Jud is presented much more sympathetically than usual, which is good, because it makes the point that Jud really is an outsider, and that is how outsiders are treated.  He is no more the real villain of this piece than Shylock is the villain of The Merchant of Venice.

Does it work? Yes, mostly. Don’t expect the pleasant and relatively undemanding evening you might have watching a rerun of the film on television.  But do expect a creditable attempt to show what life might have been like in rural America in the nineteenth century, with all its prejudice and beastliness. Do expect a series of charming, tuneful and characterful performances, from all the cast.  I particularly enjoyed Stavros Demetraki’s Ali Hakim, with his ultimately unsuccessful attempts to evade matrimony, and the matriarch Aunt Ella (Liza Sadovy) .

And it helps that the songs, if not sung quite as we expect, are always sung beautifully. Whatever else they do, this cast is not going to murder your favourite song.