BEING an actor is getting harder. You no longer have to be able to act, and often sing and dance too. Now, it seems, you have to play multiple musical instruments while acting, and singing, and dancing.

That’s what it takes to be in the cast of Fiddler on the Roof, which opened at the Wycombe Swan last night. Hard work it may be for the cast, but what an amazing show for the rest of us.

Almost all the characters carry an instrument much of the time. Yente the Matchmaker plays percussion, accordion, ukelele, trombone, glockenspiel, xylophone; the thwarted-in-love butcher Lazar has a red double bass; Golde the matriarch plays trumpet, guitar and glockenspiel; the aged Rabbi plays a impressive Bassoon... and so on.

Weird? It’s wonderful. Usually live music means an orchestra in the pit. Here the music pours out of the characters and is part of their roles. It brings huge dynamism and colour to the show.

So the musical Fiddler on the Roof – which could perhaps be in danger of being a bit of a has-been – comes over in an excitingly fresh way. That’s great, because it really is a charming, funny yet thought-provoking story of love and hate, racism and heartache, pain and hunger, and the enduring power of love, all set in a tiny Jewish village in Tsarist Russia where revolution is brewing.

Tevye the dairyman, who has to cope with three daughters who want to ditch tradition and choose their own husbands, is well played by former Starsky and Hutch star Paul Michael Glaser. Back in 1971 Paul played the young revolutionary Perchik who woos Tevye’s daughter. Now he shines as Tevye himself. The cast are all excellent in their roles, the sets clever, and new features in the storyline like the dream sequence work a treat.

The star of the show for me though is The Fiddler, Jennifer Douglas, an elegant wisp of a person who is not part of the storyline but plays her violin throughout the show – perched on the roof of the house, on the edge of the stage, on a balcony, or dancing around Tevye as he ponders his dilemmas. She adds a magical dimension to the show.

Fiddler on the Roof continues at the Wycombe Swan until Saturday February 1.