Show and Tell Post!!

My show and tell blog shall be about the musical, Fiddler on the Roof.  The music is by Jerry Brock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and the book by Joseph Stein.  It has been performed many times over the years.  The original Broadway production was in 1964.  Since then, it has been done in London, Australia, and all over the world.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddler_on_the_roof)

The plot begins with Tevye, a poor milkman, introducing his small Jewish village of Anatevka in Russia.  The year is 1905 and the Jews of Anatevka are very set in their traditions and ways.  Tevye is the father of five daughters and he and his wife, Golde, are very concerned with getting each of them married off—preferably to a well-off, Jewish man.  There is a matchmaker, Yente, who arranges all of the marriages in Anatevka.  However, Tevye’s daughters have different ideas than Yente.  In Yente’s opinion, for girls who come from a poor family, there aren’t as many options.  Tzeitel, the oldest daughter, is the first to arrange her own marriage.  She is in love with the poor tailor, Motel Kamzoil.  When they initially present the idea to Tevye, he is furious and against it, especially since he has recently arranged a marriage for Tzeitel with the old butcher, Lazar Wolfe.  However, with just a tiny bit of convincing, Tzeitel and Motel are engaged to be married.  Hodel, the second daughter, falls in love with an outspoken student named Perchik.  He also is not considered a good match since he is poor and leaving the village of Anatevka.  Eventually, Tevye agrees to this marriage as well.  Chava, the youngest falls in love with a Russian man named Fyedka.  This is, by far, the worst of all because he is not Jewish.  Tevye forbids it.  And when Chava goes behind his back and marries him anyway, he says that Chava is dead to them.  All of this is happening as the Jews all over Russia are being kicked out of their towns.  Eventually, Anatevka comes to this same fate.

One dramaturgical choice that Harnick makes is the way that Tevye speaks to God and to the audience.  The way that the music is arranged and the way that all of the other characters are frozen in time as Tevye does his monologues is very effective in isolating those moments.  This happens through the entire show with several different monologues in both acts.  These moments give insight into Tevye’s inner thoughts.  If Harnick had left these out, there would be much less depth to the character of Tevye.  Also, they show his relationship and devotion to God.  These are the moments where we see inside Tevye.  If we didn’t see this, Tevye would be nothing more than a man worried about money and his daughters marriages.  We would not be able to see why and how he cares about these things.  The play certainly could be written without it.  But it would tell a different story. 

Another choice that the writer made is the focus on traditions.  After all, it is the opening song.  In the first scene it is established that the characters rely on their traditions.  Without them, their lives are unsteady.  Very soon after that first scene, we see the three oldest daughters questioning the tradition of the matchmaker.  Later, Tevye wrestles with allowing Tzeitel and Hodel to marry the men that they love.  It goes against everything, yet he breaks the tradition by letting them.  Traditions are changed again at Tzeitel’s wedding when men and women dance together.  There are many traditions changed through the plot.  The very last scene shows them leaving Anatevka.  Their home is the most stable thing they’ve known through the entire play.  At last, even that is stripped away from them.  This focus on traditions shows that everything that they depended on—customs, family, home—is not as dependable as they once thought.