Signature Theatre’s Fiddler on the Roof is Joyful, Fiercely Funny and Robust

Fiddler on the Roof

Signature Theatre

Jordan Wright

November 14, 2025

Special to The Zebra

Douglas Sills (Tevye) with Lily Burka (Hodel), Beatrice Owens (Tzeitel), Mia Goodman (Shprintze), Rosie Jo Neddy (Chava), and Allison Mintz (Bielke) in Fiddler on the Roof at Signature Theatre. (Photo/Daniel Rader)

As you enter the MAX theatre, you’ll note a massive wooden table which fills  nearly the entire stage for this production. Small benches surround it. There are no backdrops. No actual scenery. A wooden door claims a single corner. Soon you’ll come to realize it is a clear symbol of these small-town villagers – solid and ordinary. A sturdy table for gathering becomes a metaphor for their day-to-day lives as it changes form – reconfiguring in a myriad of clever ways to adapt to each scene. The musical opens as the large family enters covering its bare wood with a large, white linen tablecloth.

Winner of nine Tony Awards, Fiddler on the Roof  is a tender and uplifting musical inspired by the Yiddish stories of Sholem Aleichem who wrote them at the turn of the 20^th century. In this funny, wise and sweetly endearing folk tale set in the fictional Russian Jewish shetl Anatevka, we meet Tevye, a milkman; his homemaker wife Golde; and their five daughters; the rabbi, the ultimate authority on Jewish tradition; and Yente the Matchmaker, the Dolly Levi of arranged marriages, who has the final say on the bachelors the young women of the village will wed.

Alas, poor Tevye. Conflicted by the changing times, he faces a terrifying political climate and a cruel Czar, looming pogroms by the invading Nazis, Russian soldiers taking over the town, and the stringent religious laws laid down by the rabbi. Fiercely traditional in a paternalistic society, he struggles to rationalize his daughters’ unorthodox marital choices by speaking to God – his preferred pastime. “On the other hand, look at my daughter’s eyes,” he muses, justifying the adoration he sees for their unorthodox choices.

Lily Burka (Hodel), Rosie Jo Neddy (Chava), and Beatrice Owens (Tzeitel). (Photo/Daniel Rader)

Unfortunately, his daughters’ love interests have not been determined by Yente, the unchallenged matchmaker for the women of the village. And in his conversations with God, Tevye vacillates between keeping tradition and pleasing his beloved daughters. “Without tradition our lives would be as shaky as the fiddler on the roof,” he warns as the haunting violin strains from the fiddler test his mettle.

In “Tevye’s Dream”, a nightmare sequence featuring the ghost of Fruma-Sarah, Lazar Wolf’s late wife, he finds a way to explain his quandary to Golde by how they can get around Yente’s choice of husbands for Tzeitel’s planned wedding to Lazar, the crusty, old butcher. Fruma-Sarah wouldn’t approve, he claims. “I realize we are the chosen people,” he tells God, “…but sometimes couldn’t you choose someone else.”

You’ll revel in “If I Were a Rich Man”, “Matchmaker, Matchmaker”, “Miracle of Miracles”, the tender “Do You Love Me?” and “Sunrise, Sunset” plus thirteen more numbers – all time-tested tunes we have come to love. Just don’t sing it out loud, though it’s tempting when you know all the words.

Douglas Sills (Tevye), Jeremy Radin (Lazar Wolf), and the cast of Fiddler on the Roof. (Photo/Daniel Rader)

This endearingly embraceable story is further uplifted by the original choreography of Jerome Robbins drawn from authentic folkloric dances to include the joyful ‘bottle dance’. You’ll witness a very different Tevye from Zero Mostel’s well-known full-blown, over-the-top character. Played wonderfully here by Douglas Sills as Tevye. Evoking a more cerebral, subtler yet bolder Tevye with a wry comedic touch, his performance is a triumph.

I nearly passed on reviewing this production since I’ve seen it a dozen times or more with numerous family members in leading roles. Yet, with its intimate staging and superb direction by Joe Calarco, plus a cast seamlessly in sync, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Highly recommended whether you’ve seen it once or a hundred times. Joyful, touching and robust, winner of nine Tony Awards, Fiddler is the classic that appeals to every generation.

The cast of Fiddler on the Roof. (Photo/Christopher Mueller)

Book by Joseph Stein; music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick; musical director and conductor Jon Kalbfleisch with a 10-piece orchestra; choreographed by Sarah Parker; dramaturgs Jen Jacobs and Dani Stoller; scenic design by Misha Kachman; costume design by Ivania Stack; lighting design by Tyler Micoleau; sound design by Eric Norris; wig design by Anne Nesmith; fight choreography by Casey Kaleba.

Starring Douglas Sills as Tevye; Amie Bermowitz as Golde; Beatrice Owens as Tzeitel; Susan Rome as Yente and Grandma Tzeitel; Lily Burka as Hodel; Rosie Jo Neddy as Chava; Allison Mintz as Bielke; Mia Goodman as Shprintze; Jake Lowenthal as Motel; Ariel Neydavoud as Perchik; Jeremy Radkin as Lazar Wolf; Christopher Bloch as Rabbi; Sarah Corey as Fruma-Sarah and Shaindel; Alex Stone as Fyedka; Davis Wood as Constable; Stephen Russell Murray as Mendel as well as serving as Fight Captain; Reagan Pender as Avram as well as serving as Dance Captain; Joseph Fierberg as Mordcha.

Through January 26^th at Signature Theatre in Shirlington Village, 4200 Campbell Street, Arlington, VA. For tickets and information call the box office at 703.820.9771 or visit www.SigTheatre.org