Since it first opened on Broadway in September 1964, Fiddler on the Roof has constantly been onstage somewhere, including four Broadway revivals, four productions on London's West End and thousands of schools, army bases and countries from Argentina to Japan. Barbara Isenberg interviewed the men and women behind the original production, the film and significant revivals-Harold Prince, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein, Austin Pendleton, Joanna Merlin, Norman Jewison, Topol, Harvey Fierstein and more-to produce a lively, popular chronicle of the making of Fiddler. “Tradition!” is the book for everyone who loves Fiddler and can sing along with the original cast album.
"Half a century of sunrises and sunsets have passed since Fiddler on the Roof opened. It's still playing to full houses somewhere, and theater journalist Isenberg expounds happily on why it remains such a satisfactory hit for all audiences. Who would expect a big Broadway musical about poor shtetl Jews to become such a big hit? Yet Fiddler, based on stories set in Czarist Russia by the popular Yid
Kirkus Reviews
"Barbara's book traces the history of Fiddler from the stage to the screen. It is a fascinating story filled with laughter and tears."
Norman Jewison, director of the film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof
"The seemingly hyperbolic subtitle of award-winning journalist and theater author Isenberg's tribute to Fiddler on the Roof, "the world's most beloved musical," is entirely justified. Interviews with the principal creators, actors, and allied personnel juxtaposed with detailed number-crunching statistics and balance-sheet information and a breezily deft narrative explicate the inherent charm and s
