The Making and Legacy of Fiddler on the Roof
“Everything else that we had done had been an assignment or a commission for a producer. This one we decided to do.” – Stephen Harnick
“None of us had the remotest idea that this would be very successful. The cliché, it was a labor of love – this one really was” – Joseph Stein
Fiddler on the Roof is an iconic piece of musical theater history. The plot, based on the short stories of Tevye the Dairyman by Sholem Aleichem, was carefully curated by creators who were descended from Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. This piece, that they called a labor of love and dedicated to their fathers, incorporates meaningful traditions, with characters that had been known through Jewish culture. It was a huge risk – no one had written a successful musical that was as culturally, historically and religiously specific as Fiddler. However, the writers took this piece about impoverished Jews in 1905 Czarist Russia, facing a loss of community and tradition, and made it one of the most triumphant musicals of all time. How has a story based on nineteenth century Jewish shtetls not only a hit, but beloved by all audiences across the globe?
The three creators, Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein, are all descendants of exiled Jews from The Old Country. Pulitzer Prize winners Brock and Harnick’s parents had immigrated to America from Russia. When a friend suggested the stories of Sholem Aleichem as the basis of a musical, they were instantly intrigued. They asked Joseph Stein, who they had previously collaborated with and knew had a similar background, to join the project. Stein recalled his Poland-born father reading him the stories of Tevye in Yiddish as a child. Bock said, “The writing struck a resonant tone with us. What was special was our personal connection to the material.” He continued, “I began to hear the music as I read the stories and remembered the lullabies and little melodies my grandmother would sing to me. It was almost as if I recognized and knew these people spiritually. For all of us, the people in the stories brough back early memories of our own families.” However, it wasn’t until Jerome Robbins joined the project that Fiddler on the Roof found its footing.
Bock and Harnick, 1960
Jerome Robbins (whose birthname was Rabinowitz – something he shares with Aleichem) joined the project in 1963 after being recommended by Harold Prince. Like the writers, his father was a Russian Jew who had immigrated and for that reason he wanted to do the show. Robbins first question was “What is this piece about?” and the writers were initially dumbfounded. They answered that it was about Tevye and his daughters and Robbins answered back, “No, no, that is not what the show is about…It’s warm and it’s funny, but it doesn’t have the power the Aleichem stories have. Where is that power coming from?” Finally, Harnick said, “It’s about tradition,” and Robbins said, “That’s it. Write that.” The framing of the show around tradition, both in the opening number and the permeating theme throughout, arguably gave the show its universality.
Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway on September 22, 1964. The writers were cautious – would this show that had so much cultural meaning to them find a larger audience? It did. The show instantly began to have lines out the door. In the end, the show ran for eight years, becoming the longest running show at the time on Broadway, and won nine Tony Awards. Stein said, “I never saw an audience that didn’t stand up and applaud. I’ve seen it in ten countries, and the audience is alike each time.”
Audiences across the world find resonance in Fiddler on the Roof. In Finland, where most of the population is not Jewish, said, “where the stories hit us is the changing of tradition. We are also a small country living next to this giant bear, and what you have written is extremely meaningful to us.” The show has also been a phenomenon in Japan. There the emphasis on family, about a father losing power to his daughters as they gained independence, spoke to the audiences. The Japanese producer even asked Stein if they understood the show in America “because it’s so Japanese.” It was then that Stein realized that they had written where its specificity was actually a universality: the breakdown of traditions, differences between generations, the pull to and from religious customs – all are a part of the human experience.
Fiddler on the Roof continues to find its resonance into the twenty-first century. Referencing the crisis in Syria, Glenn Casala, who directed a 2012 production in America said, “Every time I do Fiddler on the Roof, it coincides with something going on in the world. People losing their rights and losing their homes. That’s what makes it timeless.” In addition, Lin-Manuel Miranda used Fiddler on the Roof as a blueprint for his Tony Award-winning In the Heights. Finally, while “Sunrise, Sunset” has become a classic father/daughter wedding dance song, Harnick has since revised the lyrics into inclusive versions for the LGBTQ community for the first weddings performed after the New York legalization of gay marriage on October 1, 2011. As one of the participants said, “Fiddler on the Roof is about embracing tradition while accepting the changes that are also happening. What could be more appropriate than this song?”
At any time, somewhere in the world, Fiddler on the Roof is being performed and adored. In years to come, no matter how much the world changes, it will continue to find relevance. The show, steeped in love of Jewish culture and heritage, is a stunning portrait of the human experience and the ties the connect us all. What a beautiful legacy has evolved from the comedic stories of a turn-of-the-twentieth-century Jewish Russian dairyman, his wife and their daughters.
