Actors - Fiddler on the Roof

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	Actors - Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof is one of the most famous stage and film musicals. It opened on Broadway on September 22, 1964 with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and libretto by Joseph Stein. Zero Mostel played the protagonist, Tevye the Milkman, Maria Karnilova his wife Golde, Beatrice Arthur as Yente the Matchmaker, and Bert Convy as Perchik the student revolutionary.

Tevye was played by Chaim Topol in later productions; he also starred in the successful 1971 film adaptation by Norman Jewison. Other actors that have played Tevye on stage have included Alfie Bass, Herschel Bernardi, and Theodore Bikel.

The musical was revived on Broadway for the fourth time in 2004, with Alfred Molina (and later Harvey Fierstein) as Tevye.

The story is based on Tevye and his Daughters
, or Tevye the Milkman by the Russian Jewish author Sholom Aleichem, originally published in 1949.

A version of Fiddler on the Roof was created by Joseph Stein called Fiddler on the Roof, Jr. for middle to elementary schools. This version cuts out a few of the scenes, including the dream sequence, to make it shorter.

Story

The play is set in the Jewish shtetl (town) of Anatevka in Tsarist Russia in 1905.

The story centers on Tevye's attempts to maintain his family and religious traditions while adapting to new pressures. These manifest themselves chiefly in the strong-willed actions of Tevye's eldest three daughters, who each select her own husband, contrary to tradition. In both the film and stage production, Tevye has five daughters.

The play's name stems from a painting by Marc Chagall, one of many surreal paintings he created of Eastern European Jewish life. The Fiddler is a metaphor of survival through tradition and joyfulness. In the 1971 film adaptation, the violin music was played by Isaac Stern.

The action opens with a lone fiddler standing on a roof playing a tune, as Tevye tells the audience about the customs of his people and about how they have lived all their lives in Anatevka. He equates life in Anatevka with being a "fiddler on a roof": trying to scratch out a simple, pleasant tune without breaking his neck. "How do we keep our balance?" he asks. "That I can tell you in one word: Tradition!" (Tradition)

At Tevye's home, everyone is busy preparing for the Sabbath meal. Golde, the matriarch, is ordering the five daughters about, and Tzeitel, the eldest daughter, spots Yente, the matchmaker, on her way to their house. Yente plans that Lazar Wolf, the town's butcher and a wealthy man older than Tevye, will marry Tzeitel, but Tevye must first meet Lazar and arrange the deal. Tevye initially is reluctant to speak with Lazar because he is under the impression that Lazar wants to buy his milk cow instead of wanting to marry his daughter.

The three eldest daughters, Tzeitel, Hodel, and Chava, talk about their excitedness over an arranged marriage, but Tzeitel warns them not be so hasty because they are so poor, that they will probably have to take whatever husband Yente brings. (Matchmaker, Matchmaker)

Tevye is late arriving home because his horse has broken his foot (a running joke of the play, as the horse never actually appears, although the play takes place over the course of something like a year). He prays to God and asks him why he could not have been a rich man. He finds no shame in being poor, but complains that there's no great honour in it either. He imagines his life as a rich man. (If I Were a Rich Man)

The men of the village confront Tevye, as he is late delivering their milk and cheese. Avram, the bookseller, has news from the outside world and tells them of pogroms and expulsions. A student from Kiev, Perchik, overhears them and scolds them for doing nothing more than talk. Significantly, Perchik, alone among the men, is clean-shaven; he wears more modern clothing and no tallit katan, the traditional four-cornered garment with tzitzit. Most of the townspeople dismiss Perchik as a woolly-headed radical, but Tevye takes a liking to him and invites him home, offering him room and board in exchange for tutoring the five daughters. The two arrive home to meet the family. Motel Kamzoil, a tailor, who has been friends with Tzeitel since childhood, arrives to eat the Sabbath meal with them, as well. Golde tells Tevye to meet Lazar after the Sabbath. Tzeitel tells Motel that he must talk to Tevye that night and ask for her hand in marriage immediately. This is against tradition, as a matchmaker normally arranges marriages - and Motel is just but a poor tailor. Motel fails to gather the courage to ask, and he runs out of time as everyone settles in for the beginning of the Sabbath meal. (Sabbath Prayer)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Fiddler on the Roof ]

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Actors - Fiddler on the Roof

Story

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