Neil Fisher

And Fagin himself? Actors have fumbled for decades with the Jewish tics of the role — get rid or embrace? — but Simon Lipkin’s wonderfully reimagined portrayal goes full kosher and makes something really remarkable (and very funny) out of the old vagabond. Part lost soul, part sad clown, this Fagin counts his jewels in desperation, not miserly greed (“who’s going to look after me in my old age?” speaks as much today as it ever did) and with his show-stopping Reviewing the Situation, Lipkin captures both the plight of a traumatised immigrant — and of anyone trying to lead a good life in a dark and devious world.

The paterfamilias of this story can be stoic, wry, fierce, anguished, uproarious, pious. The appealing Adam Dannheisser goes for something between all these things — not entirely convincingly. His strongest suit is a sitcom frazzlement — this is Reb Tevye meets Ross Geller from Friends. Lara Pulver brings quiet dignity rather than shrewishness to Tevye’s wife, Golde, and Dan Wolff is a triumphantly nerdy Motel. The actresses playing Tevye’s three eldest daughters grow in stature as the night goes on, and Liv Andrusier’s Tzeitel gets to show her musical-theatre chops in a brilliantly grand guignol staging of Tevye’s Dream.