The original Broadway run of the stage musical Fiddler on the Roof was a bit of an unlikely smash, with investors and media figures skeptical that audiences would respond to the tale of an impoverished Jewish family in the waning days of tsarist Russia. But audiences loved it, and the show went on after its 1964 opening to break records, win awards, and become a musical theater classic.
Especially in Japan.
The first Japanese production of Yane No Ue No Baiorin-hiki (Japanese for Fiddler on the Roof) premiered in Tokyo in 1967 to immediate success. The central plot elements — family drama, father-daughter relationships, the tension between tradition and change — resonated profoundly with Japanese audiences. When Joseph Stein, who wrote the book for the original English version, visited Japan to watch rehearsals ahead of the premiere, the producer asked him how American audiences could possibly understand the show, since the story was "so Japanese."
Fiddler on the Roof — or just Fiddler among fans — has been revived more than 1,300 times in Japan, including a special three-month national tour in 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of the original Tokyo production. And it still packs a hefty emotional punch for Japanese theatergoers. According to journalist Alisa Solomon in the New Yorker, one Tokyo-based journalist wept during a conversation with a member of the 2015 Broadway revival cast as she described the show's flawless depiction of Japanese family life.
But should anyone really be surprised at Fiddler's global appeal? Sholom Aleichem himself, author of the original Yiddish short stories about a poor milkman named Tevye, left the Russian Empire and crossed the ocean to build a new life in America. Aleichem died in New York City in 1916, but his stories kept traveling, finding new life wherever they landed.
