The musical Fiddler on the Roof is one of the most recognizable stories about the Jewish experience. The story of Tevye, a milkman, and his family and friends, opened on Broadway in 1964 and has seldom been out of production since.
"It went beyond Broadway. It has endured like the great musicals of earlier in the 20th century like Oklahoma and so on," notes film contributor Dave Luhrssen. "It's up there with them as something that's left a very lasting and ongoing impression on people."
The new documentary Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles looks at the origin and evolution of the classic musical and why the Broadway success continues to resonate 55 years later.
"Fiddler is a way of thinking about being repressed or persecuted because of what you are not who you are as a person," Luhrssen says. "It plays out well beyond Jews immigrating to the new world. It plays out with every other immigrant group."
The documentary will be showing as a part ofthe Milwaukee Jewish Film Festival at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15 at the Marcus North Shore Cinema.
