{"id":21671,"date":"2022-06-03T11:58:46","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T15:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=21671"},"modified":"2022-06-03T12:03:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T16:03:28","slug":"fiddler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2022\/06\/03\/fiddler\/","title":{"rendered":"The Making Of The Hollywood Classic \u2018Fiddler On The Roof\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the new documentary, \u201cFiddler\u2019s Journey to the Big Screen,\u201d<\/a> Norman Jewison recalls how he was offered the chance to lead the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical \u201cFiddler on the Roof\u201d: \u201cWhat would you to say if we were to say we want you to direct ‘Fiddler on the Roof’? And then I said, \u2018What would you say if I said I\u2019m a goy?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just one of the witty and illuminating lines from Daniel Raim\u2019s delightful recounting of how the classic 1971 Hollywood film came to the big screen. The documentary opens at Brookline’s Coolidge Corner Theatre<\/a> today. Raim includes interviews with key players, including Jewison, who got the job; music adapter \/ orchestrator John Williams; lyricist Sheldon Harnick; violinist Isaac Stern; and actor Topol, who played Tevye. The film is narrated by Jeff Goldblum.<\/p>\n

The play and film are based on Sholem Aleichem\u2019s turn of the 20th century tales of a dairyman\u2019s efforts to marry off his daughters, protect his family, and hold to his Jewish traditions amidst the changing mores and continuing violent anti-semitism of his Eastern European homeland, from which his entire Jewish community is finally forcefully evicted. The play was a monument to the Jewish world destroyed by the Russians and the Nazi Holocaust.<\/p>\n