Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway in 1964. It won nine Tony
Awards, including best musical, score, book, direction and choreography.
Fiddler on the Roof is set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial
Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters (or Tevye the
Dairyman) and other tales written in Yiddish between 1894 and 1914. The
story centers on Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to
maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences
encroach upon the family's lives. He must cope both with the strong-willed
actions of his three older daughters, who wish to marry for love – each one's
choice of a husband moves further away from the customs of his faith – and with
the edict of the Tsar that evicts the Jews from their village.
Act I
Tevye, a poor
Jewish milkman with five daughters, explains the customs of the Jews in the
Russian shtetl of Anatevka in 1905, where their lives are as precarious as the
perch of a fiddler on a roof ("Tradition"). At Tevye's home, everyone
is busy preparing for the Sabbath meal. His sharp-tongued wife, Golde, orders
their daughters, Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze, and Bielke, about their
tasks. Yente, the village matchmaker, arrives to tell Golde that Lazar Wolf,
the wealthy butcher, a widower older than Tevye, wants to wed Tzeitel, the
eldest daughter. The next two daughters, Hodel and Chava, are excited about
Yente's visit, but Tzeitel is unenthusiastic ("Matchmaker,
Matchmaker"). A girl from a poor family must take whatever husband Yente
brings, but Tzeitel wants to marry her childhood friend, Motel the tailor.
Tevye is
delivering milk, pulling the cart himself, as his horse is lame. He asks God:
Whom would it hurt "If I Were a Rich Man"? Avram, the bookseller, has
news from the outside world about pogroms and expulsions. A stranger, Perchik,
hears their conversation and scolds them for doing nothing more than talk. The
men dismiss Perchik as a radical, but Tevye invites him home for the Sabbath
meal and offers him food and a room in exchange for tutoring his two youngest
daughters. Golde tells Tevye to meet Lazar after the Sabbath but does not tell
him why, knowing that Tevye does not like Lazar. Tzeitel is afraid that Yente
will find her a husband before Motel asks Tevye for her hand. But Motel
resists: he is afraid of Tevye's temper, and tradition says that a matchmaker
arranges marriages. Motel is also very poor and is saving up to buy a sewing
machine before he approaches Tevye, to show that he can support a wife. The
family gathers for the "Sabbath Prayer."
After the
Sabbath, Tevye meets Lazar at Mordcha's inn, assuming mistakenly that Lazar
wants to buy his cow. Once the misunderstanding is cleared up, Tevye agrees to
let Lazar marry Tzeitel – with a rich butcher, his daughter will never want for
anything. All join in the celebration of Lazar's good fortune; even the Russian
youths at the inn join in the celebration and show off their dancing skills
("To Life"). Outside the inn, Tevye happens upon the Russian
Constable, who has jurisdiction over the Jews in the town. The Constable warns
him that there is going to be a "little unofficial demonstration" in
the coming weeks (a euphemism for a minor pogrom). The Constable has sympathy
for the Jewish community but is powerless to prevent the violence.
The next morning,
after Perchik's lessons with her young sisters, Tevye's second daughter Hodel
mocks Perchik's Marxist interpretation of a Bible story. He, in turn,
criticizes her for hanging on to the old traditions of Judaism, noting that the
world is changing. To illustrate this, he dances with her, defying the
prohibition against opposite sexes dancing together. The two begin to fall in
love. Later, a hungover Tevye announces that he has agreed that Tzeitel will
marry Lazar Wolf. Golde is overjoyed, but Tzeitel is devastated and begs Tevye
not to force her. Motel arrives and tells Tevye that he is the perfect match
for Tzeitel and that he and Tzeitel gave each other a pledge to marry. He
promises that Tzeitel will not starve as his wife. Tevye is stunned and
outraged at this breach of tradition, but impressed at the timid tailor's
display of backbone. After some soul-searching ("Tevye's Monologue"),
Tevye agrees to let them marry, but he worries about how to break the news to
Golde. An overjoyed Motel celebrates with Tzeitel ("Miracle of
Miracles").
In bed with
Golde, Tevye pretends to be waking from a nightmare. Golde offers to interpret
his dream, and Tevye "describes" it ("Tevye's Dream").
Golde's grandmother Tzeitel returns from the grave to bless the marriage of her
namesake, but to Motel, not to Lazar Wolf. Lazar's formidable late wife,
Fruma-Sarah, rises from her grave to warn, in graphic terms, of severe
retribution if Tzeitel marries Lazar. The superstitious Golde is terrified, and
she quickly counsels that Tzeitel must marry Motel. While returning from town,
Tevye's third daughter, the bookish Chava, is teased and intimidated by some
gentile youths. One, Fyedka, protects her, dismissing the others. He offers
Chava the loan of a book, and a secret relationship begins.
The wedding day
of Tzeitel and Motel arrives, and all the Jews join the ceremony
("Sunrise, Sunset") and the celebration ("The Wedding
Dance"). Lazar gives a fine gift, but an argument arises with Tevye over
the broken agreement. Perchik ends the tiff by breaking another tradition: he
crosses the barrier between the men and women to dance with Tevye's daughter
Hodel. The celebration ends abruptly when a group of Russians rides into the
village to perform the "demonstration". They disrupt the party,
damaging the wedding gifts and wounding Perchik, who attempts to fight back,
and wreak more destruction in the village. Tevye instructs his family to clean
up the mess.
Act II
Months later,
Perchik tells Hodel he must return to Kiev to work for the revolution. He
proposes marriage, admitting that he loves her, and says that he will send for
her. She agrees ("Now I Have Everything"). They tell Tevye that they
are engaged, and he is appalled that they are flouting tradition by making
their own match, especially as Perchik is leaving. When he forbids the
marriage, Perchik and Hodel inform him that they do not seek his permission,
only his blessing. After more soul searching, Tevye relents – the world is
changing, and he must change with it ("Tevye's Rebuttal"). He informs
the young couple that he gives them his blessing and his permission.
Tevye explains
these events to an astonished Golde. "Love," he says, "it's the
new style." Tevye asks Golde, despite their own arranged marriage,
"Do You Love Me?" After dismissing Tevye's question as foolish, she
eventually admits that, after 25 years of living and struggling together and
raising five daughters, she does. Meanwhile, Yente tells Tzeitel that she saw
Chava with Fyedka. News spreads quickly in Anatevka that Perchik has been
arrested and exiled to Siberia ("The Rumor/I Just Heard"), and Hodel
is determined to join him there. At the railway station, she explains to her
father that her home is with her beloved, wherever he may be, although she will
always love her family ("Far From the Home I Love").
Time passes.
Motel has purchased a used sewing machine, and he and Tzeitel have had a baby.
Chava finally gathers the courage to ask Tevye to allow her marriage to Fyedka.
Again Tevye reaches deep into his soul, but marriage outside the Jewish faith
is a line he will not cross. He forbids Chava to speak to Fyedka again. When
Golde brings news that Chava has eloped with Fyedka, Tevye wonders where he
went wrong ("Chavaleh Sequence"). Chava returns and tries to reason
with him, but he refuses to speak to her and tells the rest of the family to
consider her dead. Meanwhile, rumors are spreading of the Russians expelling
Jews from their villages. While the villagers are gathered, the Constable
arrives to tell everyone that they have three days to pack up and leave the
town. In shock, they reminisce about "Anatevka" and how hard it will
be to leave what has been their home for so long.
As the Jews leave
Anatevka, Chava and Fyedka stop to tell her family that they are also leaving
for Krakow, unwilling to remain among the people who could do such things to
others. Tevye still will not talk to her, but when Tzeitel says goodbye to
Chava, Tevye prompts her to add "God be with you." Motel and Tzeitel
go to Poland as well but will join the rest of the family when they have saved
up enough money. As Tevye, Golde and their two youngest daughters leave the
village for America, the fiddler begins to play. Tevye beckons with a nod, and
the fiddler follows them out of the village.
