose a fiddler…on the roof. It was a sight to behold and a very good indication of the quality of this show that was to come.

The set design overall was impeccable, furniture and props were moved around seamlessly by the cast to create different settings and locations and the canopy was also used, being lowered on a couple of occasions to dramatic effect. The costumes were beautiful, there were a lot of neutral colours and blacks, but when groups came together it felt like all the colours popped somehow even though they were more muted. The lighting was the really special part of the design of the show though. White spotlights and uplights, yellow and orange tones for village daytime, cool greys for nighttime, and real candles were used during the scene where the family celebrate the Sabbath and for one of the daughters' weddings. It was so beautifully done, setting the tone and highlighting the important parts of the story at each moment.

The music was also incredible. You may have heard of “If I Were a Rich Man” and “To Life”, but “Sunrise, Sunset”, “Do You Love Me?” and “Tradition” beg to be heard of as well. They are tonally all so different, the sentence and note structure so unique, and they are all sung with both a commanding urgency and a quiet softness to them which really shows the conflict within the characters, particularly Teyve. I love musicals where there are both solo’s and big chorus moments and this has both, everyone's voices meshed together so well to push the atmosphere and demand attention, and the solo’s were breathtaking.

Photography by Marc Brenner

And so onto our cast. This show was packed with talent, even the characters who didn’t say much or did more dancing than talking or singing absolutely nailed it. My standouts would be Greg Bernstein as Perchik whose voice was beautiful and had an honesty about him that fit the character so well. Alongside him was Georgia Bruce as Hodel, one of the daughters, and whose performance bounced off of the stage, their energy so infectious. And then we had Jodie Jacobs as Golde and Matthew Woodyatt as Tevye, the husband and wife at the core of it all. Jodie was funny, sweet, charming, and powerful as Golde, her hard work and motherhood present in every scene and that voice! She made me gasp on at least two occasions, her voice rising far above everyone else’s with such power. Matthew was captivating as Tevye, his performance was so nuanced - hilarious, struggling, emotional and strong - and his Welsh accent just seemed to add something to the role, a deep voice to portray the traditional masculine role he is in as Papa, and the soft lilt of The Valleys to portray his love for his daughters. I was blown away by everyone.

It turns out I was able to find a lot of words to describe this rendition of Fiddler on the Roof, but they still don’t feel like enough. I haven’t talked about the amazing choreography and the infamous bottle dance where some of the men in the village put bottles on their heads and perform an intricate series of steps, stomps and knee drags. Or the time in which this story is set being a foreboding look at what was to come for the Jewish people during the Second World War with the families of Anatevka being forced to leave their village at the end of the show, some of them moving to Krakow, Poland, not knowing of the horrors that await. And I haven’t talked about the Fiddler who was part of every scene, playing stunning solos and pushing the energy of each scene alone with beautiful note after beautiful note. I could go on it seems.

If you get a chance to see this musical, GO! Even if you can’t make this run, make a run, any run, at some point in your life. Fiddler on the Roof is a show I will see multiple times and never get bored, a show that has everything you want - music, laughs, dancing, emotion and heart.

Standout Moment: Every dance sequence! The choreography was outstanding throughout.

See If: You like a classic and if you like really good stories.

Last Impressions: Some things are classics for a reason. Breathtaking.

Similar Musicals: The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, West Side Story.

You can find tickets for the show on the ATG Website

We were kindly gifted these tickets in exchange for a review.

Written by Amy Evans