Chicago Tribune
- Highly Recommended
"...thanks mostly to Craig Spidle, whose Constable is dripping with understated complexity, Bell also manages to focus and expand on one of this show's key themes: Good, moral people must embrace change, but always be vigilant for the stirrings of an ignorant mob."
Chicago Sun Times
- Highly Recommended
"...Credit its book by Joseph Stein -- adapted from the stories of Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem -- perhaps the tightest, smartest and most piercingly pitch- perfect tragicomedy ever written for Broadway, with the Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick score part of the global DNA."
Daily Herald
- Highly Recommended
"...His performance is a masterful display of timing and humanity by an actor uniquely suited to the role of Everyman, in this case a Russian Jewish milkman eking out a living in a small, seemingly tolerant village on the eve of Russia's 1905 revolution. In an increasingly violent, unstable world, Tevye's informal conversations with God and his commitment to tradition serve as his anchors."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...Through their mates--Motel the tailor, Perchik the revolutionary, and Fyedka the goy--Fiddler personifies the volatile climate of 1905 Russia and the intrusion of secularism and intermarriage into traditional Jewish culture."
Copley News Service
- Recommended
"...David H. Bell’s directing gives proper emphasis to the musical’s major virtues, the importance of family bonds and the necessity for faith, along with the inexorable passage of time that permits children to grow up and away from their parents. The wedding song “Sunrise, Sunset” is still one of the great choke-up numbers in modern musical theater. Bell’s choreography is heavy on folk and religious influences in the usual “Fiddler” manner."
Centerstage
- Highly Recommended
"...Bell gives so much attention to detail in this production. The famous dream sequence has never been staged with more delight and imagination, and the wedding sequence (especially the famous bottle dance) offers several surprises. Even the show's fiddler, a metaphor for survival through a delicate balance of tradition and common sense, is portrayed by accomplished violinist Gregory Hirte, adding so much to the production. But with Bell's detail comes humanity and tenderness making this production one that is guaranteed to stay with you for a long time to come."
ShowBizChicago
- Highly Recommended
"...Bell has used the musical’s notion of metamorphosis as a tool to revise Fiddler in almost all stagnated mores of its original production. Embedding both direction and score with a contemporarily honest sensibility, Bell approaches this Anatevka within a more human framework than his predecessors. It is this earthly approach to the established text that ultimately reminds us of the impending and unconquerable nature of change. It is a change that, like the reappraisal present in this new production, will ultimately form its own tradition."
ChicagoCritic
- Somewhat Recommended
"...My main problem with this solid production was the miscast Ross Lehman as Tevye. While I love Lehman’s body of work, I do believe he is one of the finest, funniest comic actors working on stage, he is not appropriate to play Tevye. Try as he might, Lehamn can’t help but play the devout religious defender of his traditions without the bittersweet, sharp-edged Jewish humor. Lehman’s tendency to milk bits to mind all their humor tends to make Tevye more of a clown than a troubled man trying to maintain a balance in a changing world. I just couldn’t believe Lehman’s interpretation of Tevye. Yet, I must say that the opening night audience seemed to love the funny spin Lehman put on the milk man as he struggles with his three daughters strong wills."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Recommended
"...The beautifully staged "Sabbath Prayer" is another highlight as is the always rollicking "To Life". And there is a real sense of menace in the pogrom that ends the first act wedding scene. Bell's staging of the opening "Tradition" number, however, felt extremely awkward with villagers barely avoiding bumping into one another on the crowded stage. Bell's use of the Fiddler (Gregory Hirte actually playing his own instrument and doubling as the Innkeeper Mordcha) in key moments throughout the first act was quite nice. When the violin is literally broken in half during the violent pogrom, so too does the Fiddler disappear. In most productions this symbol of the age-old Jewish traditions and customs reappears at the play's finale as Tevye and his family departs their homeland for ports unknown. Here that symbol of the Jewish faith and traditions is gone, and it's a sad and poignant effect."
Chicago Theater Beat
- Recommended
"...Marriott Theatre typically stages musicals with large casts beautifully, yet the "Fiddler" stage often seemed cramped and overcrowded, particularly in ensemble numbers such as the "Sabbath Prayer" sequence. Thomas M. Ryan’s set is lightly furnished (except for those unfortunate posts) and he’s used hanging lanterns and other tricks to expand the stage beyond its physical space, so that fault can’t be laid at his feet."
