DIAMOND FIDDLER

A wide-ranging book explores the history and lore of Fiddler on the Roof.

Huttner’s study was first published in 2016 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the death of Sholem Aleichem, the author of the original handful of Tevye the Dairyman stories. These tales were transformed by show writer Joseph Stein and his colleagues into Fiddler on the Roof, the enormously beloved and successful 1964 Broadway musical. Huttner calls her book a “bibliomemoir” and tells her readers that it illustrates the fact that “one of the deepest relationships in life can be with a text.” When Fiddler closed in 1972, it was the longest-running show in Broadway history (it retained the title until it was surpassed by A Chorus Line in 1984), and it’s been a theatrical staple ever since, generating the vast amount of personal and cultural resonance that the author examines in these pages. She dissects Marc Chagall’s painting Green Violinist, which she calls a “major inspiration” for the creators of Fiddler. She pores over the much-vexed question of how faithful the film version was to the stage musical, the appealing elements in both, and how all adaptations correspond to Aleichem’s original stories. The book’s chapters are composed of individual, self-contained lectures Huttner has given at various venues over the years, and everything is well illustrated with curations of black-and-white photographs, the show’s sheet music, and images by cartoonist Sharon Rosenzweig.

Huttner’s lifelong history with Fiddler is evident on every page of her book. It will be quickly apparent to readers that there’s nothing she doesn’t know about the stories, Aleichem, the Broadway musical, and the movie. As the author notes, this work represents the culmination of 18 years of research on the subject, which will make its wide reach very satisfying to fellow devotees of Fiddler. For those fans and more general readers, one of the most entertaining features running through many of these lectures is Huttner’s consistent, low-key irritation with what she refers to as the “Conventional Wisdom” surrounding her subject, taking issue with misreadings and misinterpretations and delivering plenty of good-natured corrections. Her discussions of literary antecedents range from the Old Testament to Pride and Prejudice, and all of it is offered with an infectious enthusiasm. The only drawback to the reading experience stems from the composition of the book. Since the chapters are transcriptions of lectures, readers are constantly brought up short by Huttner introducing herself to various audiences or making local venue comments. The frequent “welcome to tonight’s lecture” interruptions stop the volume from feeling like a smoothly flowing narrative. Nevertheless, the author’s authority on the topic comes through loud and clear, and her decision to weave in great amounts of autobiographical reflections is well taken given the intensely personal connection most aficionados have to this particular show. The work is a must-read for Fiddler enthusiasts.

A wonderfully chatty and knowledgeable examination of “all things Fiddler.”