A clear feeling of community joy permeated the packed lobby of Toronto’s historic Elgin Theatre this week as the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company’s latest production opened with great fanfare. The ambitious undertaking is a transplant of  National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s hit New York staging using a Yiddish translation of Fiddler on the Roof that dates back to 1964, the same year the original American version premiered on Broadway.

Adapted from Sholom Aleichem’s short stories originally written in Yiddish, Joseph Stein’s book for the musical adaptation is one of my favourite artistic works of the 20th century so it’s a thrill to see an adaptation that brings something somehow both new and old to the text.

Folksbiene’s leading man Steven Skybell came over with the show, as did buzzy icon Joel Grey’s directing credit if not his physical being (behind the scenes social media showed him calling in over FaceTime). Skybell’s confident presence in the central role of Tevye grounds the production and sets the standard for the language as the Canadian cast around him was mostly learning their words phonetically. To my ignorant ears, the whole ensemble seems to do a good job delivering the lines both in dialogue and song without sounding too stilted, though standout Theresa Tova in the scene-stealing role of matchmaker Yente is by far the most successful with conveying meaning clearly enough that the subtitles aren’t really necessary.

My slow reading and the pace of the work makes keeping up with said subtitles a challenge while attempting to also fully absorb the performances so more details definitely got missed than I’m normally comfortable with but let’s just call “I’m doing my imperfect best struggling to keep up” a thematic immersive element. Familiarity with the text definitely helps, until you reach one of the surprisingly many text changes and the pressure to read every word charges back in. It’s unclear whether the changes are to accommodate a different audience (the translation was written for an Israeli production) or simply to match the rhyme scheme but they range from the slight feminist tweak of “handsome” to “clever” in ‘Matchmaker’ to the jarring specificity of “if I were a Rothschild”, dragging your eyes away from the performers and back to the written words projected on either side of the stage.

The large areas for text display limit how much can be achieved with the design, fading parchment becoming the only real aesthetic choice beyond the costumes with modern touches of unknown intentionality. The language element (and, of course, the notably rare fact that actual Jewish artists are producing this Jewish story) gives this production an overarching authenticity. It’s strange, then, to see Fyedke in what appear to be skinny jeans he might have bought at H&M.

This production is a massive undertaking for a medium sized company like Harold Green so it’s to be expected that there are a few slightly shaky aspects of production design and some imprecise execution. The ensemble is solid though not exceptional. A few nuanced choices like a sincere, even nervous Leyzer-Volf (George Masswohl) and a beautifully unsentimental staging for ‘Do You Love Me’ (Tracy Michailidis plays Golde with excellent strength and stillness) illuminate the text in refreshing ways while larger choices feel a little too obvious (Tevye is essentially chased offstage post- Khave confrontation by the ghosts of ‘Tradition’). Emma Burke-Kleinman’s dynamic control on the tricky ‘Far From the Home I Love’ impresses, as does Joshua Kilimnik’s irresistible joy as the most sincere of Motls, not a vocal standout but committing so completely to his character’s inner life that I understood every syllable.

Fiddler on the Roof is a masterpiece complete with memorable songs, moving character portraits, and a dramatically compelling book that’s as funny as it is heartbreaking. Even through a language barrier, the heart and intention of this current production helps all of that shine through.