Progress and tradition, hand in hand
Few musicals have endured like Fiddler on the Roof. Jessica Abelsohn spoke to the production’s director Jordan Fein about why the show still resonates.
When Jordan Fein was young, he went to see Fiddler on the Roof. Now, he’s directing it.
Fein, who was asked to direct the new production which premiered at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London, said musical theatre was something he began to appreciate from a young age, having caught the bug at around seven or eight years old.
“[Fiddler] was the first show I’d ever seen, when I was, I think, probably seven,” he told The AJN, explaining that the story is very close to his own family’s, with his grandmother’s family escaping from a town just outside of Kyiv in 1910 for the same reasons that Tevye, Golde and their daughters are forced to leave Anatevka. So for Fein, there’s definitely something special about bringing the production to life once again.
“The piece itself is something I felt connected to, and my family has always felt connected to. But getting to work on it, I think, has strengthened that quite a bit,” he said.
Fein told The AJN that what makes the production, which received 13 Olivier Award nominations and took home three awards, including Best Musical Revival, even more incredible is the respect and love the entire cast and crew have for the story.
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