'Fiddler on the Roof' 300 word Review

If you are thinking of taking musical theatre at Bath Spa University, this is definitely the show to entice you to do it. On the 7th of April at the Bath Spa University Theatre, many theatre and music students collaborated to make a fun, energetic and highly professional version of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ which portrays the story of a Jewish family living in Russia during the time of WW2. We watch the father and head of the family (Tevye) try to follow tradition whilst encountering the hardships the war brings his community. With an orchestra, convenient and cleverly designed sets helped deliver a humorous and heart warming performance.

Before the performance, I had heard of this play, but never had any idea of what it could be about. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the great standard of the songs as they were extremely fun, energetic and the choreography that followed was well done and seemed very professional. I was particularly impressed with the opening number, “Tradition” as it was very well directed and the musicians and performers striking in their talent. I really do believe that the standard of the orchestra was fantastic; they played beautifully and truly brought an excellent live quality to the show.

Even though the performance was greatly amusing, there were some negative points that brought down the standard of the show. I went to see the performance on the first night of showing, therefore I expected there to be some mistakes and nervous acting. However, as I said before overall the show was very professional, there were minor incidences that brought me back to the reality this was an academic/amateur production. Examples of this were sound levels were often uneven or too loud and cast members forgetting their queues or lines. This was slightly disappointing as I was so impressed with the high level of this proficient production. Nevertheless, I was still pleased with this amusing and homely version of this story.

Fiddler on the Roof

For the first night of the show, I thought the show went really well, even though there were some technical faults. I went to watch the show with a fresh perspective as I didn't know the storyline and was pleasantly surprised as I enjoyed the show very much. I thought that stage spacing could have been tidier however, as during the choreography sequences; I caught the actors bumping into each other and or objects on stage, which could've been remedied with rehearsals within the stage space.