"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.
The original Broadway production of the show, which opened in 1964, had the first musical theatrical run in history to surpass three thousand performances. Fiddler held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for almost ten 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.
In this exhibition you will read about the main players of Tevye, each of whom assumed the role of Tevye, either on stage or in film, in "Fiddler on the Roof," or in a 1919 production of "Tevye the Dairyman," in Yiddish, on a New York City stage.
You will see drawings of them, as well as publicity photos of them and the productions themselves.
We at the Museum of the Yiddish Theatre hope that you will enjoy taking this journey with us. L’Chaim!
The Museum would like to make the following citations:
The Museum of the City of New York
Wikipedia
[The Museum of the Yiddish Theatre can be found at: https://www.moyt.org]
© Steven Lasky, 2024
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