Later this month, the acclaimed production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish will reopen at the off-Broadway New World Stages on West 50th Street in New York. I know about eight words of Yiddish but I think I also know Fiddler on the Roof — on stage and screen — well enough to know what the actors are saying up there.
It's not my favorite musical and it might not even make my Top Ten…but I'm fascinated with the fact that this show, which its makers felt would have a limited run playing only to a niche market, has been the worldwide, universal success it's been. They never thought it would play in any city without a hefty Jewish population but before long, it was a smash hit in Japan, for God's sake! And everywhere else.
Even after it opened on Broadway in 1964, they didn't know. Zero Mostel was the first Tevye and when his initial contract was nearing expiration, he demanded a huge increase to stay on, confident the producers knew that he was the show and that it would close quickly without him. They said no and after he left, it ran another seven years and has had six Broadway revivals since then. It may be the most-produced musical of all time.
Here's a little video of rehearsals for the reopening. All the things the actors say about how universal it is and how it speaks to everyone — that's all true but when the show was first produced, no one suspected that. They just thought it would run until every theater-loving Jew within commuting distance of Manhattan had seen it…