ABSTRACT
The men never dreamed the show they were writing would go on to win nine Tony Awards, become the first Broadway show to surpass three thousand performances, have five Broadway revivals, countless regional and international productions, and in 1971, become an Academy Award winning movie. Jerome Robbins had a complicated relationship with his cultural heritage. Broadway also had a complicated relationship with its’ Jewish heritage. Since the 1920s, a large majority of Broadway composers, lyricists and book writers were Jewish, but these writers were concerned with becoming American, and there was an unspoken agreement among theatrical producers that a Jewish musical would be a commercial failure. Ami Eden, editor in chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency writes "The greatness of Fiddler on the Roof is not measured in Yiddish accents or shtick, but by its portrayal of change and tradition as a dangerous dialectic—experienced by a struggling milkman who never loses his sense of humor".
