Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof
Playbill from the original Broadway production
MusicJerry Bock
LyricsSheldon Harnick
BookJoseph Stein
BasisTevye and His Daughters
by Sholem Aleichem
Productions
  • 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
Awards

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 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]

  1. ^ Paulson, Michael. "Fiddler on the Roof Gets a Debated Update", The New York Times, December 18, 2015, accessed March 6, 2018; and Time, May 26, 2008, issue, p. 51 (reporting that Fiddler ranked as the seventh most frequently produced musical by U.S. high schools in 2007.)