If I Were a Rich Man: Omid Djalili stars in a Fiddler on the Roof for our times at Chichester Festival Theatre

Chichester Festival Theatre is particularly renowned for its summer musicals, which in recent years have included Gypsy, Guys and Dolls and Half A Sixpence, all of which went on to successful West End runs. This year’s offering is the Broadway classic Fiddler on the Roof, with a cast led by multi award-winning comedian and actor Omid Djalili, and West End and TV star Tracy-Ann Oberman.

It’s a completely new staging by Chichester’s Artistic Director Daniel Evans, alongside an outstanding creative team that includes designer Lez Brotherston (Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake) and choreographer Alistair David (Show Boat).

Set in 1905 in a small village in Imperial Russia, Fiddler on the Roof centres on Tevye, a poor dairyman, and his wife, Golde, who are blessed with five witty and beautiful daughters. The matchmaker Yente, who believes any husband is better than no husband, is busy making sensible marriage plans for them all.

But Tevye’s bold daughters have their own ideas about who to marry. And as change and new ideas roll in from the big cities, dissolving the old ways of life, the sisters are not alone in their lust for something new.

The Fiddler on the Roof that everyone knows and loves

Packed with show-stopping songs including If I Were A Rich Man, Tradition and Matchmaker, the original record-breaking Broadway production won nine Tony Awards including Best Musical.

“One of the most amazing things about Fiddler on the Roof is that the dialogue matches the amazing songs, which is quite rare in a musical”, says Daniel Evans. “We’re really excited that we’ve been given permission to have new orchestrations and brand new choreography” (until now, all stagings have been based on the original dance sequences by Jerome Robbins).

“So while this will be the Fiddler on the Roof that everyone knows and loves, we hope it will also feel fresh and pertinent to our times.”

While Fiddler is playing in the Festival Theatre until 2 September, the Minerva Theatre offers the world premiere of a new play, The House They Grew Up In by Deborah Bruce, with Samantha Spiro and Daniel Ryan playing a reclusive brother and sister whose bubble of existence is shattered when the world bursts in on them. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, who helmed the National Theatre hits This House and People, Places & Things, it’s another must-see in Chichester this summer.

Fiddler on the Roof, Chichester Festival Theatre, until 2 September
For full details and tickets, visit cft.org.uk.