|
Story
Synopsis
Fiddler on the Roof, based on the short story "Tevye and His Daughters"
by Sholom Aleichem, was one of the first musicals to defy Broadway's established rules of
commercial success. It dealt with serious issues such as persecution, poverty, and the
struggle to hold on to one's beliefs in the midst of a hostile and chaotic environment.
Criticized at first for its "limited appeal", Fiddler on the Roof struck
such a universal chord in audiences that it became, for a time, the longest running
production in the history of Broadway.
Set in 1905, Fiddler on the Roof takes place in Anatevka, a small Jewish village in
Russia. The story revolves around the dairyman Tevye and his attempts to preserve his
family's traditions in the face of a changing world. When his eldest daughter,
Tzeitel,
begs him to let her marry a poor tailor rather than the middle-aged butcher that he has
already chosen for her, Tevye must choose between his own daughter's happiness and those
beloved traditions that keep the outside world at bay. Meanwhile, there are other forces
at work in Anatevka, dangerous forces which threaten to destroy the very life he is trying
to preserve.
Fiddler on the Roof opened on September 22, 1964 with Zero Mostel in the leading
role. It ran for 3,242 performances at the Imperial Theatre and opened the door for other
musicals to deal with more serious issues. The 1971 screen version featured Norma Crane,
Molly Picon, and Topol.
The play takes place in the village of Anatevka, Russia, in 1904. It centers around a
dairyman, Tevya, and his five daughters. They are trying to marry off Tzietel, the oldest
daughter. The matchmaker find her a match in Lazar Wolfm the butcher. However, the butcher
was much older than Tzietel, and Tzietel didn't love him. Tzietel loved Motel, the poor
tailor, and they promised each other that they would get married. (Something unheard of at
that time.) Anyway, Motel asked Tevye if he could marry Tzietel, and Tevye said yes. And,
to convince his wife, Golde, that the match with Motel was the right one, he created an
elaborate dream sequence that played on Golde's superstitious side. Meanwhile, Fyedka have
Chava a book to read, and Perchik, a young student from Kiev, began to stay with
Tevye,
trading lessons for food and lodging. Motel and Tzietel get married, and after the
wedding, Russian "raiders" come and trash the place.
Perchik and Hodel soon fall in love also, and they get engaged.
(Also unheard of at that time.) They inform Tevye this, and he gives them permission to be
married. Soon after this, Perchik is arrested for demonstrating in Kiev, and is sent to a
prison in Siberia. Hodel leaves to join him there.
Last, Chava and Fyedka fall in love. Chava tells Tevye, and he is
outraged, because she wants to marry out of the faith. She gets married
anyway, and Tevye
disowns her. Soon after that, all of the Jewish people in Anatevka get a notice to move
out. And that's where the play ends. It's kind of a sad ending.
A quick History, taken straight from the program:
The characters of Tevye the dairyman, his unimpressed wife, his five daughters and
other dwellers in the village of Anatevka, first came to attention in the stories written
in Yiddish by the popular fiction writer who called himself Sholom Aleichem (literally
"peace be with you" in Hebrew). The stories appeared in vairous publications in
eastern Europe and then spread to Yiddish publications in America and elsewhere, in the
years 1905 through 1910. Over the years, they became world favorites in many languages.
This continuing interest was vastly accelerated when in 1953 Arnold
Perl, a long-time admirer of Sholom Aleichem's work, and that of I. L. Peretz and other
popular Yiddish writers, put together a series of short plays. They were based on
Aleichem's stories, including one by Peretz, which under the title of "The World of
Sholom Aleichem" vivified dramatically the life of the Jewish "Shetetls" in
Czarist Russia, a picturesque, though impoverished life that had disintegrated
considerably as a result of World War I and was thoroughly destroyed in World War II.
The success of "The World of Sholom Aleichem" encouraged
Arnold Perl to plough the same field a bit more, and in 1957 Perl brought out a play about
that indomitable milkman of Anatevka, which he called "Tevye and his Daughters."
This prompted Joseph Stein to believe that the Tevye stories could
be made into a musical, and Fiddler on the Roof was the result.
|
