Wonder of Wonders

In the half-century since its premiere Fiddler on the Roof has become a supremely potent cultural landmark beloved by audiences the world over. Now in a history as captivating as its subject award-winning drama critic Alisa Solomon traces how and why the story of Tevye the milkman the creation of the great Yiddish writer Sholem-Aleichem was reborn as blockbuster entertainment and a cultural touchstone not only for Jews and not only in America.It is first a story of the theater as Solomon follows Tevye from his humble appearance on the New York Yiddish stage through his adoption by leftist dramatists as a symbol of oppression to his Broadway debut and his starring role in a major Hollywood picture. And it is a cultural story of a show that spoke to the deepest conflicts and desires the world over: the fraying of tradition generational tension the loss of roots. Entertaining and original Wonder of Wonders reveals the profound legacy of a show about tradition that itself became a tradition.