Wonder of Wonders

By Alisa Solomon

Book Overview

In the half-century since its premiere, Fiddler on the Roof has become a supremely potent cultural landmark, beloved by audiences the world over. Now, in a history as captivating as its subject, award-winning drama critic Alisa Solomon traces how and why the story of Tevye the milkman, the creation of the great Yiddish writer Sholem-Aleichem, was reborn as blockbuster entertainment and a cultural touchstone, not only for Jews and not only in America. It is first a story of the theater, as Solomon follows Tevye from his humble appearance on the New York Yiddish stage, through his adoption by leftist dramatists as a symbol of oppression, to his Broadway debut and his starring role in a major Hollywood picture. And it is a cultural story, of a show that spoke to the deepest conflicts and desires the world over: the fraying of tradition, generational tension, the loss of roots. Entertaining and original, Wonder of Wonders reveals the profound legacy of a show about tradition that itself became a tradition.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250058708
• ISBN13: 9781250058706
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 8.9"