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Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters (or Tevye the Dairyman) and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. The story centers on Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, who attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon his family's lives. He must cope with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters who wish to marry for love; their choices of husbands are successively less palatable for Tevye. An edict of the tsar eventually evicts the Jews from their village.

This article is about the 1964 musical. For the film, see Fiddler on the Roof (film).

Fiddler on the Roof

  • 1964 Broadway
  • 1967 West End
  • 1976 Broadway revival
  • 1981 Broadway revival
  • 1983 West End revival
  • 1990 Broadway revival
  • 1994 West End revival
  • 2003 UK tour
  • 2004 Broadway revival
  • 2007 West End revival
  • 2008 UK tour
  • 2009 US tour
  • 2015 Broadway revival
  • 2018 US tour
  • 2019 West End revival

The original Broadway production of the show, which opened in 1964, had the first musical theatre run in history to surpass 3,000 performances. Fiddler held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for almost 10 years until Grease surpassed its run. The production was extraordinarily profitable and highly acclaimed. It won nine Tony Awards, including best musical, score, book, direction and choreography. It spawned five Broadway revivals and a highly successful 1971 film adaptation and has enjoyed enduring international popularity. It has also been a popular choice for school and community productions.[1]

Synopsis[edit]

Act I[edit]

Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman with five daughters, explains the customs of the Jews in the Russian shtetl of Anatevka in 1905, where their lives are as precarious as the perch of a fiddler on a roof ("Tradition"). At Tevye's home, everyone is busy preparing for the Sabbath meal. His sharp-tongued wife, Golde, orders their daughters, Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze and Bielke, about their tasks. Yente, the village matchmaker, arrives to tell Golde that Lazar Wolf, the wealthy butcher, a widower older than Tevye, wants to wed Tzeitel, the eldest daughter. The next two daughters, Hodel and Chava, are excited about Yente's visit, but Tzeitel illustrates how it could have bad results ("Matchmaker, Matchmaker"). A girl from a poor family must take whatever husband Yente brings, but Tzeitel wants to marry her childhood friend, Motel the tailor.


Tevye is delivering milk, pulling the cart himself, as his horse is lame. He asks God: Whom would it hurt "If I Were a Rich Man"? The bookseller tells Tevye news from the outside world of pogroms and expulsions. A stranger, Perchik, hears their conversation and scolds them for doing nothing more than talk. The men dismiss Perchik as a radical, but Tevye invites him home for the Sabbath meal and offers him food and a room in exchange for tutoring his two youngest daughters. Golde tells Tevye to meet Lazar after the Sabbath but does not tell him why, knowing that Tevye does not like Lazar. Worried that Yente will find her a husband soon, Tzeitel tells Motel to ask Tevye for her hand before the Sabbath dinner. Motel resists, as he is afraid of Tevye's temper, and tradition says that a matchmaker must arrange marriages. Motel is also very poor and is saving up to buy a sewing machine before he approaches Tevye, to show that he can support a wife. The family gathers for the "Sabbath Prayer".


After the Sabbath, Tevye meets Lazar for a drink at the village inn, assuming mistakenly that Lazar wants to buy his cow. Once the misunderstanding is cleared up, Tevye agrees to let Lazar marry Tzeitel – with a rich butcher, his daughter will never want for anything. All join in the celebration of Lazar's good fortune; even the Russian youths at the inn join in the celebration and show off their dancing skills ("To Life"). Outside the inn, Tevye happens upon the Russian Constable, who has jurisdiction over the Jews in the town. The Constable warns him that there is going to be a "little unofficial demonstration" in the coming weeks (a euphemism for a minor pogrom). The Constable has sympathy for the Jewish community but is powerless to prevent the violence.


The next morning, after Perchik's lessons with the younger sisters, Tevye's second daughter Hodel mocks Perchik's Marxist interpretation of a Bible story. He, in turn, criticizes her for hanging on to the old traditions of Judaism, noting that the world is changing. To illustrate this, he dances with her, defying the prohibition against opposite sexes dancing together. The two begin to fall in love. Later, a hungover Tevye announces that he has agreed that Tzeitel will marry Lazar Wolf. Golde is overjoyed, but Tzeitel is devastated and begs Tevye not to force her. Motel arrives and tells Tevye that he is the perfect match for Tzeitel and that he and Tzeitel gave each other a pledge to marry. He promises that Tzeitel will not starve as his wife. Tevye is stunned and outraged at this breach of tradition, but impressed at the timid tailor's display of backbone. After some soul-searching ("Tevye's Monologue"), Tevye agrees to let them marry, but he worries about how to break the news to Golde. An overjoyed Motel celebrates with Tzeitel ("Miracle of Miracles").


In bed with Golde, Tevye pretends to be waking from a nightmare. Golde offers to interpret his dream, and Tevye "describes" it ("Tevye's Dream"). Golde's grandmother Tzeitel returns from the grave to bless the marriage of her namesake, but to Motel, not to Lazar Wolf. Lazar's formidable late wife, Fruma-Sarah ("frum" is a Yiddish word for a devout Jew), rises from her grave to warn, in graphic terms, of severe retribution if Tzeitel marries Lazar. The superstitious Golde is terrified, and she quickly counsels that Tzeitel must marry Motel. While returning from town, Tevye's third daughter, the bookish Chava, is teased and intimidated by some gentile youths. One, Fyedka, protects her, dismissing the others. He offers Chava the loan of a book, and a secret relationship begins.


The wedding day of Tzeitel and Motel arrives, and all the Jews join the ceremony ("Sunrise, Sunset") and the celebration ("The Wedding Dance"). Lazar gives a fine gift, but an argument arises with Tevye over the broken agreement. Perchik ends the tiff by breaking another tradition: he crosses the barrier between the men and women to dance with Tevye's daughter Hodel. The celebration ends abruptly when a group of Russians rides into the village to perform the "demonstration". They disrupt the party, damaging the wedding gifts and wounding Perchik, who attempts to fight back, and wreak more destruction in the village. Tevye instructs his family to clean up the mess.

a poor milkman with five daughters. A firm supporter of the traditions of his faith, he finds many of his convictions tested by the actions of his three oldest daughters.

Tevye

Golde, Tevye's sharp-tongued wife.

Tzeitel, their oldest daughter, about nineteen. She loves her childhood friend Motel and marries him, even though he's poor, begging her father not to force her to marry Lazar Wolf.

Hodel, their daughter, about seventeen. Intelligent and spirited, she falls in love with Perchik and later joins him in Siberia.

Chava, their daughter, about fifteen. A shy and bookish girl, who falls in love with Fyedka.

Motel Kamzoil, a poor but hardworking tailor who loves, and later marries, Tzeitel.

Perchik, a student revolutionary who comes to Anatevka and falls in love with Hodel. He leaves for Kyiv, is arrested and exiled to Siberia.

Fyedka, a young Christian. He shares Chava's passion for reading and is outraged by the Russians' treatment of the Jews.

Lazar Wolf, the wealthy village butcher. Widower of Fruma-Sarah. Attempts to arrange a marriage for himself to Tzeitel.

Yente, the gossipy village matchmaker who matches Tzeitel and Lazar.

Grandma Tzeitel, Golde's dead grandmother, who rises from the grave in Tevye's "nightmare".

Fruma-Sarah, Lazar Wolf's dead wife, who also rises from the grave in the "nightmare".

Rabbi, the wise village leader.

Constable, the head of the local Russian police, a Christian.

All of the characters are Jewish, except as noted:[7][8]

Tevye: , Herschel Bernardi, Harry Goz, Paul Lipson

Luther Adler

Golde: , Martha Schlamme, Dolores Wilson

Peg Murray

Tzeitel: , Bette Midler

Rosalind Harris

Hodel: , Susan Hufford

Adrienne Barbeau

Perchik: , Michael Zaslow

Leonard Frey

Lazar Wolf:

Paul Lipson

Yente:

Florence Stanley

; Frank Vlastnik (October 1, 2004). Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time. New York, New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. ISBN 1-57912-390-2., p. 98

Bloom, Ken

Kantor, Michael; (2004). Broadway: the American musical. New York, New York: Bulfinch Press. ISBN 0-8212-2905-2.

Laurence Maslon

Rich, Frank. The Theatre Art of Boris Aronson (1987), Knopf  0-394-52913-8

ISBN

(2003). "Fiddling with Sholem Aleichem: A History of Fiddler on the Roof". Key texts in American Jewish culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3221-3.

Whitfield, Stephen J.

Altman, Richard (1971). The Making of a Musical: Fiddler on the Roof. Crown Publishers.

Isenberg, Barbara (2014). Tradition!: The Highly Improbable, Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-to-Hollywood Story of Fiddler on the Roof, the World's Most Beloved Musical. New York: St. Martin's Press.  978-0-312-59142-7.

ISBN

Solomon, Alisa (2013). Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof. Metropolitan Books.  0805092609.

ISBN

at the Internet Broadway Database

​Fiddler on the Roof​

at the Playbill Vault

​Fiddler on the Roof​

study guide

Fiddler on the Roof

at Ovrtur

Fiddler on the Roof

List of longest-running Broadway productions from Playbill